Governor DeSantis issues executive order designating the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations.

In the executive order (EO), DeSantis writes that the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamist ideology is “irreconcilable with foundational American principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness reflected in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution, especially including the right to religious freedom and the equal protection of the laws”.

The EO goes on to say that the Muslim Brotherhood created Hamas in 1987, “the primary goal of which is the destruction of the State of Israel and the eradication of Jews in their historic homeland of Judea and Samaria” and that “organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas have had active fundraising arms in the United States, which have raised funds to support Hamas’s terrorist attacks in the Middle East”.

The EO states that CAIR was founded in 1994 “and was created, in the words of persons affiliated with CAIR, as ‘an official U.S. cover representing the Islamic community’ to conceal ties to Islamic extremist groups.”

The EO directs the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Highway Patrol to “undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities in Florida” by these groups, and Executive and Cabinet agencies are directed to prevent these organizations from receiving any “contract, employment, funds, or other benefit or privilege [from State entities] or from any County or Municipality of the State.”