On a conservative radio show last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked whether he would designate the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a terrorist organization.

The question was paired with an inquiry about the Muslim Brotherhood, which right-wing groups have repeatedly tried to connect CAIR to.

Rubio indicated that he was already making moves on that front. “All of that is in the works,” he explained.

In response to the remark, CAIR General Counsel & National Litigation Director Lena Masri sent Rubio a letter criticizing his “senseless” comments.

“Your response, whether intentional or not, appeared to raise the possibility that the State Department is trying to find a way to weaponize federal terrorism laws against CAIR and other American Muslim institutions based on a debunked conspiracy theory,” she wrote.

“The real reason anti-Muslim hate groups and pro-Israel lobby group obsessively target CAIR and other American Muslim institutions is because of our steadfast advocacy for Palestinian rights,” Masri continued. “To these groups, whose top priority is protecting the Israeli government from criticism, any American Muslims who recognize that Palestinians are human beings worthy of freedom are a threat who must be smeared and silenced.”

During his interview, Rubio detailed the process by which the Trump administration could target pro-Palestine organizations and identified some inherent legal challenges:

Here’s Rubio:

Any group can say, “Well, I’m not really a terrorist – that organization is not a terrorist organization,” so you have to show your – you have to show your – the paperwork.  You have to show your work like the – like a math problem when you go before court. 

So we have to go through this process internally where you have to do the review, you have to document and justify what it is.  You can know something is what it is, but you still got to go through it so that when someone comes back, as you’ve seen – they don’t hesitate to go to court now.  We are tied up in hundreds and hundreds of lawsuits of every kind.  All you need is one federal judge – and there are plenty – that are willing to do these nationwide injunctions and basically try to run the country from the bench.  So we’ve got to be so careful.

But all of those things are – that you just discussed, without getting into great detail because I can’t yet, are in the process.  We are constantly reviewing for groups to designate for what they are: supporters of terrorists, maybe terrorists themselves, whatever it may be.  We haven’t done this in a long time, so it’s – we’ve got a lot of catch-up to do.

In July, a federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order targeting individuals who work for the International Criminal Court. The administration had leveled those sanctions in response to the ICC’s attempts at prosecuting Israeli officials for war crimes.

Last week, a Trump-appointed federal judge dismissed a lawsuit accusing a number of Palestine organizations (including SJP) of “disseminating Hamas’s propaganda.” The plaintiffs in the case were all victims of the October 7 Hamas attack.

“Although plaintiffs conclude that defendants have aided and abetted Hamas by providing it with ‘material support despite knowledge of Hamas’ terrorist activity both before, during, and after its October 7 terrorist attack,’ plaintiffs do not allege that any planning, preparation, funding, or execution of the October 7, 2023 attack or any violations of international law by Hamas occurred in the United States,” read Judge Rossie Alston Jr.’s ruling. “None of the direct attackers are alleged to be citizens of the United States.”

Member of pro-Palestine group held on bail in Boston

Jermaiah Yusuf Sawaqed is a 25-year-old Massachusetts resident facing a litany of criminal charges for allegedly tagging Boston locations with pro-Palestine graffiti.

Sawaqed was arrested last month after the white paint was thrown on the front gate Massachusetts State House and “DIVEST” was written across one of its pillars.

The state’s complaint states that Sawaqed is a member of the Direct Action Movement for Palestinian Liberation (DAMPL), which has claimed responsibility for several direct actions.

The state says it can connect Sawaqed to similar actions at the George Washington Monument and MIT’s Stata Center. As a result, prosecutors are charging him with vandalism, destruction of property, vandalizing a war memorial, and possession, transportation, or use of a hoax device or substance. 

A note on the George Washington memorial bit:

Massachusetts law dictates that its usual vandalism fines be doubled if “property marked, injured, marred, defaced or destroyed is a war or veterans’ memorial, monument or gravestone.” The state also requires the individual to do at least 500 hours of community service if convicted.

Sawaqed’s bail is set at $30,000.

Detectives say they were able to connect a social media post to the suspect’s IP address and cellphone, which led to investigators conducting surveillance on his home. He had also allegedly been monitored by a number of outside Zionist groups.

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