Roving Periscope: Muslim outfits fume as the US tightens screws on terrorists
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: After Texas, Florida—US President Donald Trump’s home state—has also declared the Egypt-headquartered Muslim Brotherhood and the US-based ‘advocacy group’ called Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as “foreign terrorist organizations” with immediate effect.
Days after an Afghan immigrant killed a security official and injured another in Washington, DC, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday designated the two Islamic outfits as foreign terrorist organisations, an unprecedented step at the state level and one that aligns Florida with the Trump administration’s broader campaign targeting Islamist groups abroad.
“Florida agencies are hereby directed to undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organisations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support,” DeSantis said in a post on X announcing the order. The designation takes effect immediately, the media reported on Tuesday.
The move comes as President Trump pushes federal officials to consider similar designations for certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters in the Middle East. Last month, he signed an executive order directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to assess whether groups in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan should be formally labelled as foreign terrorist organisations. If approved, the designations would trigger US sanctions.
“President Trump is confronting the Muslim Brotherhood’s transnational network, which fuels terrorism and destabilisation campaigns against US interests and allies,” the White House said in a factsheet outlining the national strategy.
Republican leaders have long pressed for the Muslim Brotherhood to be labelled a terrorist organisation, a move Texas adopted at the state-level before Florida. CAIR, meanwhile, has strongly rejected previous attempts to link it to extremist groups, calling such efforts politically motivated.
The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in the 1920s, grew into one of the region’s most influential Islamist movements, spreading through multiple countries while often operating in secrecy. Its chapters vary widely, with some engaged in political participation and others accused by US officials of supporting militant groups such as Hamas.
Protesting against the move, CAIR, the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the US, filed a lawsuit against Texas after Governor Greg Abbott last month designated the two organisations as foreign terrorist organisations.
Neither group features on the US government’s federal list of designated foreign terrorist organisations.
DeSantis wrote on his personal X account that members of the Florida Legislature “are crafting legislation to stop the creep of Sharia law, and I hope that they codify these protections for Floridians against CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood in their legislation.”
His order says CAIR was “founded by persons connected to the Muslim Brotherhood,” which the order connects to Hamas and its October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
CAIR denied ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, a loose-knit transnational Sunni Islamist movement with international chapters across multiple Arab nations. The grassroots advocacy organisation, founded in 1994, said that it “unequivocally” condemns all acts of terrorism, including by Hamas.
In a statement, it accused DeSantis of signing a “defamatory and unconstitutional order baselessly smearing” the group and prioritising “serving the Israeli government over serving the people of Florida.” It noted that DeSantis held his “first official cabinet meeting in Israel” and a bonds deal with Israel’s government.
As it did in the Texas case, CAIR will also file a lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for his “defamatory and unconstitutional” order baselessly smearing the group as a foreign terrorist organization, the media reported.
In a joint statement, CAIR National and CAIR-Florida said:
“From the moment Ron DeSantis took office as Florida governor, he has prioritized serving the Israeli government over serving the people of Florida. He hosted his very first official cabinet meeting in Israel. He diverted millions in Florida taxpayer dollars to the Israeli government’s bonds. He threatened to shut down every Florida college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, only to back off when CAIR sued him in federal court.
“Like Greg Abbott in Texas, Ron DeSantis is an Israel-First politician who wants to smear and silence Americans, especially American Muslims, critical of U.S. support for Israel’s war crimes. Governor DeSantis knows full well that CAIR-Florida is an American civil rights organization that has spent decades advancing free speech, religious freedom, and justice for all, including for the Palestinian people. That’s precisely why Governor DeSantis is targeting our civil rights group with this unconstitutional and defamatory proclamation.
“We look forward to defeating Governor DeSantis’ latest Israel-First stunt in a court of law, where facts matter and conspiracy theories have no weight. In the meantime, we encourage all Floridians and all Americans to speak up against this latest attempt to shred the Constitution for the benefit of a foreign government.”
In November, the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA), the CAIR Legal Defense Fund (CAIR LDF) and Akeel & Valentine, PLC announced the filing of a federal lawsuit against Texas Governor Greg Abbot and Attorney-General Ken Paxton to block enforcement of Abbott’s “unconstitutional and defamatory” November 18 proclamation, which ‘falsely’ declared the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations a “foreign terrorist organization” and threatened various civil penalties against the civil rights organization if it continues to serve the people of Texas.
Washington, D.C., based CAIR recently announced it filed an open records request with the State of Texas seeking any communications between Governor Greg Abbott and anti-Muslim extremists, anti-Palestinian lobby groups, and Israeli government officials, as well as any internal communications among Abbott’s staff about the Texas Muslims he has smeared and targeted in recent months.
