“The idea that Governor Abbott’s going to claim that CAIR — an American Muslim civil rights group — is somehow a foreign terrorist group, it’s patently ludicrous,” Mitchell said on Thursday. “And it’s the clearest example of bigotry that you call a Muslim that you disagree with a terrorist.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has filed a lawsuit against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, claiming that officials broke the law by characterizing CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization and imposing sanctions on its members.
According to POLITICO, the lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Western Texas. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and its co-plaintiffs, had earlier threatened legal action if Gov. Abbott “attempted to turn this publicity stunt into actual policy.”
CAIR says that the Abbott’s decision to cast it as a foreign terrorist organization and transnational criminal entity—and bar its members from purchasing or otherwise acquiring land anywhere in Texas—is unconstitutional.
Abbott’s proclamation, notes POLITICO, authorized “heightened penalties” against CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood; both organizations were also barred from purchasing land in Texas, with the state alleging that CAIR has “repeatedly employed, affiliated with, and supported individuals promoting terrorism-related activities.”
The governor further described CAIR as a “successor organization” to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization known for its brief ascent to political power in Egypt between 2012 and 2013. Abbott also claims that CAIR’s executive director has “publicly praised and supported Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack against Israel,” though CAIR maintains that it condemned the attack, along with others perpetrated by Hamas.
“No civil rights organizations are safe if a governor can baselessly and unilaterally declare any of them terrorist groups, ban them from buying land, and threaten them with closure,” CAIR Litigation Director and General Counsel Lena Masri said in a statement. “We have beaten Greg Abbott’s attacks on the First Amendment before, and God willing, we will do it again now.”
“The lawsuit we have filed today is our first step towards defeating Governor Abbott again so that our nation protects free speech and due process for all Americans,” Masri said.
Abbott’s re-classification of CAIR as a “foreign terrorist organization” has also drawn criticism and derision from the state’s congressional Democrats.
“While Greg Abbott and Republicans claim to follow the Constitution, they would trample on someone’s First Amendment rights when they don’t agree with or worship with them,” the Texas Democracy Party said.
Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy director, took his criticism a step further, calling Abbott’s designation not only unlawful but “patently ludicrous.”
“The idea that Governor Abbott’s going to claim that CAIR — an American Muslim civil rights group — is somehow a foreign terrorist group, it’s patently ludicrous,” Mitchell said on Thursday. “And it’s the clearest example of bigotry that you call a Muslim that you disagree with a terrorist.”
Sources
CAIR sues Texas governor over ‘unconstitutional’ terror designation
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