{"id":76947,"date":"2025-12-05T06:06:31","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:06:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/76947\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T06:06:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T06:06:31","slug":"standoff-over-terrorist-label-heats-up-between-texas-gov-greg-abbott-and-muslim-rights-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/76947\/","title":{"rendered":"Standoff over \u2018terrorist\u2019 label heats up between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Muslim rights group"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN \u2014 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott keeps raising the stakes in his increasingly tense standoff with the country\u2019s largest organization focused on advocating for the civil rights of Muslims \u2014 asking the federal government in a letter this week to remove the group\u2019s tax-exempt status.<\/p>\n

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, immediately lashed back, calling Abbott \u201cafraid\u201d because his targeting of CAIR is unconstitutional and saying he is \u201cdesperate\u201d to carry out his campaign against them.<\/p>\n

The escalation between the Republican governor and the 31-year-old organization was triggered by Abbott\u2019s November proclamation<\/a> declaring CAIR a foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organization.<\/a> CAIR has filed a court challenge<\/a> and calls Abbott\u2019s efforts \u201ca witch hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abbott also called for investigations<\/a> by the Texas attorney general, the Department of Public Safety and district attorneys and sheriffs of North Texas into groups in Collin and Dallas counties that he suspects of being \u201cSharia tribunals masquerading as legal courts\u201d and enforcing Shariah \u2014 which is illegal in both Texas and the United States.<\/p>\n

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\u201cLegal disputes in Texas must be decided based on American law rooted in the fundamental principles of American due process, not according to Sharia law dispensed in modern day star chambers,\u201d Abbott said in the Nov. 19 proclamation.<\/p>\n

According to the Immigration and Nationality Act<\/a>, only the U.S. secretary of state, in consultation with the attorney general and secretary of the treasury, can officially designate foreign terrorist organizations.<\/p>\n

In his Dec. 2 letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Abbott asked that the treasury department investigate the group and suspend its status as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization because \u201cfederal investigators and court filings identify CAIR as a direct subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood and as a \u2018front group\u2019 for Hamas in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAccordingly, I respectfully request that you investigate CAIR for suspension of its tax-exempt status,\u201d the letter reads.<\/a> \u201cAmericans have generous hearts, and federal law wisely creates incentives to donate to nonprofit organizations that promote the public good. But charity must not become a backdoor to sponsor terrorism, endanger Americans, and subvert our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, CAIR officials sent their own letter to Bessent, signed by CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, in which he says Abbott targets CAIR for its support of Palestinian human rights that often contradicts with the political beliefs of conservative supporters of Israel, among other reasons. <\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Abbott has every right to disagree with CAIR\u2019s support for free speech and Palestinian human rights,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cHowever, he does not have the right to trigger witch hunts into American organizations he disagrees with based on debunked conspiracy theories.\u201d<\/p>\n

During Abbott\u2019s initial proclamation, the governor referenced a 2008 trial surrounding the Richardson-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the nation\u2019s largest Muslim charity before it was shut down by the government<\/a> in 2001.<\/p>\n

After a mistrial, a jury found the group guilty<\/a> of giving millions of dollars to schools, hospitals and social welfare programs controlled by Hamas. Leaders were found guilty<\/a> of tax fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n

As part of the trial, the government publicly named over 300 people and American Muslim organizations, including CAIR, as \u201cunindicted co-conspirators.\u201d <\/p>\n

The groups were not given the chance to hear the evidence against them or defend themselves in court, The New York Times<\/a> reported at the time. The documents released during that trial \u201cplainly identified CAIR as a subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood\u201d and an associate of Hamas, Abbott said in the proclamation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN \u2014 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott keeps raising the stakes in his increasingly tense standoff with the country\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,1881,392,287,1968],"class_list":{"0":"post-76947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-austin","8":"tag-austin","9":"tag-austin-headlines","10":"tag-austin-news","11":"tag-faith","12":"tag-greg-abbott","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-religion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76947","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=76947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}