The deputy executive director of the Florida chapter of CAIR, Hiba Rahim, told a news conference that Governor DeSantis' executive order was an attack based on conspiracy theories, similar to those aimed in past decades at other minority groups like Jewish, Irish and Italian Americans that created fear and division.
Rahim blamed DeSantis' support for Israel as a reason for the executive order because she said the group's activism had caused “discomfort” to Israel. In October, the group played an active role in advocating for the release of a 16-year-old Palestinian-American from Florida who had been held in an Israeli prison for eight months. Mohammed Ibrahim was released last month.
The DeSantis order also gives the same “foreign terrorist” label to the Muuslim Brotherhood. President Donald Trump last month issued an executive order that sets in motion a process to designate certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.
Questioned by reporters at a press event in North Miami Beach on Tuesday, DeSantis doubled down on his administration’s decision to label the Muslim civil rights group a “foreign terrorist organization.”
“I welcome the lawsuit,” DeSantis said, calling the designation “a long time coming.”
The governor's executive order instructs Florida agencies to prevent the two groups and those who have provided them material support from receiving contracts, employment and funds from a state executive or cabinet agency.
Founded in 1994, CAIR has 25 chapters around the country. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a similar proclamation in Texas.
