The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today sent a letter to the Treasury Department debunking false claims that Texas Governor Greg Abbott made in a letter to Secretary Bessent requesting a baseless investigation into CAIR’s nonprofit status.
CLICK HERE TO READ CAIR’S LETTER
In a statement, CAIR said:
“Governor Abbott is afraid. He knows that his proclamation targeting CAIR-Texas is unconstitutional, so now he is desperately trying to find another way to target our organization. Unfortunately for Mr. Abbott, his lies about us are easily disprovable and the truth about him is clearly evident: he’s an Israel First politician who is obsessed with CAIR because our lawsuits have defeated his attempts to silence Texans critical of Israel three times in a row. We look forward to defeating him in court for a fourth time soon, God willing.”
Governor Abbott sent his letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent weeks after issuing an unprecedented proclamation falsely labeling CAIR-Texas a “foreign terrorist organization,” a move CAIR has already challenged in federal court.
Abbott’s newest request attempts to drag the Treasury Department into a manufactured controversy that Texas lawmakers, community leaders, and civil rights advocates have already condemned as dangerous and dishonest.
SEE: What They Say About Texas Governor Abbott’s Islamophobic Proclamation – Islamophobia
Abbott’s latest attack landed the same day that CAIR-Texas staff and Democratic state lawmakers held a press conference outside the Texas Capitol to warn that the governor’s escalating rhetoric is fueling hostility toward Muslim communities across the state.
On Monday, CAIR also announced it filed an open records request with the State of Texas seeking any communications between Governor Greg Abbott and anti-Muslim extremists, anti-Palestinian lobby groups, and Israeli government officials, as well as any internal communications among Abbott’s staff about the Texas Muslims he has smeared and targeted in recent months.
In his letter, CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell urged Secretary Bessent to reject Abbott’s demand for the IRS to launch a witch hunt into CAIR.
“We understand why Governor Abbott is targeting CAIR. In recent years, we have filed and won three different federal lawsuits that blocked Mr. Abbott’s attempts to punish Americans critical of the Israeli government in violation of the First Amendment,” Mitchell wrote. “Now we are suing Governor Abbott for a fourth time to block any implementation of his unconstitutional proclamation targeting CAIR-Texas, which he has justified by claiming that American Muslims are plotting to impose ‘sharia law’ and that too many Muslims are winning elected office.”
Mitchell added: “Governor Abbott has every right to disagree with CAIR’s support for free speech and Palestinian human rights. However, he does not have the right to trigger witch hunts into American organizations he disagrees with based on debunked conspiracy theories.”
CAIR’s letter outlines the organization’s 31-year record as an American civil rights institution with 25 chapters nationwide, supported overwhelmingly by American donors. It notes that CAIR is not an agent, affiliate, or representative of any foreign group and that less than one percent of its annual donations come from individuals abroad – mostly Canadians.
Mitchell’s letter also corrects several falsehoods in Abbott’s request, including his reliance on a New York post article so inaccurate that the outlet later issued a correction.
The letter reaffirms CAIR’s decades-long record of condemning attacks on civilians, whether carried out by ISIS, al-Qa’ida, or Hamas, and recounts how CAIR first alerted federal law enforcement to a domestic extremist later arrested for plotting an attack on the White House.
CAIR emphasized that Abbott’s demand to the Treasury Department “has no basis in fact or law, nothing to do with national security, and everything to do with anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bigotry.”
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com