CAIR, Under Scrutiny as a 'Foreign Terrorist Organization,' Backed Mamdani in NY Gov Race

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is battling Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in federal court for his designation of the group as a "foreign terrorist organization," and his request that the U.S. Treasury suspend the group's nonprofit tax-exempt status.

This designation didn't come out of nowhere, and neither is it a partisan attack, as CAIR claims. CAIR has a long history of connections to terrorist groups and many of its leaders have been charged with terror-related crimes.

In fact, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just designated both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood foreign terrorist organizations this week, following Gov. Abbott's lead.

Unity & Justice Fund (UJF), CAIR's super PAC, gave $120,000 in three installments to New Yorkers for Lower Costs, New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's PAC. This was more than 50 percent of UJF's expenditures in 2025 through August, indicating it considered Mamdani's campaign a top priority. UJF giving to a mayoral campaign in the largest city in the United States means foreign terrorist groups have essentially involved themselves in U.S. elections. 

At least five members of CAIR's leadership team have also been charged with acts of terror.

A CAIR director, Muthana Al-Hanooti, was sentenced to a year in federal prison in 2011 for a breach of U.S. sanctions on Iraq.

CAIR-Texas founding board member Ghassan Alashi was sentenced in 2009 to 65 years in prison for having provided "material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization."

CAIR communications specialist Randall Todd Royer, also known as Ismail Royer, received 20 years in prison in 2004 for training with and creating a newsletter for Lashkar-e-Taiba, an al-Qaeda affiliate on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Michigan-based CAIR fundraiser Rabih Haddad was deported in connection with transferring money to Al Qaeda via the Global Relief Foundation, which the U.S. Department of Treasury closed in 2002.

In 2003, former CAIR community affairs director Bassem Khafagi was deported to Egypt after publishing material calling for suicide bombings against the United States.

And while not an organizational leader, CAIR "welcomed the release" of Sami Al-Arian, who had served on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) governing board and was deported from the United States. PIJ is a State Department-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

While Texas may be the first state to officially designate CAIR as a terrorist organization, it isn't the first to raise concerns. Florida and Arizona have each passed resolutions "urging avoidance of engagement with CAIR due to its alleged affiliations with terrorist groups," according to a bill introduced in the House of Representatives in June. The United Arab Emirates, a Muslim country ruled by Muslims, even designated CAIR as a terrorist organization in 2014.

After Hamas was established in 1987 as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB)—which Abbott also designated a terrorist organization—other branches of the Muslim Brotherhood assisted the fledgling group. The Palestine Section head of the Muslim Brotherhood met with supporters in the United States in 1988, which culminated in the Palestine Committee of the MB in America.

Representatives from three organizations that comprised the Palestine Committee met at a Philadelphia hotel in October 1993, which the FBI wiretapped. The participants decided that they needed an organization that appeared moderate and would not be connected to Hamas—this organization was CAIR. 

Several attendees of the Philadelphia conference became CAIR staff: Executive director Nihad Awad, founding directors Omar Ahmad and Rafeeq Jabar, director of communications Ibrahim Hooper, and Alashi, who received the 65-year prison sentence for his support of terror groups.

Awad and Ahmad were both members of the Islamic Association for Palestine, which carried out propaganda in support of the Palestine Committee. CAIR joined the IAP once it was incorporated in 1994. That year, Nihad Awad even publicly stated, "I am in support of the Hamas movement."

It is clear that CAIR was part of the Palestine Committee because a 1994 internal memo from the committee recognized CAIR as such. 

The Palestine Committee spawned the Occupied Land Fund, later known as the Holy Land Foundation. The Holy Land Foundation was discovered to be a fundraising front for Hamas and dissolved following its 2008 trial, at which officials were convicted for sending $12 million to Hamas. Although CAIR was an unindicted conspirator, the District Court Judge acknowledged the existence of "ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR with Hamas."

In 2009, the FBI severed all ties with CAIR due to its concern about the group's affiliations with terrorist groups.

The documented history of CAIR’s organizational origins, its repeated associations with individuals later convicted or deported for terrorism-related offenses, and its continuing proximity to entities tied to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood present a pattern too substantial for courts to ignore. 

Both Gov. Abbott's and Gov. DeSantis' designations reflects a long-standing evidentiary trail that federal officials themselves have acknowledged at multiple points. For these reasons, the courts ought to weigh in the governors' favor and affirm both states' authority to distance themselves from organizations with demonstrable ties to foreign extremist networks.

(READ MORE: The Anti-Colonial Shadow Over Mamdani’s Socialism)