CAIR Sues Abbott, Paxton to Block 'Foreign Terrorist' Label

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton to stop Texas from designating their group as a “foreign terrorist organization."

"CAIR-Texas and the Texas Muslim community are standing up for our constitutional rights by directly confronting Greg Abbott’s lawless attack on our civil rights. We are not and will not be intimidated by smear campaigns launched by Israel First politicians like Mr. Abbott," CAIR-Texas said in a statement.

"Mr. Abbott is defaming us and other American Muslims because we are effective advocates for justice here and abroad. We plan to continue exercising our constitutional rights, defending civil rights, and speaking truth to power, whether in defense of free speech, religious freedom and racial equality here in Texas or in defense of human rights abroad."

Abbott on Tuesday signed a proclamation declaring the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations in Texas.

"The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s 'mastership of the world,'" Abbott said in a statement. 

"The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable," he added.

CAIR is the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights advocacy organization.

The State Department does not list the Muslim Brotherhood or CAIR as terrorist groups.

CAIR Litigation Director and General Counsel Lena Masri in a statement said CAIR Legal Defense Fund “has successfully sued and defeated Texas Governor Greg Abbott the last three times he tried to violate the First Amendment by punishing critics of the Israeli government.

"The lawsuit we have filed today is our first step towards defeating Governor Abbott again so that our nation protects free speech and due process for all Americans. No civil rights organizations are safe if a governor can baselessly and unilaterally declare any of them terrorist groups, ban them from buying land, and threaten them with closure. We have beaten Greg Abbott’s attacks on the First Amendment before, and God willing, we will do it again now," she added.

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