{"id":86336,"date":"2025-12-17T06:10:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T06:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/86336\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T06:10:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T06:10:21","slug":"tampa-based-cair-florida-sues-desantis-after-terrorist-designation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/86336\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa-based CAIR-Florida sues DeSantis after \u2018terrorist\u2019 designation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AHiba Rahim, interim executive director for CAIR-Florida, speaking in Tampa on Dec. 16, 2025. Credit: Mitch Perry \/ Florida Phoenix<\/a><\/p>\n

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation\u2019s largest Muslim civil-rights organization, has filed a federal lawsuit challenging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 executive order issued last week designating the group as a \u201cterrorist organization.\u201d CAIR is asking the court to block the executive order and declare it unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

The CAIR-Foundation and CAIR-Florida filed the lawsuit in the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee on Monday.<\/p>\n

DeSantis issued\u00a0his executive order<\/a>\u00a0on Dec. 8, designating CAIR a \u201cterrorist organization.\u201d The order directed Florida\u2019s executive and Cabinet agencies, as well as every county and city, to deny local or state contracts, employment, funding, benefits, or privileges to CAIR and anyone known to provide \u201cmaterial support\u201d to CAIR, including \u201cexpert advice or assistance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The order directs the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) to undertake \u201call lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities in Florida\u201d against terrorist organizations designated in Section 1 of the executive order, which includes the Muslim Brotherhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis executive order does not present facts, it does not cite investigations, it does not point to any criminal findings. It simply declares guilt by proclamation,\u201d said Hiba Rahim, interim executive director for CAIR-Florida, during a press conference at the organization\u2019s Tampa headquarters Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not matter whether you agree or disagree with our policies or our advocacy. What should concern every American is the implication of allowing a government official to apply criminal designations without due process. This is not how things work in America. In this country, allegations come with evidence and evidence is tested in court. And it is judges, not politicians, who decide what is lawful.\u201d<\/p>\n

CAIR has never been declared a foreign terrorist organization by any federal agency.<\/p>\n

In alleging that DeSantis has violated the Constitution, the lawsuit contends that he has:<\/p>\n

Illegally usurped the exclusive authority of the federal government to designate American organizations as terrorist groups based on allegations of material support for foreign terrorist groups.<\/p>\n

Violated the Constitution\u2019s guarantee of due process by unilaterally designating CAIR a criminal actor and then ordering immediate punitive, discriminatory action against CAIR and its supporters without any chance to appeal that punishment or designation.<\/p>\n

Violated the Constitution\u2019s guarantee of free speech by punishing Americans who seek to provide CAIR with material support, including speech in the form \u201cassistance\u201d and \u201cadvice,\u201d and retaliating against CAIR for speech he finds objectionable, including the organization\u2019s past lawsuit against him and its activism in support of Palestinian human rights.<\/p>\n

CAIR-Florida and DeSantis do have a history in the courts. In November 2023, one month after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel, CAIR National and CAIR-Florida\u00a0filed suit<\/a>\u00a0against Florida officials including DeSantis, challenging state directives to deactivate Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at Florida public universities. In January 2024, a federal\u00a0judge dismissed the lawsuit<\/a>, ruling that the case was not valid because the ban had not been enforced.<\/p>\n

Florida joins Texas<\/p>\n

During Tuesday\u2019s news conference, CAIR officials said that in filing the lawsuit, they weren\u2019t just standing up for Muslim rights, but constitutional rights for others as well, and noted that they have been joined in the lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Muslim Legal Fund of America, and the Michigan law firm Akeel & Valentine.<\/p>\n

Saying the executive order calls on the FDLE and FHP to prevent all \u201cunlawful activity\u201d by CAIR, attorney Omar Saleh added that he thought such laws were already in place. \u201cBut Gov. DeSantis wants to add additional penalties, just in case you\u2019re Muslim or if you support a Muslim group, and it doesn\u2019t work that way in this country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

DeSantis\u2019 executive order listing both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as \u201cterrorist organizations\u201d came three weeks after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott\u00a0issued a proclamation<\/a>\u00a0prohibiting CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood and its members from purchasing or acquiring land in the state, accusing them of supporting terrorism and undermining Texas laws through harassment, intimidation, and violence.<\/p>\n

On Nov. 24, President Trump\u00a0issued<\/a>\u00a0an executive order that sets in motion a process by which certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood \u201cshall be considered for designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.\u201d CAIR has\u00a0previously said<\/a>\u00a0that it has no association with the Muslim Brotherhood.<\/p>\n

Texas U.S. Republican Sen. John Cornyn announced Monday that he wants\u00a0to eliminate<\/a>\u00a0CAIR\u2019s tax-exempt status as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, saying in a written statement that the group \u201cis a radical group of terrorist sympathizers with a long history of undermining American values.\u201d<\/p>\n

CAIR was established in 1994 and now has 25 chapters around the state, including in Tampa and Miami. CAIR officials were asked Tuesday to speculate about why they are now being targeted by two states and a U.S. senator.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been happening much longer than a month ago, but it\u2019s picking up a lot more because public officials are being more brazen in showing what their true thoughts are about Islam and Muslims,\u201d said Saleh. \u201cWhen Texas happened, we knew Florida would be coming, because we know that\u2019s what the governor\u2019s sentiment is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thania Clevenger, national chief operating officer for CAIR, agreed that negative allegations regarding the organization aren\u2019t new, but said they have been growing steadily since the Hamas attack on Israel two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact against the community has been growing steadily since Oct. 7 with the Palestinian movement,\u201d she said. \u201cOur work has been effective. We have sued governors across the country who are \u2018Israeli First.\u2019 And so that action has brought more scrutiny to CAIR.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Discovery rights\u2019<\/p>\n

When asked for comment, the governor\u2019s press office sent the Phoenix previous statements DeSantis has made over the past week on social media and in person regarding his decision to issue the executive order.<\/p>\n

\u201cI welcome the lawsuit because what will happen is, that will give the state of Florida discovery rights to be able to subpoena the bank records. \u2026 And honestly, it gives us even more reason. \u2026 And so this is something that our attorney general is ready, willing and able to fighting on this, DeSantis\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0on Dec. 9 in North Miami Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have every right to sue, and then we\u2019re going to have a right to get the information that we need to make sure. But our agencies are on notice about how any of our programs or any of our operations are impacted, or not impacted, and so to the extent that they can be, then they\u2019re going to have a basis to be able to protect the people and the taxpayers from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

DeSantis added in that press conference that \u201cpeople forget CAIR was an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terror financing trial in the history of the United States of America. If there were any other situation where that happened, then people would be up in arms, but somehow that\u2019s something that just gets forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of it is financial,\u201d he went to say. \u201cThat\u2019s why I think a lawsuit is something that we very much welcome for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was a reference to a 2008\u00a0federal conviction<\/a>\u00a0of five former leaders of a U.S.-based Muslim charity named the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.<\/p>\n

CAIR had been\u00a0included in the list of un-indicted co-conspirators in the case<\/a>. The organization was not indicted, however, and on its website CAIR\u00a0says<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe U.S. Attorney who led the Holy Land Foundation case confirmed decisions to indict were based only on evidence and law\u2014not politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Florida Phoenix<\/a> is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow us:\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n

Recent Stories<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"University\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tThe State University System approved his three-year contract extension with a $600,000 base salary with a chance at a 20% performance bonus.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"New\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Charges\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tDave Decker faced charges of trespassing and resisting arrest despite showing press credentials.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

This article appears in Dec. 11 \u2013 17, 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\t