The bill’s signing comes a few months after DeSantis designated one of the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy groups a “foreign terrorist organization.”
TAMPA, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a new law allowing the state to designate domestic terrorist organizations, targeting Islamic “Sharia Law.”
During a news conference Monday at the University of South Florida in Tampa, DeSantis signed House Bill 1471, which prohibits the use of legal frameworks like Sharia Law in courts and cracks down on organizations designated as domestic terrorist groups.
The bill’s signing comes a few months after DeSantis designated the Florida Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Florida (CAIR-FL) and the Muslim Brotherhood as “foreign terrorist organizations” in an executive order.
“Part of what the legislature did in this bill was provide a statutory structure for the actions that we took earlier when we took those actions last year,” DeSantis said at the presser. “It provided a process where we could identify groups that are foreign terrorist organizations.”
One day after DeSantis signed the executive order, CAIR-FL announced a lawsuit against him, calling it unconstitutional, defamatory and already harming its work across the state.
“This executive order does not represent facts,” Hiba Rahim of CAIR-FL said. “It does not cite investigations. It does not point to any criminal findings. It simply declares guilt by proclamation.”
“They have every right to sue, and we’re going to have the right to get the information that we need,” the governor previously responded. “I’d stay tuned there.”
HB 1471 also prohibits students of certain school districts and Florida colleges who “promote domestic terrorist organizations or foreign terrorist organizations” from being awarded certain public funding.
“If there’s a school that is allied with CAIR, should you have any of your money going to things like that? I think not,” DeSantis said.