Florida governor designates Muslim rights group as terrorist organization

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order designating one of the country’s most prominent Muslim civil rights groups, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” becoming the second high-profile Republican governor to do so in recent weeks.

CAIR's Florida chapter announced a lawsuit challenging the order at a Tuesday press conference in Tampa, where Hiba Rahim, the chapter's interim executive director, called the order "defamatory and unconstitutional."

"To our governor: your designation has no basis in law or fact," she said.

DeSantis' order alleges that CAIR has ties to Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing approximately 1,200 people. Israel’s response on Hamas-governed Gaza has killed more than 70,000 people, according to the Gazan health ministry, and left much of the enclave in ruins.

CAIR has denied any ties to Hamas.

Last month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott took a similar step against CAIR, which also challenged that order in federal court in Texas as an unconstitutional effort to punish the organization simply because of its views.

DeSantis told reporters on Tuesday that he welcomed the lawsuit because it could offer the state an opportunity to examine CAIR's financial records and other documents as part of legal discovery.

As with Abbott’s order, DeSantis’ order also named the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt, as a foreign terrorist organization.

The U.S. government has not designated CAIR or the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations, but President Donald Trump last month began the process of doing so for certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters, such as those in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.

The Florida order instructs agencies to take action to prevent CAIR from receiving any state contracts, employment or funding.

CAIR was founded in 1994 and has chapters in nearly two dozen U.S. states.

-Joseph Ax