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While the Connecticut chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CT) has spent recent weeks demanding that Greenwich Public Schools relocate a field trip over Israeli flags, yellow ribbons, and “genocide” framing, and urging a Greenwich synagogue to cancel an appearance by Somali-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, its own annual gala is elevating controversial speakers with long records of sharp criticism of U.S. policy, Israel, and law enforcement.
The Annual Gala Night, scheduled for November 14 in New Haven, has already announced progressive commentator Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, as keynote speaker. It is now also featuring Cyrus McGoldrick, a former CAIR-New York official whose public statements, social media posts, and media appearances have drawn repeated criticism from counterterrorism researchers, policy organizations, and political commentators.
McGoldrick, of Iranian and Irish descent, converted to Islam while at Columbia University and rose to Civil Rights Manager and Advocacy Director roles at CAIR-NY after 9/11. During that period he was a vocal opponent of NYPD surveillance programs focused on Muslim communities, language that groups such as the Investigative Project on Terrorism characterized as framing U.S. counterterrorism efforts as a systemic “War on Islam.”
His commentary on Middle East politics has been more pointed. In 2012 he tweeted the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” a phrase associated with calls for a single state that would eliminate Israel as a Jewish state. Around the same time he wrote that supporters of a two-state solution would “share a page of history with the defenders of apartheid in South Africa.” During the 2013 Egyptian military action against the Muslim Brotherhood government, he publicly aligned with the Brotherhood and accused the Egyptian military of acting to “do Israel’s bidding.” He has also stated, regarding fighting in Gaza, that he hoped God would “protect them [Hamas] and grant them victory.”
In 2015 McGoldrick traveled to Iran and appeared multiple times on the regime’s English-language Press TV. On those programs he criticized U.S. foreign policy, described American hegemony as a driver of conflict in the region, and defended Iranian positions in ways that Middle East Forum and other observers called state-media propaganda. He has appeared on the network on numerous other occasions as well.
McGoldrick has also publicly expressed support for Aafia Siddiqui, the Pakistani neuroscientist convicted in federal court of attempting to murder U.S. military personnel and FBI agents in Afghanistan. Siddiqui was sentenced to 86 years; she had documented associations with al-Qaeda figures and was once sought by terrorist groups in hostage exchanges. McGoldrick offered prayers for her release and, in related commentary, suggested that prosecutions of figures like Siddiqui and others amounted to criminalizing “thought.”
Meanwhile, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007–2008 Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terrorism-financing case in U.S. history, which resulted in convictions related to material support for Hamas. It has also been designated a terrorist organization by the governors of Texas and Florida.
The contrast with CAIR-CT’s recent interventions in Greenwich is difficult to ignore.
Chairman Farhan Memon’s letter to the Greenwich superintendent objected to an outdoor classroom site at a Jewish Reform camp because of Israeli national symbols, hostage ribbons, and the camp’s Israel programming, arguing that Palestinian children should not be required to encounter that context. Separately, the chapter urged a local synagogue to cancel Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a critic of Islamist extremism who has spoken about her experiences with female genital mutilation and apostasy. At the same time, the chapter has inserted itself into state education policy, including the development of Islamic and Arab studies curriculum resources.
CAIR-CT's choice of speakers invites scrutiny: an organization that treats certain symbols, speakers, and historical narratives as unacceptable for public schools and synagogues is platforming an activist whose own rhetoric has included explicit rejection of a two-state outcome, defense of Iranian regime positions on state television, and advocacy for a convicted al-Qaeda-linked figure.
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