TEXAS – Governor Greg Abbott has issued a state designation labeling the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations.
The move authorizes additional enforcement actions by the state and prohibits the groups and their affiliates from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas.
In his announcement, Abbott said the designation reflects concerns about alleged support for terrorism and efforts to undermine legal systems.
“The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’” said Governor Abbott. ”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. Today, I designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations. These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.”
The state designation marks the first time Texas has applied these restrictions to either organization. According to the governor’s office, the decision will take effect immediately and applies to any real property interests within Texas.
CAIR announced that it has sent a formal response letter to Abbott strongly condemning his recent proclamation smearing the organization as “defamatory” and that it has “has no basis in law or fact.”
In the letter, CAIR writes to Governor Abbott that his proclamation does not have “the authority to unilaterally declare any Americans or American institutions terrorist groups.”
The letter further states that “CAIR is an independent American nonprofit organization that operates in full compliance with federal, state, and local laws” and that CAIR “is not - and has never been - a member, chapter, offshoot, or affiliate of any foreign organization.”
The letter documents CAIR’s thirty-year record of condemning and advocating against: “anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism and antisemitism, as well as all forms of unjust violence, including hate crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and terrorism.”
Addressing the Governor directly, CAIR writes that his office “has spent months stoking anti-Muslim hysteria to smear American Muslims critical of the Israeli government,” adding that “We have successfully sued you three different times for shredding the First Amendment for the benefit of the Israeli government, and we are ready to do so again if you attempt to turn this publicity stunt into actual policy.”
CAIR concludes its letter by reaffirming that it “plans to continue opposing all forms of bigotry, speaking out against injustice here and abroad, and defending the Constitution’s guarantees of free speech, God willing.”
CAIR noted that this is not the first time Greg Abbott has tried and failed to use state law to smear Muslim nonprofit organizations in the statement.