On her Facebook page, Zainab Chaudry characterizes herself as an “unapologetic civil & human rights activist. Views expressed are my own.”
But now, the views of Chaudry, director of the Maryland office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, are drawing international attention due to her social media posts claiming reports of Israeli infants brutally murdered in the Hamas terrorist attacks were “fake” and making comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.
As a result, Chaudry was temporarily suspended Nov. 21 as a member of the Maryland Commission on Hate Crimes Response and Prevention by the office of Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown.
“Attorney General Brown has determined that Ms. Chaudry’s social media posts risk disrupting the work and mission of the Commission, so he is announcing steps that he took today to ensure that the vital work and mission of the Commission can continue without interruption,” read a statement from Brown’s office. “Ms. Chaudry’s posts on her personal social media since October 7, in these very early days of the Commission, have challenged the Commission’s ability to do its work.”
Brown has assigned staff members to draft a values statement about personal communications by commission members “to carefully balance their right to free speech with their role as a Commission member. The statement will be taken up for discussion at the Commission’s next meeting.”
In an Oct. 26 post on Facebook, Chaudry wrote, “I 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.”
In a post from the previous week, she posted a pair of photos: one of the Brandenburg Gate recently lit up with the image of the Israeli flag — to demonstrate solidarity with the Jewish state in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks — and the other of Nazi flags flying from atop that Berlin monument during the 1936 Summer Olympics.
“That moment when you become what you hated most,” Chaudry wrote in a post accompanying the photos.
In other posts since the Hamas attacks, she celebrated “martyred Palestinians” and predicted that “garrisons who defend the lands of Islam will be in Ashkelon.” Ashkelon has been Baltimore’s sister city in Israel for the past two decades and is located eight miles north of the Gaza Strip border.
In addition, Chaudry called the more than 290,000 participants of last week’s historic “March for Israel” rally in Washington, D.C., “genocide sympathizers.”
Chaudry was appointed to the Commission on Hate Crimes Response and Prevention last August by Brown, who at that time said the group’s 20 members will be “stepping up for all Marylanders, creating structure for our governing authorities to stem the tide of underreported crimes and bias incidents, and providing relief to people affected by these divisive acts.”
The commission has only met once so far, a month before the terrorist attacks in southern Israel.
In his Nov. 21 statement, Brown wrote, “The Commission must serve as a model for the entire State on how to respond to incidents of hate and bias. The Commission is facing its first test. How we respond has deep implications. I take this very seriously, and I will do everything possible to bring people together to move forward the critical work of this Commission.”
Said Baltimore Jewish Council Deputy Director Sarah Mersky Miicke, who serves on the hate crimes and prevention commission: “The Baltimore Jewish Council believes it is important to have Muslim representation on the Commission. We were deeply troubled to see the social media posts from Ms. Chaudry. Hate has no place on our Commission. We are happy to see as a first step that the Attorney General has temporarily suspended Ms. Chaudry and is working on drafting a values statement for Commission members.”
Prior to Chaudry’s suspension, Jennifer Donelan, spokesperson for Brown’s office, told Fox News Digital that commission members’ personal views do not “reflect those of either the Maryland Commission on Hate Crimes Response and Prevention or the Attorney General. …
“We understand that there are many viewpoints regarding current events in the Middle East,” she said. “The Commission will do its best to explore the impact of those events on our community, and to determine how best to address escalations in hate and bias incidents across the state. Just as we urge others to do, the Commission will identify ways in which we can foster productive and empathetic dialogue amongst ourselves that leads to mutual understanding. We, like the rest of the world, must first talk to one another and, most importantly, listen to one another as we work toward the goals of peace and tolerance.”
When contacted about Chaudry by the media site Jewish Insider, Meredith R. Weisel, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League’s D.C. office and a member of the hate crimes response and prevention commission, said, “As commissioners who are supposed to be showing leadership in the fight against hate, it’s disappointing and concerning that inflammatory rhetoric is being used instead of finding ways to bring people together. We may have disagreements on the policies in Israel and Gaza, but her posts are downright dismissive of the majority of American Jews.”
Born and raised in a Punjabi family in Baltimore, Chaudry earned a doctorate degree from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy before transitioning into nonprofit work and activism, according to CAIR’s website.
She has served as director of CAIR’s Maryland office since March of 2020. Chaudry has appeared in news reports by such media outlets as Time, MSNBC. The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN.
In 2016, she was named among the 25 “Women to Watch” by the Baltimore Sun.
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