Mustafaa Carroll, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has published a forceful op-ed in the Dallas Observer comparing Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s recent actions targeting Muslim organizations to the tactics employed by segregationist governors during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. Carroll, a veteran civil rights activist who served as president of the NAACP Youth Council in Indiana during the 1960s, argues that Abbott’s designation of CAIR as a “foreign terrorist organization” mirrors historical efforts to suppress minority advocacy groups.
The November Declaration and Legal Battle
On November 18, 2025, Governor Abbott issued a proclamation designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations under Texas state law, invoking a 2023 statute that subjects designated groups to property ownership restrictions and potential criminal penalties. Abbott accused both organizations of attempting to “forcibly impose Sharia law” and directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to launch criminal investigations.
CAIR responded three days later by filing a federal lawsuit against Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, challenging the designation as unconstitutional. The lawsuit alleges violations of First Amendment rights to free speech and association, as well as Fourteenth Amendment due process protections. “No civil rights organizations are safe if a governor can baselessly and unilaterally declare any of them terrorist groups, ban them from buying land, and threaten them with closure,” said Lena Masri, CAIR’s litigation director and general counsel, according to Politico.
“CAIR Legal Defense Fund has successfully sued and defeated Texas Gov. Greg Abbott the last three times he tried to violate the First Amendment by punishing critics of the Israeli government,” Masri stated in announcing the lawsuit, as reported by CAIR’s official announcement.
From NAACP Bans to CAIR Designation
In his Dallas Observer op-ed, Carroll draws explicit comparisons between Abbott’s actions and the suppression tactics used by southern governors like George Wallace, Ross Barnett, and Orval Faubus during the Civil Rights era. Carroll notes that Alabama banned the NAACP for eight years, while Texas launched investigations into the NAACP’s Houston and Dallas chapters, temporarily forcing them to close.
“Black civil rights groups and activists were repeatedly accused of being part of a global Communist plot to take over America,” Carroll writes, drawing parallels to current accusations against Muslim organizations. He emphasizes that such claims made no sense then and make no sense about Muslim activists today, noting that American Muslims represent only one percent of the national population.
Carroll, who began his civil rights work at age 14 and became NAACP Youth Council president at 16 in his hometown of Gary, Indiana, has led CAIR chapters in Texas for nearly two decades. He argues that Abbott’s rhetoric about American Muslims imposing “sharia law” across Texas as part of an international conspiracy is as “ludicrous as the claim that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the NAACP were plotting a Communist revolution”.
Track Record of Legal Victories
CAIR has successfully challenged Abbott’s policies three times in federal court, winning rulings that restored Texans’ rights to boycott the Israeli government and to protest its policies on college campuses peacefully. In 2019, CAIR won a landmark victory on behalf of Bahia Amawi, a Texas speech language pathologist who lost her job for refusing to sign a “No Boycott of Israel” clause, according to TRT World and Muslim News.
In January 2022, a U.S. federal court blocked Texas from enforcing its anti-BDS law against Palestinian-American contractor Rasmy Hassouna and his firm A&R Engineering and Testing Inc., with CAIR representing the plaintiff. The ruling affirmed that “Texas’s ban on contracting with any boycotter of Israel constitutes viewpoint discrimination that chills constitutionally protected political advocacy in support of Palestine,” according to court documents cited by WAFA news agency.
Broader Pattern of Controversial Policies
Abbott’s actions against CAIR form part of a broader pattern of policies targeting Muslim communities in Texas. In September 2025, Abbott posted on social media that “sharia law” is banned in Texas, despite CAIR-Texas pointing out that Texas does not actually have a formal “Sharia ban” and that attempting to restrict religious practices would violate the First Amendment. “Governor Abbott’s post is reckless, discriminatory, and divorced from reality,” CAIR-Texas stated in response, according to reporting by multiple outlets.
The governor also signed legislation purporting to ban “Sharia compounds,” although none demonstrably exist in Texas, according to Carroll’s op-ed. Abbott further ordered investigations into the East Plano Islamic Center’s EPIC City development project, a 402-acre Muslim-focused neighborhood near Dallas, directing multiple state agencies, including the Texas Rangers and Texas State Securities Board, to probe potential violations.
At an April 2025 press conference, Carroll condemned these investigations as politically motivated, stating they “pose a serious physical threat to the lives and safety of Muslim children, families, and communities in schools, homes, and spaces throughout North Texas and statewide”. CAIR’s 2024 Civil Rights Report documented a 7% increase in anti-Muslim incidents compared to 2023, including hate crimes, workplace discrimination, and government surveillance.
Constitutional Questions and Federal Response
Legal experts and civil rights organizations have questioned whether Abbott possesses the authority to unilaterally designate domestic nonprofits as foreign terrorist organizations, a power traditionally reserved for the federal government. The U.S. government does not recognize either CAIR or the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations.
Charles Swift, head of the Muslim Legal Fund of America’s criminal defense department, told reporters he does not expect the federal government to follow Abbott’s lead, adding, “I think the federal government knows the difference between a foreign organization and a domestic organization”. In his op-ed, Carroll emphasizes that “CAIR is an American organization funded by the American people that serves the American people” and has consistently opposed all forms of unjust violence, including terrorism.
Abbott has escalated his campaign by requesting that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suspend CAIR’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, claiming official documents refer to CAIR as a “direct subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood” and a “front group” for Hamas, according to FOX 7 Austin. CAIR denies these allegations and notes its national statement condemning terrorism, including Hamas attacks, has been on its website since 2009.
A Test for Religious Freedom
Carroll concludes his op-ed by invoking the ultimate failure of segregationist governors who attempted to suppress the Civil Rights Movement. “George Wallace and other southern governors eventually and ultimately failed. The NAACP survived. Schools were desegregated. Black Americans received the right to vote,” Carroll writes. He argues that Abbott “wants to threaten, marginalize and drive away a vulnerable minority, even if that means shredding the Constitution,” and calls on others to ensure that “he, too, like the Civil Rights-era governors who came before him, ultimately fails”.
The ongoing federal lawsuit will test whether state governors can unilaterally brand domestic civil rights organizations as terrorist groups and restrict their constitutional rights. As Carroll’s op-ed suggests, the outcome may determine not only the future of Muslim advocacy in Texas but also the broader protection of minority rights and free speech for all Americans facing government opposition to their political activism