Last month, my colleague Becky Noble brought us the story of one Zainab Chaudry, an anti-Israel activist who was inexplicably a member of Maryland's hate crime task force, and how Chaudry was suspended from that task force after making anti-Israeli comments. Among other things, she claimed that the claim that Hamas murdered Israeli infants on October 7th was "fake." Chaudry also serves as the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Maryland office. So she is clearly anything but impartial.

Maryland attorney general suspends hate crime task force member claiming babies murdered by Hamas were 'fake'

“Anti-Israel activist Zainab Chaudry made numerous antisemitic social posts” https://t.co/aY8Qcgkj1k

— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) November 22, 2023

Well, as of Tuesday, Chaudry has been reinstated.

Democrat Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown on Tuesday reinstated a member of his state's hate crime task force who posted numerous antisemitic social media posts, including a claim that the babies murdered in the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas attack were "fake..."

"Upon further review, it was determined that the law establishing the Commission directs the Attorney General to appoint members to a 4-year fixed term but does not provide the Attorney General the authority to remove a Commissioner before the expiration of their term nor the authority to suspend a Commissioner during their term of service," Brown wrote in a press release.

If this is accurate, there's a serious oversight in the statute governing this task force. The AG should have the authority to remove someone from this task force, particularly someone as egregiously guilty of bigotry and hatred as Zainab Chaudry. If not the AG, cannot the governor show this person the door? Can no one intervene? Must the people of Maryland suffer a person so hateful as this on a hate crimes task force?

Chaudry is exhibiting a clear tendency towards Israel and, presumably, Jews. In this, she certainly isn't alone; RedState has been at the forefront of coverage on the rise of antisemitism in the United States and elsewhere. See these stories for examples:

• The Numbers Don't Lie: NYC Antisemitic Hate Crimes Shot Up 214 Percent in October
• The Ugly Face of Antisemitism Is Female
• Police Investigating Trio of Assailants Brutally Assaulting Jewish New Yorkers in Separate Attacks

But Chaudry is on a hate crimes task force. A state-sponsored hate crimes task force. 

The entire concept, of course, of a "hate crime" is a canard. It rests in large part on the assertion that the motive for a crime somehow makes it more or less egregious based on several nebulous and ill-defined standards. Application of the "hate crime" label can result in a greater sentence for a perp based on the melanin content of his skin; it's stupid, it flies in the face of equal treatment under the law, and it has no place in a sane justice policy.

But this person has no place on a hate crime task force. If the AG can't fire her, then the governor should. If the governor can't, then the voters must step in. Chaudry's continued presence on this task force is intolerable.

There are real hate crime hoaxers out there. The Israelis, when referring to October 7th, aren't among them.