Council on American-Islamic Relations (<\/a>CAIR) and the Muslim Legal Fund of America as foreign terrorist organizations.<\/p>\nTheir message was clear; the designation is harmful, unlawful and rooted in claims they say have no basis in Texas law.<\/p>\n
The event opened with remarks from community members who said the governor\u2019s proclamation has instilled fear, stigmatized Muslim Texans, and made civic participation harder.<\/p>\n
CAIR-DFW and the Muslim Legal Fund of America stood alongside interfaith leaders as they announced a lawsuit challenging Abbott\u2019s action.<\/p>\n
Mustafaa Carroll, the executive director of CAIR\u2019s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter, said the groups filed suit almost immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not only contrary to the U.S. Constitution but finds no support in Texas law,\u201d Carroll said.<\/p>\n
Abbott\u2019s proclamation designates the organizations as foreign terrorist entities and bars them from buying or acquiring land in Texas.<\/p>\n
In his written statement last week, Abbott said in part, \u201cThe Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam\u2019s \u2018mastership of the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The proclamation cites the Muslim Brotherhood\u2019s international influence, Sharia law, and past and current leadership as justification.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t Abbott\u2019s first move involving Islamic governance. In September, the governor announced a ban on so-called \u201cSharia cities,\u201d specifically blocking Epic City, a proposed mixed-use development in Collin County.<\/p>\n
Brian Owsley, an associate professor at UNT Dallas College of Law Legal said Abbott\u2019s move raises serious constitutional issues, and the designation may be outside the governor\u2019s power.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis declaration is about foreign terrorists, and that type of activity is arguably for the federal government to handle,\u201d Owsley said.<\/p>\n
Owsley added that the proclamation could also face First Amendment challenges.<\/p>\n
The groups suing Abbott say the proclamation is dangerous, escalates anti-Muslim rhetoric, and harms the safety of the communities they serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor\u2019s proclamation doesn\u2019t make Texans safer, it only stigmatizes them,\u201d one speaker said.<\/p>\n
They hope their message, and their lawsuit, send a clear signal beyond the walls of Tuesday\u2019s gathering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAIR-DFW and the Muslim Legal Fund of America stood alongside interfaith leaders as they announced a lawsuit challenging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":{"0":"post-65185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-plano","9":"tag-plano-headlines","10":"tag-plano-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65185","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=65185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}