CAIR-FL

On Jan. 7, MidPoint welcomed CAIR- Florida, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights advocacy organization, which has recently been unilaterally designated a “foreign terrorist organization” by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis issued his executive order on Dec. 8, designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood  as “foreign terrorist organizations.” The order directed Florida’s Executive and Cabinet agencies, as well as every county and city, to deny local or state contracts, employment, funding, benefits, or privileges to CAIR and anyone known to provide “material support” to CAIR, including “expert advice or assistance.” The order further directs the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) to undertake “all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities in Florida” against terrorist organizations designated in Section 1 of the executive order, which includes the Muslim Brotherhood.

CAIR-FL, the local affiliate of the national CAIR organization, responded by filing a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee challenging DeSantis’ executive order designating the group as a “terrorist organization” and asking the court to block the executive order and declare it unconstitutional.

WMNF’s Mitch Perry, reporting for the Florida Phoenix, wrote,

In alleging that DeSantis has violated the Constitution, CAIR-FL’s lawsuit contends that DeSantis has:

Illegally usurped the exclusive authority of the federal government to designate American organizations as terrorist groups based on allegations of material support for foreign terrorist groups.

Violated the Constitution’s guarantee of due process by unilaterally designating CAIR a criminal actor and then ordering immediate punitive, discriminatory action against CAIR and its supporters without any chance to appeal that punishment or designation.

Violated the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech by punishing Americans who seek to provide CAIR with material support, including speech in the form of “assistance” and “advice,” and retaliating against CAIR for speech he finds objectionable, including the organization’s past lawsuit against him and its activism in support of Palestinian human rights.

MidPoint was joined in the studio by Hiba Rahim, Interim Executive Director of CAIR-FL,  immigration Attorney Robert Sichta, who is a cooperating counsel in the lawsuit, and Omar Saleh, an attorney for CAIR-FL, who joined us by telephone. Rahim decried the executive order saying, “This executive order does not present facts, it does not cite investigations, it does not point to any criminal findings. It simply declares guilt by proclamation,”  and noted that CAIR-FL has been joined in this lawsuit by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Muslim Legal Fund of America, and the Michigan law firm Akeel & Valentine. Other groups, including the League of Women Voters and the NAACP, have also criticized the executive order, suggesting it may implicate the work of many advocacy organizations whose politics do not align with the current regime and who have cooperated with CAIR-FL on various community initiatives.

Our guests and host, Shelley Reback, discussed many of the ways this executive order could impact the organization and individuals, including driving away donors, chilling CAIR’s supporters, inhibiting their ability to petition State officials, and even possibly reaching disciplinary actions or recission of Florida business and professional licensees who have made donations or otherwise supported the work of CAIR-FL in the community.

You can listen to the entire show here, in the WMNF app, or as a WMNF MidPoint podcast from Spotify or Apple Music.