By Ian M. Giatti, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, January 21, 2026Quick SummaryAI SummaryTexas school district won’t host Islamic sporting event over CAIR sponsorship.Event initially scheduled for May 9 to 10 at Collin College Heritage High.Gov. Abbott designated CAIR as a terrorist organization last year, prompting lawsuit.
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The Texas State Capitol is seen on September 20, 2021, in Austin, Texas. | Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images
A Texas school district has cut ties with an Islamic-themed athletic competition over a donation made by a Muslim advocacy organization designated by Gov. Greg Abbott as a terrorist group.
The Dallas Islamic Games were scheduled to be held at Colleyville Heritage High in Colleyville, a suburb of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, on May 9 to 10, according to the event’s website, which also lists several other U.S. cities — written in English and Arabic — including Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles.
The listing for the Dallas event features scheduled competitions in basketball, volleyball, flag football, track, martial arts, swimming, and cricket. On the event page, over 60 sponsors were listed, including Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) New Jersey, whose logo was removed following backlash on social media.
A spokeswoman for the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District told The Christian Post Tuesday that the district was aware of a “facility rental request” that had not been finalized.
“On January 19, GCISD was made aware that an organization listed as a sponsor of the Islamic Games in North Texas has been declared a Terrorist Organization by the Governor of Texas,” spokeswoman Nicole Lyons told CP. “Thus, GCISD provided notice that it is severing the negotiations for the use of District properties for the 2026 Islamic Games.”
However, the location was still listed on the event’s website on Tuesday. The Islamic Games website no longer features the CAIR logo. It’s not clear whether Grapevine-Colleyville ISD approved the event before the launch of the Islamic Games website.
Salaudeen Nausrudeen, president of Islamic Games, told the Fort Worth Report that the “sporting event for children is being targeted,” adding that the CAIR New Jersey chapter made a “one-time, in-kind contribution consisting solely of complimentary drawstring bags, which were distributed to athletes as part of event materials.” He argued the donation didn’t “constitute sponsorship, endorsement, or partnership between parties.”
“It is our hope that better minds prevail,” he said.
Several Republican lawmakers spoke out on social media about CAIR’s involvement with the event, including Rep. Jeff Leach, who announced the Islamic games “will not be taking place at any district properties or facilities in May.”
In November, Abbott designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations, asserting both groups “have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world.’”
Abbott’s letter to law enforcement designated the organizations “foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations.”
As part of the proclamation, Texas Department of Public Safety agents are working with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces to “gather intelligence and initiate investigations into potential violations of state and federal law” involving “any group conspiring to engage in criminal activities or seeking to establish or promote a breeding ground for extremist Islamic radicalism that violates Texas law.”
Abbott’s proclamation stated that the Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Islamist organization that has provided support to localized branches in other countries that “conduct terrorism internationally.” Specific branches of the Muslim Brotherhood “have been designated by the United States Department of State as Specifically Designated Global Terrorist Entities.”
As for CAIR, Abbott cited FBI information finding that it was initially founded as a “front group” for the Palestinian terror organization Hamas to raise support in the U.S.
“CAIR was named an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ in one of the largest successful prosecutions of terrorism financing in United States history, where internal documents plainly identified CAIR as a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood and a federal court eventually found ‘ample evidence to establish’ that CAIR was associated ‘with Hamas,'” the proclamation reads.
In response to the executive order, the Muslim Legal Fund of America (MLFA) and the CAIR Legal Defense Fund (CAIR LDF) filed a federal lawsuit to block enforcement of Abbott’s “unconstitutional and defamatory” proclamation, claiming it was enacted with no due process. The organization also maintains that it has condemned terror attacks as “far back as the 1990s” and is completely separate from any international affiliates.
“Governor Abbott’s proclamation is defamatory and finds no basis in law or fact, and Plaintiffs therefore ask this Court to declare the Proclamation illegal, and enjoin its enforcement,” the lawsuit reads.
“Despite years of smear campaigns, the fact remains that CAIR, through its affiliates,
including Plaintiffs, are independent American nonprofits that operate in full compliance
with all federal, state, and local laws.”
According to the event’s rules page, the Islamic Games require participants and attendees to “follow Islamic etiquettes” and to adhere to a “modest” dress code. The rules also mandate a “stoppage of play” for Islamic prayers throughout the event.
A Houston event is scheduled for October at Bridgeland High School in Cypress. It’s unclear whether that event will proceed as planned.