By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

Ahmed Rehab, who regularly denigrates Jewish supporters of Israel on his social media, gave the keynote address at the MLK Dayton Inc. Celebration Banquet Jan. 19 at Carillon Historical Park.

Rehab is executive director of Chicago’s Council on American-Islamic Relations chapter as well as CAIR’s national strategic communications director.

Toward the end of his speech, Rehab made two thinly veiled statements about Israel. The first emphasized that just as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was considered a dangerous threat by most White Americans in his lifetime, today’s civil rights activists are considered dangerous threats, but someday will be celebrated.

“Martin Luther King lives today,” he said. “In our hearts and in our streets and in our civil rights movements, and he is also today not celebrated in these spaces. Colin Kaepernick was not seen as a hero. He was seen as anti-American. Linda Sarsour, who fights for the rights of Palestinians and all around the world those who face genocide is not seen as a hero today. She’s seen by many as a terrorist or terrorist sympathizer.”

Rehab also talked of his appreciation of other religions as part of God’s plan, but added: “If I meet you and I don’t know you, who you are, and you’re cruel to me, if you’re shooting at my family, if you’re oppressing my community, if you’re killing my kids from warplanes, if you’re committing genocide, it’s not your religion that concerns me, it’s your cruelty.”

Rehab is more direct in his invective about Jewish supporters of Israel on his social media posts.

“Step into the light Jewish brethren. We Arabs and Muslims actually honor you as a JEW. Our issue is with Zionism, which is, as you are discovering, a Temu rehash of White Supremacy and European colonization,” he posted at his Facebook account Nov. 18.

At his Facebook account Dec. 25, he posted a screenshot of a conversation in which he asked someone to define Zionism. The person responded, “Well personally I define Zionism as the belief that Jews have a right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland of Israel.”

Rehab replied, “Then you can go f— yourself. If you think Poles, Belorussians and South Africans can descend on a land they have never lived in to displace and genocide natives because they had an ancestor there 2,000 years ago, you are a special kind of evil.”

Regarding the unrest in Iran, Rehab posted Jan. 10: “I love how Zios everywhere are pushing the Shah of Iran as if they get to have any say over that country and as if they care for freedom and democracy. They just want another Zio puppet to rubberstamp their land theft and crimes against humanity. The stupidest thing about them is how smart they think they are.”

According to the American Jewish Committee, antisemites often use Zionist or Zio as shorthand for Jew, an attempt to cloak hate by claiming to be anti-Zionists, but not antisemites.

CAIR itself has garnered its own share of controversy. The Jerusalem Post reported Jan. 14 that the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee has referred CAIR-California to the IRS for investigation because of concern about its misuse of taxpayer dollars and possible violations of federal law.

“The chairman’s referral also noted concerns surrounding CAIR USA’s national network, including its purported connections to terrorism,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

“The letter outlined the organization’s alleged support for Hamas and links to the Holy Land Foundation, a now-shut-down tax-exempt organization under investigation for supporting Hamas.”

MLK Dayton Inc., the organization that coordinates the dinner, is led by its president and general chairman, Anthony B. Whitmore. When asked who selected Rehab as this year’s dinner speaker, Whitmore told The Observer he’s been the adviser to the Turkish community in the Dayton area from its beginnings.

“Obviously they are Muslim,” Whitmore said. “That is a part of also what we try to do with MLK, to make sure we expose folks to all of what we believe to be God’s children who should be around the table of brotherhood.”

Whitmore said he wasn’t aware of Rehab’s social media comments about Jews and Israel “any more than we would be with a lot of our speakers.”

He said he had heard Rehab speak before, in Chicago; Whitmore added that he’s involved with the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton’s Upstanders project.

To read the complete February 2026 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.