{"id":78420,"date":"2025-12-10T13:45:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T13:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/78420\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T13:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T13:45:15","slug":"floridas-cair-threatens-lawsuit-against-desantis-after-he-labels-group-a-foreign-terrorist-organization","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/78420\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s CAIR threatens lawsuit against DeSantis after he labels group a \u2018foreign terrorist\u2019 organization"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says it plans to take Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/ron-desantis\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Ron DeSantis;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Ron DeSantis<\/a> to court after the Republican governor issued an executive order labeling the Muslim civil rights organization a &#8220;foreign terrorist organization.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Hiba Rahim, the chapter\u2019s deputy executive director, said during a news conference that the order was an attack rooted in conspiracy theories and compared it to historical efforts that targeted Jewish, Irish and Italian American communities.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;We are very proud to defend the founding principles of our Constitution, to defend free speech,&#8221; Rahim said at a news conference. &#8220;We are proud to defend democracy, and we are proud to be America first.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Rahim argued that the governor\u2019s support for Israel played a role in the order, saying the group\u2019s activism had caused &#8220;discomfort&#8221; to the U.S. ally. She said CAIR does not intend to back down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/florida-designates-muslim-brotherhood-cair-foreign-terrorist-organizations-desantis-says\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Florida Designates Muslim Brotherhood And Cair As Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Desantis Says;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Florida Designates Muslim Brotherhood And Cair As Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Desantis Says<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Governor DeSantis, meanwhile, defended the move, saying his administration had sufficient grounds for the designation. Speaking to reporters Tuesday, he said he welcomed CAIR\u2019s legal challenge and described the designation as &#8220;a long time coming.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS\/mvaj7wvj\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Read On The Fox News App;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Read On The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">DeSantis\u2019 order also lists the Muslim Brotherhood as a &#8220;foreign terrorist&#8221; organization. Last month, President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/person\/donald-trump\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Donald Trump;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Donald Trump<\/a> issued an executive order to begin a federal process to consider designating certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The governor said he expects Florida lawmakers to pursue related legislation when the legislature reconvenes in January, calling the executive order &#8220;the beginning.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-signals-plan-designate-muslim-brotherhood-terrorist-organization\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Trump Signals Plan To Designate Muslim Brotherhood A Terrorist Organization;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Trump Signals Plan To Designate Muslim Brotherhood A Terrorist Organization<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/9ae5c1c63b5b35c818b854f1afab7553.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he welcomes CAIR&#8217;s lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Under DeSantis\u2019 directive, state agencies are barred from awarding contracts, employment or funds to CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood or any groups deemed to have materially supported them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">At the Tampa news conference, attorney Miranda Margolis criticized the order and argued DeSantis had exceeded his authority by unilaterally designating a nonprofit as a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;This designation is without legal or factual basis and constitutes a dangerous escalation of anti-Muslim political rhetoric,&#8221; Margolis said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Florida\u2019s action comes after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a similar proclamation. CAIR has challenged Abbott\u2019s designation in federal court, arguing it violates the U.S. Constitution and Texas law. Muslim and interfaith organizations <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/muslim-groups-other-leaders-demand-abbott-rescind-cairs-terrorist-designation-defamatory\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:have urged;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">have urged<\/a> Abbott to rescind the order.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Greg Abbott of Texas\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/2307fcbf24eeee1268186841c6b215df.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a proclamation designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as &#8220;foreign terrorist organizations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">State-level designations do not carry the same legal weight as federal Foreign Terrorist Organization classifications, which can only be issued by the U.S. State Department.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click Here To Download The Fox News App;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Click Here To Download The Fox News App<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">CAIR argues the Florida order violates its First Amendment rights and due-process protections and that terrorism designations fall under federal jurisdiction, not state power.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Original article source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/floridas-cair-threatens-lawsuit-against-desantis-after-he-labels-group-foreign-terrorist-organization\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Florida\u2019s CAIR threatens lawsuit against DeSantis after he labels group a \u2018foreign terrorist\u2019 organization;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Florida\u2019s CAIR threatens lawsuit against DeSantis after he labels group a \u2018foreign terrorist\u2019 organization<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says it plans to take Gov. Ron DeSantis&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78421,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[43267,43927,17435,28,30,29,43446,43928,43173,14399,412],"class_list":["post-78420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-cair","tag-civil-rights-organization","tag-executive-order","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-foreign-terrorist-organization","tag-hiba-rahim","tag-muslim-brotherhood","tag-news-conference","tag-ron-desantis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78420","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=78420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}