Zohra Lasania

Overview

Zohra Lasania has spread hatred of Israel, reportedly shared an anti-Israel conspiracy theory and promoted incitement. 

She also expressed support of United States Congresswoman Ilhan Omar after she was accused of making anti-Semitic assertions that Jews control politics through money. 

As of July 2019, Lasania was listed as “Program Director” for the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter in Pittsburgh (CAIR-Pittsburgh). As of October 2018, Lasania was also listed as the “Communications Coordinator” for CAIR-Pittsburgh.

Lasania is also listed as a freelance writer for Muslimmatters and a student at the Islamic Online University (IOU). 

Lasania was a speaker at the 2019 Pittsburgh Women’s March. 

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On May 3, 2019, Lasania shared an image on Facebook featuring a series of maps known as the “Map That Lies.”

The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.

On December 24, 2014, Lasania posted to Facebook on a video of anti-Semitic activist Ken O’Keefe who accused [00:06:31] Israel of “destabilizing surrounding nations, ultimately in pursuit of this dream of great Israel.” 

In the video, O’Keefe also implied [00:08:07] that Americans were sacrificing their “sons and daughters for Israeli wars, for Zionist war.” Lasania commented on the video: “Truth spoken.”

Ken O’Keefe has been described by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as “a raving David Duke-endorsing anti-Semite.” He has also denied the Holocaust, spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and praised Hitler  

On December 1, 2014, Lasania shared to Facebook a graphic that showed “Palestine” closed in by four walls. The first wall was labeled “Wailing Wall,” another name for the Jewish holy site also known as “TheWestern Wall.”

The Western Wall refers to a part of the retaining wall of the complex that housed the Second Jewish Temple approximately 2000 years ago in Jerusalem.  

The remaining walls in the graphic were labeled: the “Apartheid Wall,” the “Gaza-Egypt Border Wall” and the “International Conspiracy of Silence Wall of Shame.” 

Lasania shared the graphic from the Facebook page of Sheikh Omar Suleiman, who has spread anti-Semitism, promoted incitement, tokenized anti-Israel Jews and demonized Israel.

Sharing an Anti-Israel Conspiracy Theory

On April 27, 2019, Lasania reportedly posted on Facebook: “Is this true?” and shared an article titled: “ISIS Leader ‘Al-Baghdadi’ is ‘Jewish Mossad Agent’ Named Simon Elliot.” 

The article claimed: “Simon Elliot aka Al-Baghdadi was born of two Jewish parents and is a Mossad agent.”

The claim that ISIS’ leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is Jewish is based on a conspiracy theory that al-Baghdadi is an Israeli Mossad agent named Simon Elliot. This claim, which originated with an Iranian news agency, was exposed as a “hoax.”