Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas) on Tuesday signed a proclamation declaring the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations in Texas.
“The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’” Abbott said in a statement.
“The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable,” he added.
CAIR is a Muslim Civil Rights Group that focuses on advocacy.
The organization responded to Abbott’s measure with a fiery statement threatening to invoke its legal right to challenge the declaration if it becomes policy.
“Although we are flattered by Greg Abbott’s obsession with our civil rights organization, his publicity stunt masquerading as a proclamation has no basis in fact or law,” the CAIR group said in a statement to The Texas Tribune.
“By defaming a prominent American Muslim institution with debunked conspiracy theories and made-up quotes, Mr. Abbott has once again shown that his top priority is advancing anti-Muslim bigotry, not serving the people of Texas,” they added.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt that now provides social services such as pharmacies, hospitals and schools, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Past events undertaken by the group have been previously linked to violence, although its originators renounced brutal attacks in the 1970s.
The U.S. State Department does not list the Muslim Brotherhood or CAIR as terrorist groups.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) reintroduced a bill seeking to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group in June after the Boulder, Colo., attack perpetrated by Mohamed Soliman, who publicly supported the group on his social media accounts.
Abbott’s Texas proclamation could still impact both groups, preventing them and any companies or people tied to their entities from purchasing land in the Lone Star State.
“These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas,” Abbott said in his Tuesday statement.