The lights are out at CAIR-Florida.
Visitors to the website of the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations now find a single message set against a black background. The group, which has spent nearly three decades presenting itself as a civil-rights watchdog, announced on Thursday that it has suspended all operations in the Sunshine State as Florida’s designation of the organization as a domestic terrorist group took effect.
The shutdown came one day after Chief U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor of the Northern District of Florida declined to block the designation. In his Nov. 4 order, Winsor wrote that the question before the court was not whether CAIR is a terrorist organization, but whether it had shown sufficient legal grounds to halt the designation while its lawsuit moves forward. It had not.
The judge offered CAIR only a sliver of relief, shielding the organization, its employees and anyone providing it with legal services from prosecution under the state’s material-support law, once a $1,000 bond is posted.
“Florida is holding CAIR accountable,” Gov. Ron DeSantis declared.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement called the ruling “a significant step forward for Florida in the fight against terrorism,” adding that “protecting the Free State of Florida from terrorism is always a top priority.”
CAIR struck back. “We have suspended our operations in Florida because of Gov. DeSantis and other state officials’ baseless and unconstitutional enforcement of the state’s unprecedented new ‘domestic terrorist organization’ laws against us,” the Florida chapter said. The group says it will appeal the federal court’s decision. floridaphoenix
DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet voted on Sept. 29 to designate CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as domestic terrorist organizations, alongside more than 90 groups labeled foreign terrorist organizations. The move was made under House Bill 1471, a new state law that took effect July 1. State officials accused CAIR of ties to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The designation, published in the Florida Administrative Register on Oct. 6, kicked in 30 days later. It cuts the group off from public funding and government contracts, and anyone who knowingly provides it material support now faces criminal penalties.
For CAIR’s critics, the Hamas connection is not new. In the 2007 Holy Land Foundation terror-financing case, federal prosecutors listed CAIR as an “unindicted co-conspirator,” one of 246 individuals and entities named. At a 2008 retrial, the Holy Land Foundation and five of its leaders were convicted of funneling material support to Hamas. Prosecutors said evidence at trial included a memorandum describing CAIR as part of the Hamas network in the United States.
One of the convicted Holy Land leaders, Ghassan Elashi, was a founder of CAIR’s Texas chapter. He was sentenced to 65 years in prison. After the trial, the FBI cut formal outreach ties with CAIR, and in 2014, the United Arab Emirates designated the group a terrorist organization.
CAIR has never been charged with a crime and denies engaging in any terror activity.
Florida is not standing alone. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has taken similar action, and Rep. Randy Fine has filed legislation in Congress to designate CAIR a foreign terrorist organization. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said the designation “drew a line on terrorism.”
The legal fight is far from over. CAIR’s federal lawsuit, filed Oct. 1 against DeSantis and other state officials, continues, and the case is expected to test how far a state can go in naming terror groups on its own.
For now, in Florida at least, CAIR has gone silent.
