TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 On Monday, in Tallahassee, members of the Council on American\u2013Islamic Relations-Florida protested with signs and chants: \u201cFaith is a right, not a threat.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Monday morning, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier used X<\/a> to describe CAIR-Florida as \u201ca designated foreign terrorist organization under state law\u201d and warned it had \u201ccalled for a presence around the Florida Capitol,\u201d so he had \u201crequested law enforcement to be on heightened alert for any possible security threats.\u201d<\/p>\n In response, Hiba Rahim<\/a>, CAIR-Florida\u2019s deputy executive director, described Uthmeier\u2019s allegations as offensive. <\/p>\n \u201cWe decided the most patriotic thing to do was to come, was to meet with our elected officials,\u201d Rahim said. <\/p>\n Last week, CAIR announced<\/a> the 2026 Muslim Day at the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, which included meetings with lawmakers. They opposed Florida House Bill 1471<\/a> and Florida Senate Bill 1632<\/a>, both related to the state\u2019s chief of domestic security, possibly designating an organization as a foreign or domestic terrorist.<\/p>\n In December, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis designated CAIR Florida as a \u201cterrorist organization\u201d in an executive order<\/a> that cited the organization \u201cwas founded by persons connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.\u201d<\/p>\n During a news conference, DeSantis said, \u201cThere is strong basis. A lot of it, it\u2019s financial.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, the U.S. Treasury announced<\/a> actions against the partners of the Muslim Brotherhood chapters.<\/p>\n Lena Masri, CAIR\u2019s litigation director, released a statement on Monday<\/a> saying the organization looks forward to receiving payments from Laura Loomer, a far-right political activist who was a Republican Florida House 2021-2020 candidate<\/a>. <\/p>\n In 2022, a federal appeals court affirmed a judgment on behalf of CAIR and its Florida chapter against Loomer and Illoominate Media for legal fees related to the parties\u2019 dismissed lawsuit. <\/p>\n In 2023, as part of a settlement, CAIR \u201cagreed to let Loomer pay a total of $73,500\u2033 in monthly installments.<\/p>\n \u201cWe welcome this judicial ruling ordering Laura Loomer to complete her monthly payments to CAIR Legal Defense Fund and fully satisfy the attorney\u2019s fees she owes us as a result of her failed lawsuit,\u201d Masri said, according to the statement CAIR released on Monday. \u201cSince Ms. Loomer began sending her payments to CAIR in 2023, our attorneys have used her funds to provide legal representation to the American Muslim community and advance free speech, religious freedom, and civil rights for everyone in our nation.”<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 On Monday, in Tallahassee, members of the Council on American\u2013Islamic Relations-Florida protested with signs and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":{"0":"post-141294","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tallahassee","8":"tag-tallahassee","9":"tag-tallahassee-headlines","10":"tag-tallahassee-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}