Civil Rights Advocate Responds to Federal Lawsuit Claiming She Influenced School Kids

FEATURING ZAHRA BILLOO - A well-known civil rights leader in San Francisco has found herself as part of a federal lawsuit filed by parents of school children who visited a mosque. Zahra Billoo, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area (CAIR-SFBA) office was an invited speaker at the Muslim Community Association’s mosque in Santa Clara where Palo Alto High School students were on an optional field trip as part of a school-related social justice program.

The parents, who are suing the school district, are claiming their children were “exposed” to Billoo and to the idea that Islam promotes social justice. 

Zahra Billoo is a lawyer who has spent more than 17 years working to empower the Bay Area community, protect civil liberties, and enhance the understanding of Islam. She wrote an op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle about the lawsuit and spoke with me about what she's facing and why she's speaking out.

ROUGH TRANSCRIPT:

Sonali Kolhatkar: Well, I've spoken to you many times over the years, and I'm fairly familiar with the work that you are doing. I've been exposed to you and your views. I'm fine. Tell me what happened, first of all. You wrote an op-ed in "The San Francisco Chronicle" about it, and we'll link to that from our website so people can read your own words. Just briefly speaking, you were just an invited speaker, and now you're being sued or you're at least being named in a lawsuit? 

Zahra Billoo: No, I'm not being sued. I have to clarify that with my parents. 

Kolhatkar: Right. Yeah. You're being named in the suit- 

Billoo: Fortunately. So I was an invited speaker at the Muslim Community Association, one of the largest mosques in Northern California, in Fall 2025. What I knew at the time was that a group of students from Palo Alto High School, who were specifically on what they call their Social Justice Pathways track, were visiting the mosque, and I was invited to speak to them about my work and experience as a Muslim woman, as a civil rights lawyer, and how my faith inspires my work, as well as what we're doing and seeing right now in the Trump era. That's it. It was a brief visit. I wasn't involved with any of the planning. I came, I spoke, I answered questions, and then I went back to the CAIR office, which is nearby. 

A couple of weeks ago, we got word, first via the press, which by the way, is also how the school district learned about the lawsuit. They had not been served before the plaintiffs went to the press. 

And it's a group of families who, by the way, I should clarify, Sonali, not a single one of the named plaintiffs had a child on the field trip. So- 

Kolhatkar: Wait, what? 

Billoo: Right, exactly.