California's flagship anti-hate initiative, CA vs Hate, is facing sharp criticism for featuring a speaker whose public statements have included calls for President Joe Biden to suffer from cancer and similar wishes for President Donald Trump. Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' San Francisco Bay Area chapter, is scheduled to speak at the state's May 11 Civil Rights Summit, despite a trail of incendiary social media posts.
In May 2025, Billoo posted that “there is no amount of cancer treatment that can protect President Joe Biden from the prayers of the oppressed and ultimately God’s wrath.” When flagged by a news outlet, she doubled down, writing “cancer is less painful than a genocide.” She later extended the same sentiment to Trump, stating “his time will come too.”
Billoo’s rhetoric extends beyond personal attacks. In July 2024, after Israel killed Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh—whose group is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization—she eulogized him, writing, “Tonight, we mourn Ismail himself… From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” In November 2025, she praised Jamil Al-Amin, a convicted cop-killer who died in prison, calling him “a symbol of courage and resistance.” And in March 2026, as Iran launched cluster munitions toward Israeli civilians, Billoo posted an image of incoming missiles with the caption “Sleep well, not, never. Ameen.”
CA vs Hate, backed by hundreds of millions in state funds, lists CAIR-CA as a “Contracted Partner” on its official website. The program, created by legislative authorization to operate a non-emergency hotline and online portal, is supposed to combat hate. But critics argue it is funneling victims to an organization whose leaders have a documented record of antisemitic and hateful statements. The White House under Biden previously disavowed CAIR for “shocking, antisemitic statements” about the October 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel.
California has paid CAIR-CA at least $27.3 million in taxpayer money, including a $2.6 million “Transformative Grant” from the state’s Department of Social Services “Stop the Hate” program. In January, testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee revealed that California routed $15 million in federal Office of Refugee Resettlement funds to CAIR-CA. Fourteen members of Congress have since asked the Department of Health and Human Services to bar CAIR from receiving further federal money. The national organization was also named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terror-financing trial.
The controversy comes amid broader political turmoil in California. The state’s recent governor debate devolved into shouting matches as candidates jostled for position, and the CA vs Hate program has become a flashpoint in the race. Meanwhile, California’s middle-class income gains have outpaced many states, but the anti-hate program’s failures risk undermining public trust.
Julie, a two-time cancer survivor who reported threats to the CA vs Hate hotline in January 2024, said she was routed to counseling rather than investigation. After a five-month wait, her claim was denied without any investigation. “The hate I experienced was not covered under California’s civil rights laws,” she was told. “There is something fundamentally broken in this California program,” she added.
Critics say the state should rescind Billoo’s speaking invitation, remove CAIR-CA as a contracted partner, and review the $27 million already paid to the organization. “This is not about the Muslim American community,” Julie wrote. “American Muslims are doing extraordinary civil rights work. This is about a single organization whose leaders openly advertise hatred.”
