The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has filed a federal lawsuit against Texas Governor Greg Abbott after he “falsely declared” CAIR’s Texas chapter a “foreign terrorist organisation”.

The lawsuit, which also targets Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, seeks to block Abbott’s designation of the group as a “terrorist organisation”, arguing it is both “unconstitutional and defamatory”.

Recommended Stories

list of 4 itemsend of list

CAIR General Counsel Lena Masri said in a statement on Thursday, announcing the joint lawsuit with the Muslim Legal Fund of America, that the group had won three cases against Abbott for his efforts 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,” Masri said.

“No civil rights organisations 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,” she said.

CAIR, which was founded in 1994, is the largest Muslim civil rights organisation in the United States, with chapters in most states. It has been among the most vocal critics of US involvement in Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Abbott, a staunch supporter of Israel, has repeatedly taken aim at pro-Palestinian advocates, including students protesting at Texas universities.

Abbott, a member of the Republican Party, announced on Tuesday that he was designating CAIR as a “foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organisation” in a post on X, where he also said he was doing the same for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Advertisement

The designation bans both groups from buying or acquiring land in Texas and authorises the state to pursue legal action to shut down their activities, Abbott said.

In April 2024, Abbott said that pro-Palestinian student protesters at the University of Texas at Austin “belong in jail”, earning a sharp rebuke from CAIR for violating the students’ rights to free speech.

“The First Amendment applies to the State of Texas, whether Greg Abbott likes it or not,” CAIR said in a post on X at the time.

The First Amendment to the US Constitution guarantees rights including freedom of religion, speech, the press and assembly.

Democrats and other civil rights organisations have condemned the Texas governor’s “terrorism” designation for CAIR, and US representative Ilhan Omar called Abbott a “bigot” who “should have no place in elected office”.

“The normalisation of anti-Muslim hate speech is vile,” Omar wrote in a post on social media.

The Texas Democratic Party also slammed the designation, describing it as “dangerous, racist, and Islamophobic”.

“While Greg Abbott and the Republicans claim to follow the Constitution, they would trample on someone’s First Amendment rights when they don’t agree with or worship with them,” the party said in a statement.