The clash between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) escalated this week after Abbott urged the U.S. Treasury Department to revoke the group’s tax-exempt status. His request comes just weeks after he deemed CAIR a foreign terrorist organization.
In a Dec. 2 letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Abbott, a Republican, said federal investigators have identified CAIR as “a direct subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood and as a ‘front group’ for Hamas in the U.S.” He asked the department to examine whether federal nonprofit law is being misused as “a backdoor to sponsor terrorism, endanger Americans, and subvert democracy.”
CAIR denounced the request as politically motivated and, in its own letter to Bessent, accused Abbott of retaliating against the organization for its positions on Israel and Palestine.
“Governor Abbott has every right to disagree with CAIR’s support for free speech and Palestinian human rights,” the letter states. “However, he does not have the right to trigger witch hunts into American organizations he disagrees with based on debunked conspiracy theories.”
The conflict erupted last month when Abbott issued a proclamation labeling CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood “foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.” According to the Houston Chronicle, the designation triggers enhanced criminal penalties and bars both groups from purchasing or acquiring land in the state.
“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 press release. He later added, “These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.”
Abbott also directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and Attorney General Ken Paxton to investigate possible criminal violations by Sharia tribunals operating in the state. He accused these bodies of “masquerading as legal ‘courts’” and illegally attempting to preempt state and federal law.
CAIR responded Nov. 20 by suing Abbott and Paxton, calling the proclamation “defamatory” and alleging violations of the First Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, and property rights protections. The group argues Abbott’s proclamation has no factual or legal basis.
“This attempt to punish the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization simply because Governor Abbott disagrees with its views is not only contrary to the United States Constitution,” the suit states, “but finds no support in any Texas law.”
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