Back in March (which feels like a whole lifetime ago) I wrote about the complaints from female former staffers of CAIR about a climate of misogyny inside the organization. One case in particular was a Title IX federal lawsuit against CAIR San Diego Executive Director Mustafa Dustin Craun for alleged abusive action against female subordinates.
The allegations against Craun were more than a local story, because he is the co-founder of MPower Change along with Bernie Sanders campaign surrogate Linda Sarsour. Their organization is supposedly about empowering Muslims, yet Sarsour has remained silent on the serious allegations that Craun apparently has repressed Muslim women who work under him. The lawsuit claims that Mustafa Dustin Craun:
- Maintained a CAIR employee handbook that officially stated women’s testimony was only half as valid as men’s.
- Policed the wardrobe of CAIR’s female employees, including chiding a pregnant staffer for wearing clothes that were “too tight”, while himself violating the dress code and not reprimanding male staffers.
- Paid CAIR male employees over 50% more than comparable female employees and promoted under-qualified men over women.
- Verbally harassed and intimidated a female staffer who was attempting to file a discrimination complaint about his reneging on a salary increase.
A few weeks ago an anonymous reader of this blog left a comment pointing to an interesting update on this brewing scandal: Mustafa Dustin Craun, the alleged abuser, has been dismissed as the head of CAIR San Diego – very quietly.
Mustafa/Dustin Craun is no longer employed by CAIR-San Diego. Many in the community believe that he was terminated because of the gender discrimination lawsuit. He no longer appears on CAIR’s website: https://www.cair.com/about_cair/cair-chapters/
Archive.org seems to indicate that this tip is accurate. As late as Feb 13, 2020, CAIR’s About page featured a smiling Dustin Craun alongside his colleagues.
But by April, any trace of Dustin Craun vanished, leaving a broken image link for the CAIR San Diego executive director.
Dustin appears to have been disappeared, though without public comment. If CAIR has finally dropped Mr. Craun, will MPower Change finally follow suit? Will Linda Sarsour break her silence?