Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has formally labeled the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of largest Muslim civil rights groups in the nation, a foreign terrorist organization.
In his Tuesday declaration, Abbott vowed to go after the Washington-based group, accusing them of having direct ties with Hamas and vowing to have the state attorney general “sue to shut them down” in Texas.
Abbott’s declaration also included the Muslim Brotherhood group, a transnational Sunni Islamist group founded in Egypt with offshoots that have been linked to past violent attacks.
“The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’” Governor Abbott claimed.
“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,” he added. “These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.”
There is no evidence that either CAIR or the Muslim Brotherhood are seeking to impose Shariah law in America.
Neither group is listed as a terrorist group by the federal government, with the Muslim Brotherhood disavowing any previous violence linked to the group, which now provides hospitals and schools in the Arab world, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
CAIR, which has operated in the US for about 30 years, has long denied any association with Hamas or other terrorist cells, with the civil rights group slamming Abbott’s declaration as “defamatory and lawless.”
“We are not and will not be intimidated by smear campaigns launched by Israel First politicians by Greg Abbott,” the group’s Texas branch said in a statement.
“Mr. Abbott is defaming us and other American Muslims because we are effective advocates for justice here and abroad,” the group added.
“We plan to continue exercising our constitutional rights, defending civil rights, and speaking truth to power, whether in defense of free speech, religious freedom and racial equality here in Texas or in defense of human rights abroad.”
Abbott has repeatedly criticized CAIR over the group’s staunch rejection of Israel’s war on Gaza and support of pro-Palestinian protests in the US.
The governor has recently suggested that there should be concern nationwide over Muslim elected officials following Zohran Mamdani’s win as New York City mayor earlier this month.
“The concern is high, especially when you see somebody like Mamdani get elected and the cataclysmic problems that’s going to cause,” Abbott said during a radio interview Tuesday.
“We want to make sure that’s never going to happen,” he added.
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