Last Updated on December 28, 2016 by CCAR Staff
ANAHEIM >> Hussam Ayloush, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, which is based in Anaheim, has apologized for a tweet he sent out on Christmas Day expressing disappointment that a plane crash involving a Russian military jet on its way to Syria didn’t claim more lives.
“I’m sad about the crashed Russian military jet. The Tu-154 could have carried up to 180 military personnel instead of just 92!” read Ayloush’s tweet, according to The Orange County Register.
He has taken down the tweet and posted an apology on Facebook for commenting before he had all the information about the crash and its victims. All 92 people on board the Russian military jet are believed to have died Sunday morning, when it crashed two minutes after taking off from the southern city of Sochi en route to Syria.
The passengers included dozens of singers in Russia’s military choir, nine journalists and a doctor known for her work in war zones.
Ayloush received hundreds of tweets in response, criticizing his comment, many asking him to resign from his post at Anaheim-based CAIR-LA. Ayloush said he does not intend to resign but deeply regrets the tweet, The Register reported.
“All I saw was a Russian military plane went down before it made it to Syria. To me, that’s like hearing a couple of World War II Japanese planes went down before they got to Pearl Harbor for the bombing,” he told the Register.
The son of Syrian parents, who still has family members in Syria, Ayloush said his tweet had been a “knee-jerk” reaction.
