Dupage Policy Journal

Michelle Cordova-Ptak is calling for Hinsdale School District 86 school board member Asma Akhras to resign from either the school board or her board position with the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

CAIR is an organization that has been linked to recent pro-Hamas protests.

“Asma cannot be on a board of an organization that funds, murders, beheads, rapes and takes children as hostages and be on our school board simultaneously. She needs to denounce and leave this organization immediately or leave D86,” Cordova-Ptak said on Facebook.

Cordova-Ptak followed up on her statements on Akras with DuPage Policy Journal.

“Let me just say that I've been pleasantly surprised with the way she's been on the board. I'm not disgruntled with her as a board member. I just I'm not okay with someone who's on a board that funds Hamas, a terrorist group, making decisions for our community and our children when they're funding the atrocities going on overseas,” Cordova-Ptak told Dupage Policy Journal.

Akras has a bio on the CAIR website noting her as a board member.

“Ms. Asma Akhras completed her B.A. in Elementary Education with a minor in math education Summa Cum Laude from Saint Xavier University in 1995,” the bio reads.

According to the Investigative Project, since 2007 CAIR has been tied in court cases to the funding of Hamas.

“CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). CAIR was listed among ‘entities who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee.’ That committee, prosecutors say, was created to advance the Hamas agenda within the United States,” Investigative Project said in a report on CAIR’s ties to Hamas and other Middle East terror groups.

CAIR and other Muslim organizations have drawn criticism for blaming Israel for Hamas attacks and calling for an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories.

CAIR is on the FBI watch list for terror funding.

In 2013 the FBI released a report noting the agency was disallowed from participating with CAIR outside of on investigative matters. In that report were two instances in which the FBI discussed the Chicago Chapter of CAIR, of which Akhras is a board member.

Akhras did not respond to a request for comment from the DuPage Policy Journal.