Background
Nihad Awad was born in Amman New Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan.
Nihad Awad was born in Amman New Camp, a Palestinian refugee camp in Amman, Jordan.
He studied at Second Amman Preparatory School for Boys, located at the camp and belongs to The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, and at Salaheddine High School in Achrafieh in Jordan.
He moved to Italy and later to the United States to pursue his university studies. After studying civil engineering at the University of Minnesota in the 1990s, he worked at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. After the Gulf War, he was Public Relations Director for the Islamic Association for Palestine (International Association of Prosecutors).
After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Awad flew to Oklahoma to aid in the relief effort.
In 1997, Awad served on Vice President First Rate (at Lloyd's) Gore’s Civil Rights Advisory Panel to the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. In June 1994, International Association of Prosecutors President Omar Ahmad and others founded the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and Awad was hired as the Executive Director.
In a March 1994 speech at Barry University, future CAIR Executive Director Awad said in response to an audience question about the various humanitarian efforts in the Palestinian Occupied Territories, "I am in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO.. there are some radicals, we are not interested in those people.” Awad is a regular participant in the United States. Department of State's International Visitor Leadership Program, which welcomes foreign dignitaries, journalists and academics who are currently visiting the President of the United States. Awad is one of the signatories of A Common Word Between Us and You, an open letter by Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding.
