ORLANDO, Fla. – State leaders with the Council on American-Islamic Relations say the last 24 hours have been disappointing.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday designated both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations.
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“This type of language is causing a lot of division, and that is the intention,” said Hiba Rahim, interim executive director of CAIR-Florida.
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DeSantis’ order instructs Florida agencies to prevent CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood and those who provide them material support from receiving contracts, employment and funds from a state executive or cabinet agency.
The directive came in an executive order DeSantis posted on the social media site X. Neither CAIR nor the Muslim Brotherhood is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
CAIR was founded in 1994 with a mission to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims. It now has 25 chapters around the country.
Florida has an estimated 500,000 Muslim residents, according to CAIR. DeSantis’ designation followed a similar step by Texas last month.
Rahim said she wasn’t surprised when Florida followed suit, but she’s concerned about what this could mean for safety.
“We certainly suspect and worry there will be another increase in anti-Muslimism bigotry and hate crimes,” Rahim told News4JAX.
During a news conference on Tuesday, Rahim said the governor’s executive order against CAIR was an attack based on conspiracy theories, similar to those aimed in past decades at other minority groups like Jewish, Irish and Italian Americans that created fear and division.
“From a government level, we have seen a very sharp increase in Israel-first politicians,” Rahim said.
Rahim blamed DeSantis’ support for Israel as a reason for the executive order because she said the group’s activism had caused “discomfort” to Israel. In October, the group played an active role in advocating for the release of a 16-year-old Palestinian-American from Florida who had been held in an Israeli prison for eight months. Mohammed Ibrahim was released last month.
“We will not back down here,” said Rahim, vowing to sue.
DeSantis said Tuesday that he welcomes a lawsuit from CAIR because it would allow the state to dig further into their financial records as part of the discovery process.
“I welcome the lawsuit, because what will happen is that will give the state of Florida discovery rights to be able to subpoena the bank records,” DeSantis said. “They have every right to sue, and then we’re going to have a right to get the information that we need.”
Rahim said she hopes Floridians don’t believe everything they hear and that they research their organization and the brotherhood to form their own opinion.
CAIR FL says they plan to file a joint lawsuit with the national organization soon and will wait for what to do from there.
“We are very proud to defend the founding principles of our Constitution, to defend free speech,” Rahim said. “We are proud to defend democracy, and we are proud to be America first.”
NewsJAX reached out to the city of Jacksonville for comment and to also speak with Parvez Ahmed, who is the city’s Chief of Analytics and a former national chairman for CAIR.
He stepped down in 2008, citing a disagreement over the direction of the organization, according to a 2010 article by the Florida Times-Union.
Mayor Donna Deegan said in a statement: “Dr. Parvez Ahmed ended his affiliation with CAIR almost 20 years ago over disagreements with the group. He’s an outstanding public servant who works tirelessly to move our city forward.”
DeSantis said he expects state lawmakers to push “follow-on legislation” on the issue during the regular session that starts in January.
“So I think our executive order is kind of the beginning,” he said.
Tampa attorney Miranda Margolis said the governor didn’t have any legal authority to unilaterally designate a nonprofit as a terrorist organization.
“This designation is without legal or factual basis and constitutes a dangerous escalation of anti-Muslim political rhetoric,” said Margolis, who was representing the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive legal group.
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Associated Press writer Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed to this report.
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Follow Mike Schneider on Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social