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By Simon Crerar
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Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has announced that his state is designating the Muslim Brotherhood and Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as “foreign terrorist organizations,” directing state agencies to cut off support to anyone who backs them.
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In a post to X from his official account Monday evening, DeSantis wrote: “EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY Florida is designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations,” adding that Florida agencies must “undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organizations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support.”
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In a separate post from his personal X account, the governor said members of the Florida legislature “are crafting legislation to stop the creep of sharia law,” adding that he hopes lawmakers “codify these protections for Floridians against CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood in their legislation.”
Why It Matters
Florida’s move comes just weeks after Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a proclamation labeling both the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR “foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations,” a step described as an unprecedented escalation in state-level efforts to police Muslim advocacy activities.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Sunni Islamist movement founded in Egypt, while CAIR is an American Islamic civil rights and advocacy nonprofit. Abbott’s Texas proclamation was designed to enable “heightened enforcement” against the groups and prevent them from buying land in the state.
The federal government has never officially designated either the Muslim Brotherhood or CAIR as terrorist organizations, despite multiple bills in Congress and political pressure to do so.
By invoking the same “foreign terrorist organization” label that the federal government applies to groups such as Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles – recently designated by Washington in a move that allows sweeping sanctions, asset freezes and penalties on those who do business with it – Florida is aligning itself with a hard-line approach to Muslim organizations even though its designation does not change the federal government’s terrorism lists.
What To Know
DeSantis’ announcement hinges on two public steps so far: his “effective immediately” declaration on X that Florida is designating the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations, and his directive that state agencies “undertake all lawful measures” to block “unlawful activities” by the groups and “deny privileges or resources to anyone providing material support.”
CAIR, which describes itself as “the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization,” responded to the tweets by announcing plans to sue DeSantis over what it called a “defamatory and unconstitutional” order “baselessly smearing the group as [a] foreign terrorist organization.”
In a joint statement from its national office and Florida chapter, CAIR accused DeSantis of prioritizing "the Israeli government over serving the people of Florida,” pointing to his decision to hold his first official Cabinet meeting in Israel, saying "he diverted millions in Florida taxpayer dollars to the Israeli government’s bonds,” and threatened to shut down Students for Justice in Palestine chapters on Florida campuses, “only to back off when CAIR sued him."
The group called DeSantis “an Israel First politician who wants to smear and silence Americans, especially American Muslims, critical of U.S. support for Israel’s war crimes,” insisting that “CAIR-Florida is an American civil rights organization that has spent decades advancing free speech, religious freedom, and justice for all, including for the Palestinian people.”
CAIR said it looks forward to defeating what it described as the governor’s “latest Israel First stunt in a court of law” and urged “all Floridians and all Americans to speak up against this latest attempt to shred the Constitution for the benefit of a foreign government.”
What Happens Next
Trump’s executive order regarding certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters noted that the secretaries of State and Treasury must first produce a report on whether specific chapters meet the criteria for designation as foreign terrorist organizations and global terrorists, and that if they decide designations are warranted they must act within a defined time frame. That formal process sits alongside state-level proclamations like those in Texas and now Florida, which are already prompting court challenges over where governors’ powers end and federal terrorism law begins.
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