Second Republican governor to designate a major U.S. Muslim group a “foreign terrorist organization.”

The governor of the US state of Florida, Ron DeSantis, signed an executive order declaring one of the most well-known Muslim groups in the country, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a “foreign terrorist organization”, becoming the second Republican governor to make such a decision in recent weeks, reports Reuters.

In November, Texas Governor Greg Abbott took similar action against CAIR. The organization challenged the decision in federal court, claiming it was an unconstitutional initiative designed to punish her for her views.

In the order signed by the Florida governor, CAIR is accused of having ties to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing an estimated 1,200 people. The Israeli response in Gaza, then ruled by Hamas, killed more than 70,000 people, according to figures provided by the Palestinian enclave's Ministry of Health, and turned much of the territory into ruins.

As with the order signed by Abbott, DeSantis's also declares the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt, a “foreign terrorist organization.”

The Florida order directs institutions to take steps to prevent CAIR from obtaining state contracts or funding.

CAIR was founded in 1994 and has branches in about 20 US states.