CAIR Sues Florida Governor Over Terrorism Designation, Calls Law “Baseless”

CAIR filed the lawsuit on Thursday in partnership with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center, describing the new law as “baseless.”

The organization said the designation exposes it to “immediate and irreparable harm, including the shuttering of all their operations and advocacy in the state.”

Florida has also designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization, despite the group having no known operations in the United States or a centralized global headquarters. The state has also listed “antifa,” the anti-fascist movement, which has no defined organizational structure or location.

“Officials can brand nonprofit corporations with debilitating stigma and then use an array of state authorities to immediately silence and incapacitate the organization, its employees, its members, and a wide range of others associated with the group through extraordinarily broad and severe criminal, civil, and administrative penalties,” CAIR said.

Governor DeSantis has also recommended that 90 other groups be designated under the new terrorism law, including Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the Venezuela-based criminal gang Tren de Aragua, and Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel.

The designation stems from House Bill 1471, which was passed by the Florida Legislature in March. DeSantis signed the measure into law in April, and it took effect on July 1.

DeSantis had previously attempted to blacklist CAIR through an executive order signed in December, but a federal judge blocked the order earlier this year.

“The question before this Court is whether the Governor can, in a non-emergency situation, unilaterally designate one of the largest Muslim civil rights groups in America as a ‘terrorist organization’ and withhold government benefits from anyone providing material support or resources to the group,” Judge Mark Walker wrote in his ruling.

“This Court finds he cannot.”

CAIR is now seeking an emergency injunction to halt enforcement of HB 1471.

The law states that providing support to designated terrorist organizations may result in criminal liability and specifies that religious codes, which may otherwise receive First Amendment protections, do not supersede Florida law.

CAIR and its legal partners argue in the lawsuit that the designation process “contains no requirement that notice to the designated group include all the reasons for the designation and all the material evidence—inculpatory and exculpatory—that state decisionmakers may rely on to make or approve the designation. It does not require the State to prove or even provide evidence that the organization violated any law.”

Hiba Rahim, interim executive director for CAIR-Florida, speaking in Tampa on Dec. 16, 2025. (Photo by Mitch Perry/Florida Phoenix)

Muslim Brotherhood

CAIR is a U.S.-based nonprofit organization that advocates for civil liberties and relies on public donations to support its work.

While executive orders targeting the organization were in effect in both Florida and Texas, CAIR was prevented from purchasing land and entering into government contracts, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, the organization’s deputy director in Washington, D.C., previously told Middle East Eye.

In both states, the Muslim Brotherhood was also designated as a terrorist organization.

Republican lawmakers, led most prominently by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, have argued that the Muslim Brotherhood maintains influential ties to CAIR and seeks to impose Sharia law in the United States.

CAIR has consistently rejected those accusations, maintaining that its funding comes overwhelmingly from donations made by the American public, both Muslim and non-Muslim.

The Muslim Brotherhood is currently designated as a terrorist organization in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.

At the federal level in the United States, President Donald Trump ordered terrorism designations for Muslim Brotherhood branches operating in Egypt, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Critics have long argued that blacklisting the political movement is intended to ensure it no longer poses a challenge to monarchies and authoritarian governments across the Middle East.

Cruz has argued that the Muslim Brotherhood, whose popularity remains strong in parts of the Arab world because of its blend of Islamic religious tradition, political activism, and social welfare programs, poses a threat to U.S. national security.

Middle East Eye previously posed that question to George Washington University professor Nathan Brown, an expert on Middle East politics and a member of the Board of Trustees at the American University in Cairo.

Asked in what ways the Muslim Brotherhood threatens U.S. national security, Brown responded:

“None at all.”