FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A member of Congress introduced a bill Tuesday asking the secretary of state to consider designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a foreign terrorist organization.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations brands itself as a 501(c)(3) Muslim civil rights and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., but according to Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., the group is “a terrorist organization.”
“I think in this time of conflict in the Middle East, and this time in which Muslim terror groups are operating with impunity in our cities and on our college campuses, it is important that we stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough’ and we designate these organizations as the evil organizations that they are,” Fine told The Daily Signal.
If passed, Fine‘s eight-page bill directs the secretary of state, currently Marco Rubio, to review the work of CAIR and consider whether the organization meets the appropriate criteria to be labeled a foreign terrorist organization. The State Department has designated groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram as foreign terrorist organizations.
CAIR states on its website that its mission is to “enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.” But Fine says the group is an “orchestrated Muslim terror front intended to legitimize Muslim terror and to shut down critics of it.”
Fine criticized the organization’s executive director, Nihad Awad, for public comments he made following Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. In December 2023, a video began circulating on social media in which Awad says he “was happy to see people breaking the siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land and walk free into their land that they were not allowed to walk in.”
“If I was a Muslim, I wouldn’t want an organization that says that Oct. 7 made them happy to represent me,” said Fine, who is Jewish.
On June 10, CAIR designated Fine as an “anti-Muslim extremist,” citing “his unceasingly violent rhetoric directed at Muslims and Palestinians.”
CAIR did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.
While serving in the Florida state Legislature in 2024, Fine introduced a resolution urging Florida’s state and local government agencies to cut all ties with the CAIR, arguing that the group had a history of connection to terrorist organizations. The resolution passed through Florida’s Republican-controlled House. Fine won his seat in Congress in a special election on April 1.
In early 2009, the FBI ended its relationship with CAIR and directed FBI field offices to cut all ties with the Muslim group’s local chapters. The FBI’s decision followed reports that the CAIR was linked with a network that was supporting Hamas.
On its website, the Muslim group denies that it is a part of a “front-group for Hamas,” and acknowledges that because Hamas is on U.S. State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, it would be “illegal” for CAIR to be “affiliated with or in any way supporting” Hamas.
If CAIR were to be designated as a foreign terrorist organization, it would likely “lose their nonprofit status, and I think they would have a very difficult time fundraising,” Fine said.
Fine says the Council on American-Islamic Relations brands itself as the NAACP for Muslims.
“I want American Muslims to find a civil rights organization that doesn’t believe in terrorism,” Fine said, adding, “and I think American Muslims deserve that, but this is not that organization.”
If Fine’s bill passes Congress, the secretary of state, working with the attorney general and the secretary of the Treasury, would be required to conduct a formal review of CAIR and submit its findings to Congress.
