Cair to sue Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for labelling group 'terrorist'
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed an executive order on Monday designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organisations, opening up a potential pathway for state prosecutions of anyone believed to be supporting them.
The move follows a similar proclamation signed by fellow hardline conservative, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, last month.
Cair is a fully US-based non-profit organisation that advocates for civil liberties and relies on donations to carry out its work.
For now, Cair is prevented from buying land in Texas and from engaging in government contracts in Florida, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, Cair's deputy director in Washington, DC, told Middle East Eye. Otherwise, he said, the work carries on as usual.
On Tuesday, the organisation said it would sue DeSantis, calling his order "defamatory and unconstitutional".
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"We will not back down," Hiba Rahim, the interim executive director of Cair's Florida chapter, said at a press conference.
"To our governor: Your designation has no basis in law or fact. You do not have the constitutional authority to unilaterally declare any American or an American institution a foreign terrorist group. Nor is there any basis to level the smear against our organisation," she said.
Also speaking to reporters on Tuesday, DeSantis said, "I welcome the lawsuit."
"What will happen is that [the lawsuit] will give the state of Florida discovery rights to be able to subpoena the bank records, and honestly, it gives us even more reason [to proceed]. And so this is something that I know our attorney general is ready, willing and able to be fighting on this," he said.
"What's your proof that they have ties to terrorist organisations?" a reporter asked.
"Well, first of all, you people forget Cair was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation [case], which was the largest terror financing trial in the history of the United States of America," DeSantis said.
The Holy Land Foundation case involved a group of five Palestinian-American men who were convicted of funding terrorism in an event civil liberties groups have said highlights the disproportionate targeting of Muslim charities post-9/11.
They were arrested in 2004 on accusations that the Holy Land Foundation was both a terrorist organisation and was funnelling funds to Hamas.
The American Civil Liberties Union has said that the Holy Land Foundation case was part of a pattern of the US government targeting faith-based charities "on the basis of unsubstantiated evidence and without even basic due process protections".
Cair, among other Muslim groups, was publicly listed as "unindicted co-conspirators" in the case, when usually this kind of information would be sealed by the Department of Justice, so as not to defame persons who were never charged with a crime.
In 2009, a court ruled that the rights of the Muslim groups named were indeed violated.
'Israel First'
When US Secretary of State Marco Rubio floated the notion of a federal designation of Cair as a terrorist group in August, the organisation wrote him a letter saying it was being targeted for its Palestine advocacy, which is protected speech.
Cair maintains that posture now.
"Like Greg Abbott in Texas, Ron DeSantis is an Israel First politician who wants to smear and silence Americans, especially American Muslims, critical of US support for Israel's war crimes," the organisation said in a statement.
"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," Cair added.
"We look forward to defeating [this] 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 Texas, Cair filed an open records request with the state seeking any communications between 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".
Muslim Brotherhood
Both in Texas and in Florida, the Muslim Brotherhood was also labelled a terrorist organisation, despite it having no centralised headquarters or leadership.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month that explores the process of designating certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organisations or FTOs.
The order said that “certain chapters or other subdivisions” of the group would be considered for designation, making specific mention of chapters in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.
Those chapters "engage in or facilitate and support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests", the order said.
For the time being, the Muslim Brotherhood on the whole is not sanctioned, save for what the US claims are its offshoots, like Hamas in Gaza, which has been designated since 1996.
Right-wing think tanks like The Heritage Foundation and scores of Trump loyalists, including Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, have been gunning for the Muslim Brotherhood's designation for years, also tying it to Qatar and Turkey, despite those nations' strong alliances with the US.
In response via its official account on X, the Muslim Brotherhood said Trump's order lacked “any credible legal or security basis”, noting that the organisation does not operate through “chapters”.
“Independent Muslim Brotherhood organizations in some Muslim countries share elements of a common Islamic ideology, but are separate entities that make their own decisions and act in accordance with the law in their respective countries,” the statement said.
“The movements referenced in the directive have long histories of peaceful social, religious, civic, and political participation and have explicitly committed to peaceful democratic systems, respect for constitutional processes, and non-violent civic engagement,” the statement added.
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