A slate of speakers with long records of antisemitism — and open defenses of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel — took the stage during the four-day “ArabCon” conference in Dearborn, Michigan.
Several of the guests used their appearances to once again justify terrorism. Nevertheless, Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, a featured speaker at the event, downplayed concerns about his attendance.
“I saw a headline this morning saying ‘Democratic Hopeful To Share The Stage With Pro-Terror Radicals At ArabCon.’ Where are the pro-terror radicals? Raise your hand if you’re a pro-terror radical,” Khanna appeared to joke from the stage on Saturday, referencing the Daily Caller News Foundation’s Sept. 26 article, which highlighted some of the conference speakers’ past remarks. It is unclear from the video footage of the event how many audience members raised their hands.
The next day, San Francisco State University professor Rabab Abdulhadi addressed the conference, refusing to condemn Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Rep. Ro Khanna at ArabCon this weekend: “Raise your hand if you are a pro-terror radical!” referencing my @DailyCaller NF article
Thanks for reading my headline, Rep. Khanna.
For context, other speakers at the conference (on separate panels from Khanna) included:
San Francisco… pic.twitter.com/GTbIZu1REC
— Melissa O'Rourke (@melissa_newsham) September 29, 2025
“I condemn Israel and the United States and all oppression and imperial war around the world. I never ever condemn Palestinian resistance and [any] resistance around the world,” Abdulhadi said on Sunday when asked on a panel whether she condemns the terror attack.
Abdulhadi is known for having organized events with members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and has also claimed that the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel on Oct. 7 were “merely defending themselves” against “colonial & racist violence.”
While refusing to denounce Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, Abdulhadi said the attack “made us think with each other more, even thinking about the tactics, thinking about the thought,” adding that it had “democratized” the resistance movement.
“I think it democratized a lot all the resistance groups because the groups themselves are discussing by themselves and with each other, and we see the statements that come out,” Abdulhadi said. “If you follow all the statements, the way people are kinder to each other. I’m talking about within the broader resistance movement, intellectuals, fighters. We don’t know who’s fighting in the fields, who’s not — and we shouldn’t.”
Said Arikat, Washington bureau chief of Palestinian news outlet Al Quds, denounced the idea that Hamas should not have the capacity to conduct another Oct. 7.
“Basically, they are saying that the Palestinians have no right to resist. That’s the whole idea,” Arikat said. “The whole idea that the world saw that Palestinians, under the most difficult of conditions, are driven to fight back, driven to basically assert their rights, driven to say that we exist, that whatever you try all throughout — whether it’s agreements, whether it’s, you know, these sham normalizations, agreements and so on — whatever it is, it’s not going to deter the Palestinians from fighting for their cause, fighting for their land, fighting for their freedom.”
Lara Sheehi, a psychology professor at the Doha Institute, praised convicted terrorists Walid Daqqa, Georges Abdallah and Khalida Jarrar as “political prisoners” who “have always taught us that the psychological terrain is a primary terrain for targeting” by Zionism.
Daqqa was convicted by an Israeli court of commanding the PFLP, which abducted and killed a 19-year-old Israeli soldier in 1984. Jarrar, another PFLP member, was freed by Israeli forces in January in the first batch of Palestinian prisoners to be exchanged for hostages held in Gaza. Abdallah helped found the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions and was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 for the assassinations of American and Israeli diplomats, but was recently released from prison in France.
Sheehi called Zionism “a racist project, a settler-colonial project” that works through “dispossession, displacement, disconnection, dissociation.”
BREAKING: Leaked off-stream footage from ArabCon reveals the Bassem Youssef and Mehdi Hasan panel.
Palestinian influencer Mo Hamz demanded they stop condemning the “resistance” — Hamas and other terror groups.
Wouldn’t be shocked if more leaks drop
— Stu Smith (@thestustustudio) September 29, 2025
BREAKING: Leaked off-stream footage from ArabCon reveals the Bassem Youssef and Mehdi Hasan panel.
Zahra Billoo of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), who once wrote, “Blaming Hamas for firing rockets at [Apartheid] Israel is like blaming a woman for punching her rapist,” highlighted the Holy Land Foundation case, in which several charity leaders were convicted in 2008 of funneling millions of dollars to Hamas.
“One of the most seminal cases of that era that I think we should all know about is the Holy Land Foundation… the biggest Muslim charity in the United States in 2001,” Billoo said. “It’s five co-founders accused of supporting terrorism when in fact all they did was support Zakat committees that everyone else was supporting … These are incredible, generous, kind, beautiful men in their probably late 60s at this point who still have decades to serve.”
ArabCon also platformed Anthony Aguilar, a U.S. Army veteran and former Green Beret, who propagated a false story claiming that IDF forces had killed a young boy after leaving a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid site in May. Despite the boy being reportedly found alive, Aguilar continued to push the narrative at the conference.
Abdulhadi, Arikat, Sheehi and CAIR did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment. Aguilar could not be reached for comment.
During a Q&A session, an attendee objected to one panelist’s condemnation of the Oct. 7 attack, insisting the panelist should not condemn those “resisting for their freedom,” which drew applause from the audience.
“I don’t agree with everyone who spoke at the conference, but I do believe in free speech. You can’t just be for free speech when it’s convenient,” Khanna told the DCNF. “I’ve unequivocally condemned the October 7th attacks and called for the release of the hostages.”
In addition to Khanna, other Democrats on the program included Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, who recently came under fire for telling a Christian resident, “you are not welcome” in the city, after the man objected to renaming an intersection to honor an Arab American journalist with a history of praising terror groups.
Democrat Michigan Lieutenant Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II, who is now running for governor, also spoke Saturday during the 45th anniversary dinner of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which hosted ArabCon. There, Gilchrist said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is “committing genocide against the Palestinian people.”
Michigan state Rep. Alabas Farhat and former state Rep. Abraham Aiyash, Dearborn Heights City Council Chair Mo Baydoun, and former Detroit health director and current U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed also made an appearance.
Gilchrist, Farhat, Farhat, Baydoun and El-Sayed did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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