“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.” Governor Abbott said, explaining the designation.

Abbott added, “These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.”

Five days later, U.S. President Donald Trump directed the secretary of state and secretary of the treasury to evaluate designating Muslim Brotherhood chapters in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan as FTOs as a bulwark to his foreign policy.

These moves were followed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who, on December 8, 2025, designated the Brotherhood and CAIR as FTOs in Florida. DeSantis’ order directed state agencies to take “all lawful measures” against the two organizations, including denying them “contracts, employment, funding, or other public benefits or privileges” or receiving material support from them.

Can States Make a Foreign Terror Designation?

Under federal law, only the secretary of state can make national FTO designations. Understanding this limitation, the actions taken by the governors of Texas and Florida were framed to operate under state law.

Neither attempt to trigger federal criminal and immigration consequences or nationwide material-support prohibitions.​

In Texas, the designation made use of state penal and property codes for land bans and asset forfeiture. Florida specifically invokes state laws that don’t conflict with federal supremacy or First Amendment rights.

Both governors directed their state agencies to cut ties, deny contracts, funding and resources to the designated organizations, as well as to pursue lawful measures against material support to the organizations.

The Texas designation uniquely calls for proactive law enforcement actions such as investigations and subpoenas. It also prohibits the designated groups from purchasing land and enables asset forfeiture.

The Florida designation focuses solely on agency directives.

Why the Designation?

Both directives cite the history of the Muslim Brotherhood’s dedication to creating a global caliphate based on sharia (Islamic) law and the group’s history of spawning terror groups (i.e., Hamas and Al-Qaeda).

The impending federal designation is likely to have influenced Abbott’s decision to act on these groups at the present time. With the Muslim Brotherhood in the news, the state designations would not be looked upon by the general public as a “stretch.”

DeSantis’ order specifically mentioned the directive of President Trump to his secretaries of state and treasury to initiate a process leading to the designation of the Brotherhood as an FTO due to the organization’s connection to terror activities and funding.

Texas' Executive Order

In his executive order, Abbott quotes Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, who, almost 100 years ago, said,

“Jihad is an obligation from Allah on every Muslim and cannot be ignored nor evaded… [and means] … fighting of the unbelievers, and involves all possible efforts that are necessary to dismantle the power of the enemies of Islam including beating them, plundering their wealth, destroying their places of worship and smashing their idols…”

Abbott noted in his order that the FBI cited CAIR as being a “‘front group’ for ‘Hamas and its support network’ in the United States.”

The order quoted CAIR’s co-founder and executive director Nihad Awad as having “boasted that American Muslims are ‘ready to move to the next phase,’ and that within the next 15 years the Muslim community ‘will have 50,000—an army—of these people’ who ‘will design [Islam’s ] image, protect the truth and the news, … many of these people will run for public office, and they will become lawmakers’ to advance Sharia law in America.”

Just weeks after the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas against Israel, Awad said he “was happy to see” the assault, which also involved the kidnapping and murder of American citizens.

The executive order further delineated CAIR’s status as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) case, the largest terror-funding trial in American history. In 2008, leaders of the foundation – located in Texas – were convicted of funneling over $12 million to Hamas.

Abbott enumerated the CAIR officials, members or affiliates who funded or promoted terror, including:

• Ghassan Elashi, a founding board member of CAIR in Texas and the treasurer of HFL. Elashi was sentenced to 65 years in prison for terror financing
• Abdurahman Alamoudi, a speaker at a CAIR-sponsored anti-Israel rally in Washington, D.C. in October 2000 who proclaimed himself to be a “supporter of Hamas” and “a supporter of Hezbollah.” Alamouti was later convicted of funding Al Qaeda
• Randall Todd Royer, a communications specialist and civil rights coordinator for CAIR, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2004 for conspiring to aid Al Qaeda and the Taliban
• Bassem Khafagi, a community relations director for CAIR who pleaded guilty to federal bank and visa fraud in 2003 after funneling money to terrorist causes and publishing material advocating suicide attacks against the United States
• Rabih Haddad, a CAIR fundraiser who was arrested and deported for his work as the executive director of Global Relief Foundation, which was closed by the United States Department of Treasury in October 2002 for financing Al Qaeda
• Muthanna al-Hanooti, a CAIR director in Michigan who was convicted and sentenced to prison in 2011 for violating United States sanctions against Iraq by accepting “two million barrels of Iraqi oil” in exchange for helping Saddam Hussein’s government
• Sami Al-Arian, a convicted terrorist and Palestinian Islamic Jihad financier who CAIR publicly honored with its “Promoting Justice Award” in 2014

In 2017, Abbott signed into law a bill (HB 45) prohibiting the enforcement of foreign laws in Texas, including sharia law.

Texas Orgs Tied to the Muslim Brotherhood

Texas has the fifth-largest Muslim population in the United States. The most prominent Islamic organizations servicing Texas’ Muslims all have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and/or terror support. In addition to CAIR, those organizations:

• Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a Muslim Brotherhood front group listed on a 1991 internal Muslim Brotherhood document in a list of “organizations and the organizations of our friends.” Ahmed Elkadi, the president of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood from 1984-95, joined ISNA’s executive council in 1984.
• Muslim American Society (MAS), listed as one of the indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case. In 2011, after Americans killed Bin Laden, MAS issued a press release calling Bin Laden a visionary who believed in the possibility of an Islamic state in Afghanistan and praised the architect of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. In 2014, the United Arab Emirates designated MAS as a terrorist organization
• Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a Muslim Brotherhood front group identified in the 1991 Muslim Brotherhood internal document (see above). ICNA holds its annual convention jointly with MAS. In November 2013, former ICNA President and Secretary General Ashrafuzzaman Khan was convicted by an international war crimes tribunal and sentenced to death after he was found guilty of torture and murder of nine Dhaka University teachers, six journalists and three doctors during the 1971 war in which Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan. Khan belonged to the anti-Bangladesh Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing and moved to New York to work for ICNA after the war.
• American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), which grew out of the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), the original propaganda & media arm of the Palestine Committee. The Palestine COmmittee was established by the Brotherhood as the original Hamas infrastructure in the United States. AMP’s founder, Hatem Bazian, also founded Students for Justice in Palestine, the group responsible for the majority of campus antisemitism, violence against Jews and BDS initiatives at universities across America
• Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research, run by Islamist extremist Omar Suleiman, who promotes the Muslim Brotherhood’s goal of a global caliphate run by Sharia law. Suleiman says that “Zionists are the sincere enemies of God, His messengers, sincere followers of all religions, and humanity as a whole.” In reference to Israel, Suleiman stated, “May Allah destroy the oppressors”
• Emgage, a political action organization backed by George Soros that has teamed up with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), a prominent Muslim Brotherhood front group named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF case

Florida's Executive Order

Governor DeSantis’ executive order describes the Brotherhood as a “transnational network with a long history of engaging in or supporting violence, including political assassinations and terror attacks on civilians, for the purpose of establishing a world-wide Islamic caliphate and imposing its Islamist system of belief across the globe, including in the United States.”

The order notes that this ideology is irreconcilable with the foundational principles of America, including religious freedom and equal protection under the law.

DeSantis draws a straight line connecting the Brotherhood’s establishment of Hamas, the U.S.’ designation of Hamas as an FTO and the October 7, 2023 massacre and kidnapping by the terror group of American citizens.

Since that time, the order says, “organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas have had active fundraising arms in the United States, which have raised funds to support Hamas's terrorist attacks.”

DeSantis traces CAIR’s origin to the Palestine Committee, founded to support Hamas in America, to its designation as an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF terror-financing case. In addition, he notes, as Abbott enumerated, “individuals associated with CAIR have been convicted of providing, and conspiring to provide, material support to designated terrorist organizations.”

Florida Orgs tied to the Muslim Brotherhood

In addition to CAIR, the following Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations operate in Florida:

• MAS, which has been associated with the Brotherhood (see above), has a presence in Florida, maintaining chapters in Central Florida and Tampa
• Islamic Relief USA (IRUSA), which is the American branch of Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW), headquartered in the UK. IRW was designated as a terrorist organization by the UAE in 2014 and banned in Israel for funneling millions of dollars a year to Hamas. Although IRUSA claims it is a legally separate and independent affiliate of IRW, the groups share leadership and resources. Three IRW offices were documented as having a confirmed relationship with a Hamas affiliate in Turkey. At the same time, IRUSA said it was delivering aid to Syria “through Islamic Relief partner offices in Turkey,” suggesting that the organization also works with the same affiliate. In 2020, a director at Islamic Relief stepped down after praising Hamas and making antisemitic social media posts. Shortly afterwards, the entire board resigned after another trustee’s pro-terrorist & antisemitic posts were uncovered.
• ICNA Relief, which has been cited by multiple sources as being a sub-organization of ICNA (see above). ICNA Relief has also been identified as one of the major branches of amaat-e-Islami, which was banned by India due to links to terrorists. ICNA Relief’s websites have featured links to Hamas and Hezbollah. ICNA itself has institutional and ideological links to Jamaat-e-Islami (see above)
• Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD), which is ICNA’s overseas “humanitarian” wing. HHRD was the subject of a federal U.S. Inspector General review and has received congressional scrutiny over its ties to Pakistan’s Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
• Human Appeal, a UK-based international development and relief charity. A 1996 CIA report identified Human Appeal as a Hamas front, and a 2003 FBI assessment stated it had "close links" to Hamas. In 2008, Israel banned the organization for its links to Hamas's fundraising apparatus.
• Emgage (see above)