Texas Takes Legal Action Against Muslim Terrorist Organization

In 2014, a United States based pro-Muslim group that enjoyed close ties with the Obama administration was listed on one Arab nation’s list of terrorist organizations.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was one of 82 groups around the world designated terrorist organizations by the United Arab Emirates, placing it in the company of Al Qaeda, Islamic State and others.

CAIR has previously been linked to Hamas. However, it held hundreds of meetings with Obama White House officials on a wide range of community issues. It attempted to present itself as a mainstream Muslim organization.

In recent years, state lawmakers in Mississippi, Florida, Arizona and South Carolina have attempted to pass resolutions encouraging state agencies to suspend contact with CAIR.

Just before Christmas 2025, Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken legal action to defend Texas’s lawful designation of CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations under Texas law.

In a Proclamation on November 18, 2025, Governor Greg Abbott declared the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations.”

The Middle East Forum quickly acknowledged Abbott’s proclamation. It explicitly cited the Program on Extremism at George Washington University’s research into CAIR’s origins as a Hamas front group. It also noted that CAIR was named an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the largest terror financing prosecution in U.S. history—a case centered in Richardson, Texas.

“This is vindication,” said Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum, speaking from Dallas.

“For years, MEF has documented how CAIR—founded by convicted Hamas financier Ghassan Elashi, who is serving 65 years in federal prison—masquerades as a civil rights organization while maintaining its terror support infrastructure. Governor Abbott just shattered that facade with the force of law.”

The Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch and Focus on Western Islamism projects have systematically documented CAIR’s extremist network in Texas.

In 2025, MEF revealed Texas inadvertently funneled over $13 million to organizations with Muslim Brotherhood and Iranian regime ties.

In 2024, MEF’s investigation uncovered CAIR-Texas’s partnership to place radicalized students into positions of influence by 2036.

“CAIR has operated with impunity for far too long, hiding behind a veneer of civil rights activism while advancing the Muslim Brotherhood’s agenda,” said Benjamin Baird, director of MEF Action. “Governor Abbott’s designation strips away that disguise and exposes CAIR for what it truly is—an organization born from the Hamas network that continues to undermine American security. This is a watershed moment that other states must follow.”

The Dallas Fort Worth and Austin CAIR chapters then sued the State, claiming that the Proclamation “chilled” their First Amendment right to free speech.

Paxton’s office has now filed a response. It noted in part that the local CAIR councils rely entirely on speculative claims. They express political disagreement with the State’s national security determinations and laws. This reliance leaves their argument baseless.

“Radical Islamist terrorist groups are anti-American, and the infiltration of these dangerous individuals into Texas must be stopped,” said Attorney General Paxton.

“My office will continue to defend the Governor’s lawful, accurate declaration that CAIR is an FTO, as well as Texas’s right to protect itself from organizations with documented ties to foreign extremist movements.”

CAIR has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by Texas. It has also been designated by the State of Florida and the United Arab Emirates. An FBI special agent has labeled it as a “front group for Hamas.”

Paxton’s office informed Clever Journeys that they will continue “to work to identify and combat foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations that threaten public safety, American values, and national security.”