Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order branding the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of the nation’s leading Muslim civil rights groups, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” becoming the second prominent Republican governor to make such a designation in recent weeks.
Last month, Texas Governor Greg Abbott took a similar step against CAIR, which has challenged the move in federal court as an unconstitutional effort to punish the organization simply because of its views. CAIR was expected to announce a separate lawsuit against Florida later on Tuesday.
The Florida order claimed that CAIR has ties to Hamas, the Palestinian resistance group in Gaza.
CAIR has denied any ties to Hamas. In a joint statement on Monday, CAIR and its Florida chapter called DeSantis’ order "unconstitutional and defamatory.”
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.
