Texas Governor Designates CAIR, Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Nov. 18 that he was designating the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.

The state-level designations authorize the state attorney general to shut down both of the organizations and bar them, as well as their affiliates, from acquiring land in Texas, according to the governor.

“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 said in a statement released by his office.

“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.”

The organizations were designated under the Texas Penal and Property Codes, according to the governor’s proclamation, which described CAIR as a “successor organization” to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Neither the CAIR nor the Muslim Brotherhood are designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.

In a letter to Abbot, CAIR, which bills itself as the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States, accused the governor of “stoking anti-Muslim hysteria” and stated that his proclamation has “no basis in fact or law.”

In a post on X, the group rejected Abbott’s claims and stated that it “opposes all forms of unjust violence, including hate crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide and terrorism.”

CAIR stated that it has previously sued the governor three times for allegedly “shredding the First Amendment to benefit the Israeli government” and is ready to take legal action again over the designation.

Robert McCaw, director of government affairs at CAIR, told Abbott in a Nov. 18 letter that he lacks the authority to “unilaterally declare” any Americans or American institutions as terrorist groups.

“The truth is that CAIR is an independent American nonprofit organization that operates in full compliance with federal, state, and local laws. CAIR is not—and has never been—a member, chapter, offshoot, or affiliate of any foreign organization,” McCaw wrote in the letter.

Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

In September, Abbott signed into law a bill that bans residential property developments from creating what he called “Sharia compounds” in Texas. He said the law is aimed at preventing housing developments from engaging in “discriminatory housing arrangements” against Texas people.

The Muslim Brotherhood was established in Egypt nearly a century ago and has branches across the world. Its leaders say it renounced violence decades ago and seeks to set up Islamic rule through elections and other peaceful means.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an Aug. 12 interview that the federal government was working to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization but noted that the move could trigger legal challenges.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Muslim Brotherhood for comment, but did not receive a response by publication time.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.