A viral video featuring California Muslim activist Zahra Billoo is detonating online — and critics say the clip says the quiet part out loud.
Billoo, the longtime executive director of the California branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-CA, appears in the circulating footage coaching supporters on how to package controversial political views without tanking their careers or public image.
The now-widely shared clip exploded across X this week after Billoo appeared to warn activists against publicly advertising anti-Zionist rhetoric in professional spaces.
“Now imagine your LinkedIn profile says, ‘I hate all Zionists,’” Billoo says in the video. “Not strategic. Right? … You may say that sitting around Kahwah House on a Friday night, but you’re not going to say it on your LinkedIn.”
Billoo goes on to frame the issue as one of “strategic versus reckless,” language that immediately triggered backlash from conservatives and pro-Israel commentators already suspicious of CAIR’s political activism.
The context of the full video remains unclear, and the footage has not been independently verified in its entirety. But online reaction was swift and brutal. “Notice, the message here isn’t ‘don’t hate people and don’t be bigots,’” Fox News analyst Guy Benson wrote on X. “The message is ‘we must hide our hatred and bigotry more strategically.’”
Republican National Committeewoman Harmeet Dhillon summed up the clip in one word: “Wow.”
Conservative writer Christopher Rufo, who has spent years targeting progressive influence in public institutions, also circulated the video while tying it to broader concerns about CAIR’s role in California politics and taxpayer-funded programs. And that’s where things get especially uncomfortable for Sacramento Democrats.
A recent City Journal investigation reported that CAIR-affiliated groups in California have received roughly $40 million in state-administered funding in recent years, including money connected to federally backed initiatives. The report reignited long-running debate over whether organizations with controversial ideological baggage should be receiving public cash at all.
CAIR has repeatedly denied accusations tying it to extremist groups and says allegations involving Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood are recycled smears pushed by political enemies. The organization insists it operates as a mainstream Muslim civil rights group focused on combating discrimination and defending religious liberty.
Still, the group’s critics point to a rocky history that has kept federal investigators and Republican officials wary for years.
The FBI famously cut off formal outreach with CAIR in 2008 after evidence surfaced during the Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial connecting former CAIR officials to a Hamas support network — though CAIR itself was never charged with a crime. Federal prosecutors later described CAIR as part of a network linked to the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, a characterization the group fiercely disputes.
That history has fueled action in Republican-led states. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced last year that Florida would move to designate CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations at the state level, following similar rhetoric and actions out of Texas under Gov. Greg Abbott.
Those declarations carry more political symbolism than legal force — only the U.S. State Department can formally designate foreign terrorist organizations under federal law — but conservatives argue the moves reflect growing alarm over Islamist political influence in American institutions.
The timing is especially awkward for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has spent months publicly condemning antisemitism amid the nationwide surge in anti-Israel protests following Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. “A 46-year national high in antisemitic assaults should alarm EVERY American,” Newsom posted on X earlier this year. “We must confront hate and antisemitism directly and reject hate wherever it appears.”
But critics are now asking whether California Democrats are serious about that message while continuing partnerships and funding relationships with groups like CAIR-CA.
Newsom’s office sidestepped questions about the video itself, saying only that the administration works with a broad range of community organizations and religious leaders. Officials also pointed to state efforts to increase security funding for houses of worship and expand Holocaust and genocide education programs.
CAIR-CA and Billoo did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the viral clip.
The controversy lands as another example of elite institutions playing word games around extremism: condemn hate publicly, whisper strategy privately, and hope nobody uploads the video.
SCOOP: CAIR-CA leader Zahra Billoo advises her followers that they can express hatred against Jews in private, but should not write “I hate all Zionists” on their social media profiles, in order to be “strategic.”
Gavin Newsom gave her group $40 million. pic.twitter.com/4ipO6tbM7f
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@christopherrufo) May 6, 2026
