By Julia Harte

(Reuters) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the most important U.S. Muslim advocacy group, has fired the top of its Ohio chapter after alleging that he shared confidential info with an anti-Muslim group.

A information launch from CAIR on Tuesday stated its Ohio director, Romin Iqbal, had admitted to working with the Investigative Undertaking on Terrorism (IPT), a self-described “information heart on radical Islamist terrorist teams,” when confronted with the proof of his misconduct.

“This betrayal and violation of belief was deliberate and purposeful, happening over a interval of years,” CAIR’s leaders stated in a separate information launch on Wednesday.

Iqbal directed a request for remark from Reuters to his lawyer, who declined to remark.

The founding father of the IPT, Steven Emerson (NYSE:), has “a historical past of selling falsified info and conspiracy theories about Islam and Muslims,” in accordance with a Georgetown College analysis venture on Islamophobia. Emerson is taken into account an anti-Muslim activist by the Southern Poverty Regulation Heart.

The IPT didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

CAIR’s nationwide workplace employed an out of doors forensic specialist to research proof it acquired final yr that the IPT had tried to infiltrate Muslim-American organizations comparable to CAIR utilizing “moles.”

In November, the specialist reported to CAIR that Iqbal had been sharing info, “together with surreptitiously recorded conversations, strategic plans and personal emails,” with the IPT, in accordance with the Tuesday press launch.

The proof CAIR acquired final yr additionally confirmed that IPT was “speaking with and offering help to Israeli intelligence with the workplace of then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” the information launch stated.

After Iqbal’s termination, the CAIR-Ohio workplace in Columbus additionally found latest “suspicious purchases” from ammunition and gun retailers made on a bank card that was administered by Iqbal, in accordance with the Wednesday launch from CAIR.

On Tuesday, the workplace additionally acquired a package deal containing elements to an AR-15 rifle. The Wednesday information launch stated that regulation enforcement companies have been wanting in to the weapon acquisitions.