Tallahassee, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on December 9, 2025, that the state has designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations, effective immediately. The executive order directs Florida agencies to prevent these groups and their supporters from receiving state contracts, employment, or funds, mirroring a similar move by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last month.
DeSantis’s order claims CAIR was “founded by persons connected to the Muslim Brotherhood,” linking it to Hamas and the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. It instructs law enforcement to monitor and disrupt their activities. CAIR, the largest Muslim civil rights group in the U.S., denounced the designation as “defamatory and unconstitutional,” vowing to sue, as it did in Texas.
Neither organization is federally designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. State Department, though Trump has initiated reviews of Muslim Brotherhood chapters. The move has drawn praise from pro-Israel groups but criticism from Muslim advocates as Islamophobic.
