Communities in Washington state and Ohio recently questioned the appropriateness of CAIR's involvement in community programs.

In Puyallup, Wash., a school district is considering whether it should allow CAIR to teach about Islam in the classroom.

"For America's sake, we don't think that it's fair that Islam gets a pass and the other religions don't, but also because CAIR is a front for the Muslim brotherhood," said a member of a local ACT! For America chapter.

"We have a real problem with organizations with ties to terrorism that come into the public schools."

One parent said that school is not the time or place to learn about religion. Dozens said that they did not believe that CAIR should teach Islam in the classroom while other religions went unrepresented.

In August, an Ohio Catholic school cancelled an interfaith event with CAIR after the school received a flood of emails advising against the partnership. School president Kirsten MacDougal said the emails were from those who follow news about CAIR's national office.

"We share the concern over safety, but it is sad that this had distracted from our positive intent on both sides," said MacDougal.

CAIR was incorporated in 1994 by three members of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), a propaganda outlet for a U.S.-based Hamas support network. The FBI severed relations with the group three years ago after reviewing evidence from a terrorism-financing prosecution which showed CAIR's founders were part of the Hamas support network. Prosecutors cast CAIR as "a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization, a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew."

CAIR's petition to be removed from a list of unindicted co-conspirators in the case failed. A district court judge ruled that "the government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR…with Hamas."