The chairman said Zayan had a First Amendment right to speak.<\/p>\n
“OK, I won’t listen to it,” Hall said, before walking out of the room. <\/p>\n
CAIR has spent decades positioning itself as the country’s leading Muslim civil rights organization. But state and federal Republican leaders’ attempts<\/a> to brand it as a terrorist front in recent months has tested CAIR’s legal standing and cast suspicion on the group or anyone who associates with it. The organization, which has chapters around the country, is now also fighting fraying trust inside some Muslim communities as mosque and nonprofit leaders decide whether standing by CAIR is worth potential risks — notably, in Texas. <\/p>\n Since Abbott’s foreign terrorist designation, Imran Ghani, operations manager for CAIR’s Houston chapter, said his office has dealt with stigma in some Muslim communities. While some Texas mosques and other groups have continued to invite CAIR speakers and collaborate on events, as they have regularly in the past, Ghani said at least a dozen Muslim groups in Houston have privately made it clear they are no longer willing to host the civil rights group. <\/p>\n “That’s exactly what the governor is intending to do: separate CAIR from the Muslim community, despite being a grassroots organization from within the Muslim community, and punish anybody that supports CAIR,” he said. <\/p>\n Founded in 1994, CAIR bills itself as the largest group defending the civil rights of American Muslims and has long been trusted by a range of American Muslim communities. The organization has brought major lawsuits fighting government overreach and has built coalitions with other prominent advocacy groups. It also lobbies elected officials, and through its 501(c)4 arm, CAIR Action, the group has engaged in electoral work.<\/p>\n But the Texas proclamation<\/a> announcing the terrorist designation for CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood and “any persons promoting or aiding their criminal activities” could make the groups subject to criminal penalties and “heightened enforcement,” according to the order.<\/span><\/p>\n The order also said affiliates would be prohibited from purchasing land, a particularly worrying provision for mosque leaders. <\/p>\n “Governor Abbott’s actions are targeted at radical groups like CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, who have proven ties to terrorism and seek to forcibly impose Sharia law on Texans,” Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary, said in an email to RNS on Friday (July 10). “Texans demand leaders who uphold the rule of law and relentlessly pursue those who threaten it. It’s shameful that these groups hide behind law-abiding members of their faith to deflect scrutiny from their own illegal conduct and activities.”<\/p>\n The governor’s administration has invoked that designation in several instances, including to<\/span> justify excluding<\/span><\/a> certain Islamic private schools from the state’s voucher program over alleged ties to CAIR. Parents and schools sued to be eligible for the program<\/a> earlier this year and secured admission to it<\/span> through the legal system.<\/span><\/p>\n The governor argued that CAIR “repeatedly employed, affiliated with, and supported individuals promoting terrorism-related activities” — allegations CAIR’s national and local affiliates have denied and are challenging in court.<\/p>\n The move came amid growing discriminatory rhetoric from political officials against Muslims in the state and beyond. <\/a><\/p>\n In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis also issued an executive order in January declaring CAIR a foreign terrorist organization. The group and its state chapter sued DeSantis in federal court and won an injunction in March,<\/a> but new state laws have expanded Florida’s authority to both label and punish groups that officials deem are security threats. In a July 1 lawsuit challenging the law<\/a>, lawyers for CAIR and CAIR-Florida wrote that the groups’ ”speech will be silenced, their doors will be shut, and they will be branded with the stigma of one of society’s most infamous labels.”<\/span><\/p>\n CAIR has long fought allegations linking it to terrorism and a plot to infiltrate the U.S. government. An often-repeated claim stems from a federal trial against a now-defunct charity, the Holy Land Foundation<\/a>. Five leaders of the group, who maintained they were involved in humanitarian work, were convicted in 2007 of diverting funds to Palestinian groups with ties to Hamas. <\/span><\/p>\n In the trial, CAIR was named as one of almost 250 unindicted co-conspirators, without explanation. <\/span>Critics have argued naming CAIR in the case was a legal tactic intended to allow prosecutors to introduce evidence but should have had no legal implications for CAIR. The group has denied the allegations.<\/span><\/p>\n “They listed any and everybody, prominent leaders — they were throwing a blanket, a cloud over the whole community,” said Mustafaa Carroll, interim executive director of CAIR-Texas, who sat in on much of the trial in Dallas nearly two decades ago. “The cloud followed us (CAIR) specifically.” <\/p>\n Carroll said the list was meant to “disable” Muslim communities and create distrust after the trial.<\/p>\n Almost 20 years later, he fears the governor’s order against CAIR is doing the same thing.<\/p>\n Asked about relations with CAIR since the terrorist designation, multiple Texas mosque leaders declined to speak with RNS on the record. However, several sources told RNS they’ve witnessed changes in mosque relationships with CAIR since last November.<\/p>\n Azfar Saeed, a longtime Friso, Texas, resident and former board member of the Islamic Center of Frisco, said he believes CAIR is being used as a political boogeyman for the Texas Republican Party, which has made Muslims a top target. <\/p>\n While campaigning for Mark Hill, a Republican elected as Frisco’s mayor in June, Saeed said CAIR came up repeatedly in conversations with voters. Hill ran in a tense runoff election against Republican Rod Vilhauer, who promised to drive out Frisco’s Muslim and Hindu residents. Instead of asking about Hill’s campaign issues, many residents questioned if Hill supported CAIR and Muslim residents. <\/p>\n “They (voters) are generalizing that all Muslims support CAIR, and CAIR supports terrorism, so Muslims are not good people,” Saeed said.<\/p>\n Saeed said he has spoken with Muslim leaders who have distanced themselves from CAIR out of fear that association with the group would expose their mosques to investigations or subpoenas. As many mosques operate month to month through community donations, they don’t have the resources to fight legal battles. <\/p>\n “They are playing it safe (to) see if this storm passes,” Saeed said. <\/p>\n Saeed Purcell, an Irving, Texas, resident and a CAIR-Texas board member, said CAIR is “the political hot potato right now.”<\/p>\n Purcell was part of conversations with leaders at the Islamic Center of Irving who were “reluctant to be too closely associated” with CAIR, he said. He left his position as outreach coordinator with the mosque in June for unrelated reasons, he said. Islamic Center of Irving leaders did not return requests for comment. <\/p>\n “They make decisions based on fear, running away from things they think could be negative,” he said. “And from my experience, running away from things often leads to a frying pan fire.”<\/p>\n Sameeha Rizvi, a civic engagement organizer with CAIR-Austin, said she has been invited to speak at Muslim conferences in Texas but has been asked not to publicize it until after the event. <\/p>\n “If they’re going to think that being any less Muslim, or any less associated with CAIR, is going make them safe, then what’s the point of being a Muslim organization or a Muslim in this country?” Rizvi asked.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/religionnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/webRNS-Greg-Abbott1.jpg\")
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