Romin Iqbal, lawyer accused of spying on Muslim rights group, forfeits Ohio law license
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A once-prominent Columbus-area Muslim civil rights lawyer forfeited his Ohio law license more than two years after he was fired from his job and accused of spying on his colleagues.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Monday accepted the resignation of Romin Iqbal with disciplinary action pending. Iqbal, whose last known address was in Dublin, was fired as director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Ohio in late 2021 after he was accused of recording network meetings and sharing information regarding CAIR’s national advocacy work with another organization, the Investigative Project on Terrorism.
CAIR-Ohio is a nonprofit and one of 35 chapters of CAIR, a national Muslim civil liberties organization first established in 1994 in Washington, D.C. The organization provides legal services and conducts advocacy work on behalf of Muslims. Recently, it has been active in criticizing Israel's casualty-heavy war against Hamas, which has affected Palestinian Americans living in central Ohio.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism is a nonprofit founded by author Steven Emerson that describes itself as a "data center on radical Islamic terrorist groups." CAIR-Ohio and others have called the group an anti-Islamic "hate group." At the time of Iqbal's firing, IPT did not answer The Dispatch's questions about the alleged spying but said it "will not hesitate to uncover and publicly expose radical Islamist activity on American soil by groups like CAIR.”
With the acceptance of Iqbal's resignation from the bar, he is prevented from practicing law in Ohio courts. The exact reasons for his resignation and the pending disciplinary action remain unclear because the disciplinary counsel's findings remain sealed.
Iqbal could not be reached by The Dispatch for comment.
Attorney David Thomas of Taft Law, who has represented Iqbal, declined to comment on the resignation to The Dispatch.
Amina Barhumi, current executive director of CAIR-Ohio, told The Dispatch that Iqbal's forfeiture of his Ohio law license "begins to provide some sort of closure for the community."
"It's an affirmation of what we've said all along — that there are consequences for betraying trust of colleagues and community members," she said.
Iqbal had worked in the Columbus office of CAIR-Ohio in Hilliard since 2006 and was its executive director from 2018 to 2021.
In that position, he often spoke out against Islamophobia.
In December 2021, the CAIR national office reported that Iqbal shared emails, meeting recordings and strategic plans with IPT. It also showed emails between the group's leader, Steve Emerson, and his staff, as well as emails from Iqbal to Emerson and between Emerson and Israeli government officials.
Soon after Iqbal was fired, CAIR and 82 other Muslim civil society organizations called for a federal investigation into Iqbal and IPT.
When contacted by The Dispatch on Monday, a national FBI spokesperson said, "In keeping with Justice Department policy, the FBI can neither confirm nor deny conducting specific investigations."
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat Fischer was the only judge to vote against accepting Iqbal's resignation, citing a lack of transparency.
"As I have said before, resignation-with-discipline-pending cases are sealed proceedings that pose a transparency problem because the public is not allowed access to information that has been provided to this court by disciplinary counsel in such cases," he wrote in his dissent.
Though he was unable to reveal the reasons for the disciplinary action, Fischer cited a series of reports by The Dispatch detailing Iqbal's alleged spying on CAIR-Ohio staff.
"Iqbal broke the trust and confidentiality of the organization he was working for, and by working directly contrary to that organization’s interests, he opened himself up to disciplinary charges. For transparency purposes and for the protection of the public, I would not accept Iqbal’s application for retirement or resignation with disciplinary action pending. Therefore, I dissent," Fischer wrote.
When Iqbal submitted his resignation letter in March 2023, he indicated he was still admitted to practice law in several federal jurisdictions.
As of Monday, the clerk's office for the U.S. Southern District of Ohio said he was not yet listed as suspended.
Peter Gill covers immigration, New American communities and religion for the Dispatch in partnership with Report for America. You can support work like his with a tax-deductible donation to Report for America at:bit.ly/3fNsGaZ.
pgill@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Lawyer accused of spying on Muslim rights group loses Ohio law license
