Texas Gov. Abbott declares Muslim civil rights group CAIR a ‘terrorist’ organization
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations and Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organizations on Tuesday. AP
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has officially designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organizations, as a foreign terrorist organization.
In a declaration issued Tuesday, Abbott accused the Washington-based group of maintaining direct ties to Hamas and said the state attorney general would “sue to shut them down” in Texas.
Abbott also included the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Sunni Islamist group founded in Egypt with a history of offshoots linked to violence, in his declaration. “The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’” Abbott claimed.
He added, “The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable. These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.”
There is no evidence that either CAIR or the Muslim Brotherhood is attempting to impose Sharia law in the United States. Neither organization is classified as a terrorist group by the federal government. The Muslim Brotherhood has disavowed previous acts of violence linked to the group and now operates hospitals and schools in the Arab world, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
CAIR, which has been active in the U.S. for roughly 30 years, has consistently denied any connection to Hamas or other terrorist organizations. The group called Abbott’s declaration “defamatory and lawless.”
“We are not and will not be intimidated by smear campaigns launched by ‘Israel First’ politicians like Greg Abbott,” the Texas branch of CAIR said in a statement. “Mr. Abbott is defaming us and other American Muslims because we are effective advocates for justice here and abroad. We plan to continue exercising our constitutional rights, defending civil rights, and speaking truth to power—whether in defense of free speech, religious freedom, and racial equality here in Texas, or human rights abroad.”
Abbott has repeatedly criticized CAIR over its opposition to Israel’s military actions in Gaza and its support for pro-Palestinian protests in the U.S. He also voiced concern about Muslim elected officials following the recent election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor.
“The concern is high, especially when you see somebody like Mamdani get elected and the cataclysmic problems that’s going to cause,” Abbott said in a radio interview Tuesday. “We want to make sure that’s never going to happen.”
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