CAIR Demands Transparency on Texas Governor Abbott's Communications with Anti-Muslim Groups and Israeli Officials
Muslim Civil Rights Group Files Open Records Request Amid Legal Battle Over Terrorist Designation
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization, filed an open records request on December 3, 2025, demanding access to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s communications with anti-Muslim extremist groups and Israeli government officials, according to CAIR’s official social media announcement. The request escalates an ongoing legal and political confrontation between the organization and Texas state leadership following Abbott’s November 18 designation of CAIR as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
“The people of Texas elected Greg Abbott to serve them, not to attack them for the benefit of hate groups or a foreign government,” CAIR stated in its records request announcement, according to CAIR’s official Facebook page. The organization seeks transparency regarding whether external influences shaped the governor’s controversial proclamation targeting Muslim Americans.
The Designation That Sparked Legal Action
Governor Abbott proclaimed on November 18, 2025, designating both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations under Texas state law, according to reports from Click2Houston and FOX 4 News. The designation invoked Texas Penal Code and Property Code provisions to block real estate acquisitions and enable asset forfeiture proceedings against both organizations, according to Homeland Security Today.
“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 stated in his official announcement, as reported by Click2Houston. The proclamation immediately subjected both groups to heightened penalties and to bans on property acquisition.
CAIR’s Federal Lawsuit and Constitutional Challenge
CAIR’s Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin chapters responded by filing a federal lawsuit on November 20, 2025, against Governor Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, seeking to block enforcement of the proclamation, according to Geo.tv. The lawsuit argues that only the U.S. Secretary of State holds authority to designate foreign terrorist organizations, making Abbott’s action a constitutional overreach.
“CAIR Legal Defense Fund has successfully sued and defeated Texas Governor Greg Abbott the last three times he tried to violate the First Amendment by punishing critics of the Israeli government,” stated Lena Masri, CAIR’s Litigation Director and General Counsel, during a press conference, as reported by Evrimagaci.
The legal filing contends the proclamation violates both the Fourteenth Amendment—by damaging CAIR’s reputation and property interests—and the First Amendment by targeting political speech, particularly criticism of Israeli government policies.
Allegations of Foreign Government Influence
CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad publicly accused Abbott of operating according to an “Israeli agenda par excellence,” describing the designation as an “anti-Muslim approach” using tactics of “stereotyping and distortion,” according to MEMRI reporting cited by Global Influence Ops.
Charles Swift, lead attorney for CAIR from the Muslim Legal Fund of America, emphasized the broader implications during a November 20 press conference. “This is a period of time in our government where when you speak against the government, [it] is trying to take action against you,” Swift stated, adding that CAIR’s targeting is “not a coincidence,” according to KERA News.
Historical Context and Previous Legal Victories
The current dispute follows months of escalating tensions between Texas Republican leadership and Muslim communities. Before the terrorist designation, Abbott and state officials launched investigations into EPIC City, a proposed Muslim-focused community development near Dallas’s East Plano Islamic Center, according to US News.
CAIR documented a 7.4% year-over-year increase in anti-Muslim incidents in 2024, reaching 8,658 complaints—the highest since data collection began in 1996, according to organizational reports. The records request represents the organization’s latest effort to investigate whether coordinated campaigns influenced state-level attacks on Muslim civil rights protections.