CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Council on American–Islamic Relations

Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ1137030 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) is an American Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. It is headquartered on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., with regional offices nationwide. Through civil rights actions, media relations, civic engagement, and education, CAIR works to promote social, legal and political activism among Muslims in the United States.

The United Arab Emirates, Texas, and Florida have designated CAIR as a terrorist organization.

History

Early years (1994–2001)

CAIR was founded in June 1994. CAIR's first office was located in Washington, D.C., as is its present-day headquarters on Capitol Hill. Its founding was partly in response to the film True Lies, which Arab and Muslim groups condemned for its stereotyping of Arab and Muslim villains. The offices opened a month before the film's release. CAIR's first advocacy campaign was in response to an offensive greeting card that used the term "Shi'ite" to refer to human excrement. CAIR led a national campaign and used activists to pressure the greeting card company, which eventually withdrew the card from the market.

Editorial summary

“Council on American–Islamic Relations” enters the record as muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Council, American and Islamic can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1994, 2001—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1994. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Council, American and Islamic.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Council on American–Islamic Relations” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Council, American and Islamic provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1137030. VIAF identifies the subject as 136343047. The Library of Congress control number is no96027102. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1994 and 2001.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Council on American–Islamic Relations”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Council on American–Islamic Relations primary sources, Council on American–Islamic Relations archive and Council research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Council on American–Islamic Relations”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Council on American–Islamic Relations” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.