AMP Condemns Texas Governor’s CAIR Designation

The  Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine (AMP) has pub­lished a state­ment con­demn­ing Texas Gov­er­nor Abbot­t’s recent des­ig­na­tion of the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR), describ­ing the move as “reck­less” and an “egre­gious abuse of pow­er.” The state­ment begins:

Amer­i­can Mus­lims for Pales­tine (AMP) unequiv­o­cal­ly con­demns the reck­less and base­less deci­sion by Texas Gov­er­nor Greg Abbott to des­ig­nate the Coun­cil on Amer­i­can-Islam­ic Rela­tions (CAIR) as a “for­eign ter­ror­ist and transna­tion­al crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tion.” CAIR is the largest Amer­i­can Mus­lim civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tion, ded­i­cat­ed to defend­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al and civ­il rights of Amer­i­can Mus­lims on the foun­da­tion of equal cit­i­zen­ship. It was estab­lished in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., by Amer­i­can cit­i­zens. Label­ing such an orga­ni­za­tion as a ter­ror­ist enti­ty is not only out­ra­geous but a direct attack on the prin­ci­ples of jus­tice and equal­i­ty that under­pin our democ­ra­cy. This reck­less action con­sti­tutes a direct assault on civ­il lib­er­ties and an egre­gious abuse of pow­er. Gov­er­nor Abbott has a doc­u­ment­ed his­to­ry of stok­ing Islam­o­pho­bia against Amer­i­can Mus­lims and of endors­ing Israel’s ongo­ing geno­cide in Gaza. These pat­terns of behav­ior under­score the polit­i­cal the­ater behind this announce­ment, which serves no pur­pose oth­er than to inflame divi­sion and appease extrem­ist networks.

Read more: https://www.ampalestine.org/media/media-room/statements/texas-governors-reckless-designation-cair-terrorist-baseless-and

On 17 Novem­ber 2024, Gov­er­nor Abbott issued a procla­ma­tion des­ig­nat­ing CAIR and the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood as “for­eign ter­ror­ist and transna­tion­al crim­i­nal orga­ni­za­tions” under Texas law, autho­riz­ing height­ened law enforce­ment mea­sures and block­ing prop­er­ty acqui­si­tion. CAIR Exec­u­tive Direc­tor Nihad Awad strong­ly reject­ed the des­ig­na­tion, stat­ing that Abbott oper­at­ed accord­ing to an “Israeli agen­da par excellence.”

Key Points

• Gov­er­nor Abbott des­ig­nat­ed CAIR and the Mus­lim Broth­er­hood as for­eign ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tions on Novem­ber 17, 2025, ban­ning them from pur­chas­ing land in Texas.

• CAIR has filed a fed­er­al law­suit against Abbott, mark­ing the fourth legal chal­lenge against the gov­er­nor over First Amend­ment issues relat­ed to pro-Pales­tin­ian expression.

• Accord­ing to AMP, legal experts ques­tioned whether Abbott had the author­i­ty to des­ig­nate domes­tic civ­il rights orga­ni­za­tions as for­eign ter­ror­ists, a pow­er typ­i­cal­ly held by the U.S. State Department.

• AMP alleged Abbott had repeat­ed­ly act­ed against pro-Pales­tin­ian activists, includ­ing state­ments that stu­dent pro­test­ers “deserve to be jailed.”

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