{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-mcmahon-pro-hamas-organization-has-no-place-in-american-schools", "Cotton to McMahon: Pro-Hamas organization has no place in American schools", "2025-09-09", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "Senate", "AR", "Tom Cotton", "C001095", "www.cotton.senate.gov", "cotton", "https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\nContact: Caroline Tabler or Patrick McCann (202) 224-2353\n\nSeptember 9, 2025\n\nCotton to McMahon: Pro-Hamas organization has no place in American schools\n\nWashington, D.C. \u2014 Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) sent a letter to Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon alerting her of the Council on American-Islamic Relations\u2019s (CAIR) dangerous efforts to influence American schools. CAIR has deep ties to pro-Hamas terrorist organizations and offers educational materials that promote pro-terrorist and anti-Israel rhetoric.\n\nIn part, Senator Cotton wrote:\n\n\u201cSuch an organization should never have access to our nation\u2019s children. On August 26, 2025, CAIR Philadelphia announced plans to partner with schools across Pennsylvania and Delaware to make them \u201cmore inclusive.\u201d While details of their alleged partnerships are unclear, CAIR\u2019s history makes it clear that its influence will be detrimental and possibly illegal.\u201d\n\nFull text of the letter may be found here and below.\n\nSeptember 9, 2025\n\nThe Honorable Linda McMahon\n\nSecretary\n\nDepartment of Education\n\n400 Maryland Avenue SW\n\nWashington, D.C. 20202\n\nDear Secretary McMahon:\n\nI write to alert you to the Council on American-Islamic Relations\u2019s (CAIR) efforts to influence K-12 schools.\n\nIt is well documented that CAIR has deep ties to pro-Hamas terrorist organizations and publicly supports Hamas\u2019s terrorist activities. As I noted in a previous letter, the Department of Justice listed CAIR as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee in the largest terrorism-financing case in U.S. history. Further, CAIR Philadelphia\u2019s Executive Director, Ahmet Selim Tekelioglu, stated that Israeli \u201coccupation\u201d was the reason for the October 7th terrorist attack by Hamas in Israel.\n\nSuch an organization should never have access to our nation\u2019s children. On August 26, 2025, CAIR Philadelphia announced plans to partner with schools across Pennsylvania and Delaware to make them \u201cmore inclusive.\u201d While details of their alleged partnerships are unclear, CAIR\u2019s history makes it clear that its influence will be detrimental and possibly illegal.\n\nThe organization offers \u201ceducational\u201d materials on its website that perpetuate pro-terrorist, anti-Israel rhetoric. CAIR Philadelphia recently issued guidance for educators titled \u201cRemembering and Reflecting: Teaching September 11, 2001, in Diverse Classrooms.\u201d The guide directs teachers to avoid using \u201cinaccurate and inflammatory terms such as \u2018Islamic terrorists,\u2019 \u2018jihadists,\u2019 or \u2018radical Islamic terrorists,\u2019\u201d when describing the September 11 terrorists. CAIR Philadelphia also offers a lecture titled \u201cAmerican Jews and Political Power\u201d in which students examine \u201cthe heated debate inside the Jewish establishment over Israel\u2019s occupation of Palestinian lands and learn about the young Jewish activists who are supporting the BDS campaign.\u201d\n\nThe U.S. Department of Education must ensure that CAIR is not given an opportunity to push its radical, pro-terrorist, anti-Israel ideology on American schoolchildren.\n\nI look forward to working with you on this matter.\n\nSincerely,\n\nTom Cotton\n\nUnited States Senator\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cotton.senate.gov/news/press-releases/cotton-to-mcmahon-pro-hamas-organization-has-no-place-in-american-schools"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8073600474745035, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}