Maryland’s attorney general, Anthony Brown, has suspended a member of the state’s prestigious commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention, Zainab Chaudry, after she denied the atrocities of Hamas and compared Israel to Nazi Germany. Ms. Chaudry also serves as the Maryland director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a prominent national advocacy group. 

Ms. Chaudry, who was named one of the Baltimore Sun’s “Women to Watch” in 2016, defended Hamas’s actions on October 7 as being justified by the Jewish state’s creation. On November 6, she posted a photo with the words “it all started in 1948,” with a caption that stated it was “an inconvenient fact”

On October 26, Ms. Chaudry said that she “will never be able to understand how the world summoned up rage for 40 fake Israeli babies while completely turning a blind eye to 3,000 real Palestinian babies.”

A week prior, she compared the Jewish state to Nazi Germany. “[T]hat moment when you become what you hated most,” Ms. Chaudry wrote in an October 17 Facebook post that included photos of Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate lit up with the Israeli flag and another from the Olympic ceremony in 1936, where the neoclassical gate was adorned with Nazi flags. 

According to the New York Post, the CAIR director also shared a quote celebrating “martyred Palestinians” in a reference to Hamas terrorists. The post cited an Islamic prophecy that said, “garrisons who defend the lands of Islam will be in Ashkelon,” an Israeli city just north of the Gaza Strip.

“Attorney General Brown has determined that Ms. Chaudry’s social media posts risk disrupting the work and mission of the Commission,” the office said in a press release, “so he is announcing steps that he took today to ensure that the vital work and mission of the Commission can continue without interruption.” 

Along with the suspension, the attorney general said he “assigned staff to develop a draft values statement about personal communications by Commission members to carefully balance their right to free speech with their role as a Commission member.” 

Even as he removed her, the attorney general did not clearly denounce Ms. Chaudry’s conduct.

Seven members of the state’s Hate Crime Task Force did condemn Ms. Chaudry’s remarks. “Ms. Chaudry has every right to express whatever disgusting and dangerous opinion she may hold, but it does not follow that she should be allowed to stay on a commission appointed by a Maryland state official,” the delegates wrote in a joint statement posted on X. “No one who supporters the murder, rape, and torture that the Israeli people suffered on October 7th should remain in a role that is meant to provide additional protection and help for targeted minority communities.” 

Ms. Chaudry, one of 20 members of the commission tasked with addressing hate in the Old Line State, was unrepentant regarding the statements that landed her in hot water. In response to her ouster, she claimed in a statement posted on Instagram that she had been the target of “Zionist Hate.”

“I expected the gaslighting and attacks — Zionist hate will never stop my activism,” she wrote.

Her statement on Instagram echoed remarks Ms. Chaudry made to press outlets on Tuesday. “I’m not surprised that there is this pushback of my advocacy on Palestinian human rights,” Ms. Chaudry told the Washington Post on Tuesday. “There is this automatic retaliation or scapegoating of individuals who express any support for Palestinian rights.”

CAIR, which Ms. Chaudry directs in the state of Maryland, has long been a hotbed of anti-Israel rhetoric. According to the Anti-Defamation League, “While ostensibly focused on responding to the proliferation of anti-Muslim incidents and sentiment nationwide, key CAIR leaders often traffic in antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric.”

Despite its history of antisemitic remarks, CAIR has long been welcomed in Democratic circles. In May, the Biden administration included CAIR in its National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism. Maryland’s own hate commission is legally mandated to include members from specific community groups. CAIR, as well as the ADL and the Baltimore Jewish Council, are among the groups that occupy a seat on the commission. 

Neither the Maryland attorney general nor Ms. Chaudry has responded to the Sun’s requests for comment.