Families of the victims of the July 4, 2025, catastrophic flash flood at Camp Mystic and other locations in Kerr County watch as Gov. Greg Abbott prepares to sign summer camp safety laws that proponents say would have prevented many of the deaths in the camps and campgrounds that line the Guadalupe River, in Austin, Texas, Sept. 5, 2025. Abbott formally declared on Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, that one of the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights groups is a foreign terrorist organization, saying the move will prohibit the organization from acquiring land in Texas and authorize the state attorney general “to sue to shut them down” in Texas. (Carter Johnston/The New York Times)
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HOUSTON — Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas declared on Tuesday that one of the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights groups is a foreign terrorist organization, saying the move will prohibit the organization from acquiring land in Texas and authorize the state attorney general “to sue to shut them down” in Texas.
In his declaration, Abbott said that the group, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, had direct ties to Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government. The nonprofit, known by its initials, CAIR, has denied having any such ties.
The governor also suggested, without offering evidence, that CAIR’s leadership sought to impose Islamic law, known as Shariah, on Americans.
The council on Tuesday responded to Abbott in a letter, calling his declaration “defamatory” and saying it had “no basis in law or fact.”
“You do not have the authority to unilaterally declare any Americans or American institutions terrorist groups,” wrote Robert S. McCaw, the council’s director of government affairs. “Nor is there any basis to level this smear against our organization.”
CAIR Attracted Intense Scrutiny
Abbott appeared to be the first state leader to make such a declaration about the organization, which has been a presence in American political debates for more than 30 years. CAIR has attracted intensifying scrutiny and criticism since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip.
Abbott’s move went further than the Trump administration has so far been willing to go. His declaration also included the Muslim Brotherhood, a group founded in Egypt almost a century ago that has a range of overseas offshoots.
This year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that similar actions by the federal government against both groups were “in the works,” But the administration has yet to follow through.
Abbott also went further than the state’s hardline conservative Republican Party leadership, which urged Rubio last month to declare the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization, but did not say the same about CAIR.
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By J. David Goodman/Carter Johnston
c. 2025 The New York Times Company
