Accommodation Ohio introduces
FIRST ON FOX: A Senate Republican wants to nix the tax-exempt status of a national Muslim advocacy group that both Texas and Florida have designated as a terrorist organization.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, intends to introduce legislation that would remove the Council on American-Islamic Relations' (CAIR) tax-exempt status. Currently, an organization's tax-exempt status is suspended if it is designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization.
Cornyn's bill would lump CAIR in with designated federal terrorist organizations, like Hamas, Hezbollah and al Qaeda, by extending that prohibition to include groups that provide material support or resources, such as finances, services or training to a terrorist organization.
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The Texas Republican said in a statement to Fox News Digital he was moving ahead with the legislation, "because no organization who bankrolls terrorists should get a tax break, period."
"CAIR is a radical group of terrorist sympathizers with a long history of undermining American values and trying to unconstitutionally impose Sharia law on Texas, which is why I stand behind Gov. Abbott's decision to designate it as a foreign terrorist organization," he said. "I also call on President Trump to do so at the federal level to ensure this breeding ground for anti-American hate is starved of funding and forced to close its doors once and for all."
CAIR fired back at Cornyn in a statement to Fox News Digital, where spokesperson Edward Ahmed Mitchell argued that the lawmaker knew "our civil rights organization is an independent, duly registered and legally compliant American 501(c)3 nonprofit that has spent over 30 years advocating for religious freedom, free speech and justice for all people."
"We understand why Senator Cornyn keeps trying to copy and outdo the antics of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, but both men should leave the American Muslim community out of their political grandstanding," Mitchell said.
"CAIR has also shown moral consistency by opposing all forms of unjust violence, including both Israel's horrific genocide in Gaza and Hamas' attacks on Israeli civilians dating back to the suicide bombings of the 1990s," he continued. "Our opposition to terrorism even led ISIS to call for the assassination of our leadership. Senator Cornyn should sit down with Texas Muslims instead of trying to whip up fear of them for political gain."
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Cornyn's bid to revoke the organization's tax-exempt status comes after both the governors of Texas and Florida designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations earlier this year. CAIR has long argued that it is not connected to the Muslim Brotherhood, which is affiliated with offshoot federally designated terrorist organizations, like Hamas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took executive action last month to prevent the organizations from "acquiring any real property interest in Texas."
His proclamation charged that "CAIR and its members have repeatedly employed, affiliated with, and supported individuals promoting terrorism-related activities," and that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) considered the organization a "front group" for Hamas.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis similarly ordered that all Florida agencies "undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organizations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support."
Neither CAIR nor the Muslim Brotherhood have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) at the federal level by the State Department.
However, President Donald Trump, in an executive order late last month, ordered that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent determine which chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood, specifically in Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, be designated as FTOs and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.
Fox News Digital did not immediately hear back from CAIR for comment on Cornyn's legislation.
