{"id":58937,"date":"2025-11-21T06:37:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/58937\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T06:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:37:16","slug":"muslim-civil-rights-group-sues-texas-governor-over-terrorist-label","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/58937\/","title":{"rendered":"Muslim civil rights group sues Texas governor over ‘terrorist’ label"},"content":{"rendered":"

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) \u2014 A Muslim civil rights group that Texas\u2019 governor labeled<\/a> a \u201cforeign terrorist organization\u201d filed a lawsuit challenging the move Thursday, saying it violates the U.S. Constitution and state law.<\/p>\n

The Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked a federal judge to strike down the proclamation Gov. Greg Abbott issued Tuesday, which also labeled the group \u201ca transnational criminal organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis attempt to punish the nation\u2019s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization simply because Governor Abbott disagrees with its views is not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law,\u201d the group said in its lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.<\/p>\n

Founded in 1994, CAIR has 25 chapters around the country. It has eight employees and two independent contractors in Texas, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The proclamation also included the Muslim Brotherhood<\/a>. Neither the CAIR nor the Muslim Brotherhood is designated as<\/a> a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

Abbott\u2019s proclamation declares that CAIR is prohibited from purchasing or acquiring land in the state, citing a law he signed this year targeting \u201cforeign adversaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In its lawsuit, CAIR said the governor\u2019s proclamation relies on \u201cinflammatory statements that have no basis in fact\u201d and cherry-picks statements from people affiliated with the group to portray it as supporting terrorism.<\/p>\n

Months ago, Texas Republicans moved aggressively to try to stop a Muslim-centered planned community<\/a> around one of the state\u2019s largest mosques near Dallas. Abbott and other GOP state officials launched investigations into the development tied to the East Plano Islamic Center, saying the group is trying to create a Muslim-exclusive community that would impose Islamic law.<\/p>\n

EPIC City representatives called the attacks about Islamic law and other assertions misleading, dangerous and without merit. Earlier this year, the Justice Department closed a federal civil rights investigation<\/a> into the planned community without filing any charges or lawsuits. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) \u2014 A Muslim civil rights group that Texas\u2019 governor labeled a \u201cforeign terrorist organization\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[132,2919,12918,102,116,490,392,2918,11672,9850,2894,28061,30481,287,1968,7096,27,29,28,1760,1499,17269],"class_list":["post-58937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-austin","tag-civil-rights","tag-constitutional-law","tag-dallas","tag-fort-worth","tag-general-news","tag-greg-abbott","tag-human-rights","tag-islam","tag-lawsuits","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-muslim-brotherhood","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-terrorism","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}