Shaun King is going to have to find somewhere else to enjoy his iftar on Sunday. Originally booked to keynote a Minneapolis fundraising dinner that evening, his invitation has since been rescinded by a local branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in response to community backlash.
King, a controversial activist with a history of overpromising on multiple projects, has drawn raised eyebrows in recent weeks for converting to Islam at the start of Ramadan. Though King insisted that he and his wife had converted “in solidarity” with Palestinians in Gaza amid Israel’s war against Hamas, critics accused him of taking shahada as a grift—particularly as he announced a multi-city speaking tour less than a day later, complete with $1,000 VIP tickets.
On Thursday morning, the Minnesota chapter of CAIR announced that it had engaged the “Civil Rights Icon” King as keynote speaker to its annual Ramadan fundraiser this weekend. “Known for his passionate advocacy and having been deplatformed from social media sites like Instagram for his efforts to speak up for Gaza, his address promises to be a highlight of an unforgettable evening,” the organization said in an email to supporters.
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The immediate blowback was fierce, with social media users crowding the group’s replies to warn that King was “a prolific scam artist” and that CAIR would be “tainted by association.” The Racket, an alt-news site covering the Twin Cities, picked the story up and included it in its daily newsletter. “CAIR, What Are You Thinking?” its headline read.
The 44-year-old, once a prominent figure in the Black Lives Matter movement, has long been dogged by questions about his shady financial practices. In 2021, the mother of Tamir Rice disavowed him, labeling him selfish and untrustworthy, while resurfacing allegations he was “an imposter” lying about his biracial background. (King has refuted this.)
A year later, The Daily Beast reported that King had drawn a six-figure salary from a nonprofit he’d formed off the back of George Floyd’s 2020 death in police custody, while its flagship program stalled out.
King loudly condemned Israel’s invasion of Gaza in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks. By the end of the month, he was claiming to have “worked frantically behind the scenes to help” free a pair of American-Israeli hostages in Gaza. The hostages’ family denied his involvement. “We are not affiliated with Mr. King,” a relative told The Daily Beast at the time.
His newly fledged “Uncensored Tour,” as it is called, features the self-styled “human rights leader” King and a bevy of guest speakers “for an unfiltered and uplifting discussion on current events in Gaza.” One tour stop in San Diego was advertised as a meet-and-greet with “special guest” Macklemore, only for the rapper to come forward and say he’d actually pulled out of the event days ago.
“All proceeds to my understanding were going towards families in Palestine,” he wrote on Instagram. “I never felt comfortable with the centering or the flyer. Lesson learned moving forward.”
All this set the stage for the outraged response to CAIR-Minnesota’s Thursday announcement. “did anyone google this guy for like, two seconds?” an X user demanded.
Less than eight hours later, CAIR-Minnesota reversed course. “We have heard concerns expressed—directly and indirectly—by our community,” the group said in a statement. “We have made the decision to not have Shaun King as the keynote speaker for our upcoming annual fundraising dinner.”
The organization went on to explain that his engagement had “become a distraction” from the event’s sole purpose: “to support the work of protecting and advancing the civil liberties of Muslims in Minnesota, especially in these challenging times.”
King did not directly respond to his being blackballed on Thursday night.
An hour after CAIR-Minnesota’s statement was posted, however, he shared on his Facebook page that he had learned a lot “over these first 2 weeks of my new life as a Muslim.
“The one that is sticking with me right now is about my intentions,” he continued. “If my intentions with every good deed I do are truly to please Allah and heed His words, all that matters is how Allah sees me and what Allah thinks of me.
“What anyone else thinks of me or my work is of almost no consequence when it was never my goal to please them in the first place.”
