12/18/25 Reposted from miamiherald.com
The national Muslim civil rights group suing Gov. Ron DeSantis over his recent executive order labeling it as a foreign terrorist organization says his action was “clearly retaliatory” and threatens the organization’s ability to exist in Florida.
In the lawsuit, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as CAIR, states that its advocacy for Palestinian human rights — including its role in defending “pro-Palestinian speech” on college campuses — and criticism of Israel’s government stand in direct opposition to the governor’s viewpoints.
“After over 25 years of being in Florida, all of a sudden, we’re illegal? I think we would have been in trouble a long time ago, but our record’s impeccable. Our relationships speak for themselves, even in the lawsuit,” said Omar Saleh, civil rights managing attorney for CAIR-Florida, pointing to its legal partners, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Muslim Legal Fund of America.
Founded in 1994, CAIR, which is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with 25 affiliated chapters across the country, is known as the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.
CAIR’s work ranges from tracking anti-Muslim incidents and statements — like recent remarks from a U.S. Senator who claimed America is “at war” with Muslim immigrants — to condemning violence resulting from hate crimes and representing clients in religious discrimination lawsuits.
While most Muslim civil rights organizations are considered pro-Palestinian, CAIR has been unabashed in their support of Palestinian rights — a position that CAIR says puts a target on its back.
“We’re probably the most vocal Muslim organization for Palestine,” said Saleh. “I believe the most vocal and arguably effective in conveying messages and affecting change is CAIR-Florida. People, including the governor, they can’t stand it.”
This is not the first time that CAIR has taken Florida officials to court.
In the lawsuit, CAIR states that its prior involvement in a lawsuit representing college chapters of a pro-Palestinian group is part of what is driving the governor’s order.
In November 2023, CAIR National and CAIR-Florida sued Florida officials, including DeSantis, challenging state directives ordering the deactivation of Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at Florida public universities.
The issues sparked dueling lawsuits and prompted questions about free speech and safety on college campuses.
Part of the issue, according to religious studies and politics professor Iqbal Akhtar, is that advocating for Palestinian rights can be seen as a threat to the pro-Israel stance of the Jewish community and right-wing politicians.
“They feel that America and Israel need to stand together strongly, and they feel that the Palestinian issue is driving a wedge, essentially between that relationship,” said Akhtar, who also teaches international relations at Florida International University. “And CAIR is one of the leading American Muslim organizations that is engaged in Palestinian advocacy.”
CAIR has maintained that it is able to vocally stand up for Palestinian rights without doing so at the expense of other groups, including Israelis and Jews.
What is the Holy Land Foundation?
CAIR is not labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, which is the only entity that can designate an organization as a foreign terrorist group, according to lawyers who spoke with the Miami Herald.
DeSantis’ order does, however, point to CAIR’s involvement in a contentious terrorism financing case as justification for his designation.
In the early 2000s, CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in a case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a defunct Muslim charity organization based in Texas.
The Holy Land Foundation was the largest Muslim charity in the United States until it was shut down by the Bush administration and designated as a terrorist organization in the wake of 9/11.
Its leaders were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization (Hamas), and several other charges including supporting terrorism, money laundering and tax fraud.
In 2007, a filing by the prosecution was unsealed, leaking the names of over 240 individuals and entities — which included most major U.S. Muslim organizations — and listing them as unindicted co-conspirators and/or joint venturers. The government later called this move an “unfortunate oversight,” in the case, and some of the organizations later appealed the issue, saying it violated their Fifth Amendment rights.
To this day, CAIR says that the inclusion of its name on the list is an “unproven allegation with no weight and no consequence,” or simply put, the “legal equivalent of gossip.”
“CAIR has never been indicted and can attest to the enormous reputational damage done by the inclusion on the massive list,” the organization said on its website.
The HLF case has been criticized by some in the legal community over the validity of the evidence used in the convictions and concerns about due process. Some have even called for the pardoning of the five men who were convicted and sentenced to prison.
Since 9/11, the United States government has cracked down on organizations seen as “financing terrorism,” making the HLF case a pivotal moment for Muslim organizations, said FIU professor Akhtar.
“It forced American Muslim organizations to clarify what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and make it transparent and accountable,” Akhtar said.
Will DeSantis’ terrorism order stick?
Some legal experts say that DeSantis’ order may be struck down as unconstitutional in courts, saying it violates the First Amendment.
DeSantis seems to be following in the footsteps of Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who, last month, took a similar step against CAIR. The order is now being challenged in federal court as an unconstitutional effort to punish the organization simply because of its views.
FIU law professor Cyra Akila Choudhury said there may be other motives behind the executive orders, even if they are challenged in courts.
Choudhury said orders like these act as signals “to those people who already hold those kinds of views that they can then discriminate with a degree of impunity.”
Discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Arabs in America are at an all time high, and moves like this — though political in nature — have a negative impact on the lives of American Muslims, said Choudhury.
“Those of us who are in the community feel more vulnerable, we have to be more careful, and we also have to deal with more incivility, more racial harassment on a regular basis,” she said.
It also leads to misinformation, she said. There’s an idea, for example, that all Muslims are trying to impose Shari’a Law on to non-Muslims that is being circulated on social media lately.
In October, state Rep. Hillary Cassel, a Broward Republican who once served in the state House as a Democrat, filed a bill called “No Shari’a Act,” which bans Florida courts or other agencies from basing decisions on Shari’a law — a legal system and code of conduct derived from the Quran — or other foreign legal systems.
Critics have said that the bill is unnecessary — religious law cannot trump secular law in America — and is designed to foment anti-Muslim sentiment and stir up hate towards Muslim neighbors.
Choudhury said she thinks the order, which will have to be defended in court, is a “waste of taxpayer money” and a distraction from other challenges facing Floridians, including rising healthcare costs and an ongoing affordability crisis.
“Why do these theatrics instead of tackling the very real problems in the state? We have all kinds of problems,” Choudhury said. “Why waste your time on this, other than to distract people from all of the things that the administration is not not doing.”
