The political arm of the Council of American-Islamic Relations has been acting without legal authority, licenses, or registration in 22 American states, according to a joint report by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and Intelligent Advocacy Network (IAN), first published in The Washington Free Beacon.
CAIR National is known for its radical anti-Israel activities, pro-Palestinian stance, and potential ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. CAIR Action is its political arm that operates as a national political-solicitation and voter-mobilization enterprise.
CAIR Action does have the ability to engage in political activity under its 501(c)(4) status. However, this is only the case if it complies with state and federal reporting laws and registrations, which the NCRI and IAN found was not the case in 22 states.
In these 22 states, CAIR Action solicits donations, collects membership dues, and coordinates votes, all without the license or registration required of political nonprofits. Even in Washington, DC, where the group is incorporated and from where it directs its nationwide activity, CAIR Action has never obtained the Basic Business License it would need to be able to operate legally. In California, it is registered but only as an out-of-state nonprofit, which does not allow it to solicit funds. In the other states, there are no registrations.
According to the report, that makes CAIR Action an unlicensed interstate political-solicitation enterprise, operating “entirely outside the legal framework required for entities seeking funds across state lines.”
CAIR faces legal problems following report
This creates two legal problems: first, federal criminal exposure, such as wire fraud, deceptive solicitation, and false statements to the Internal Revenue Service; and second, state-enforced exposure nationwide. The latter is because every state in which CAIR Action solicits funds can treat its fundraising and political influence as unlawful. Because CAIR Action is openly presented as CAIR National’s political arm, any unauthorized solicitation is CAIR National’s responsibility.
The report also found that CAIR Action’s ecosystem exhibits a “converging pattern of foreign-state alignment,” especially regarding Turkey. This includes sponsorships from Turkish Airlines (state-linked), political programming hosted at the Turkish government’s Diyanet Center of America, multiple CAIR leaders’ appearances on Turkey’s state-run broadcaster (TRT World), and technical indicators showing CAIR Action’s official accounts routing through the Turkey App Store.
Taken together, these factors indicate that CAIR Action is functioning as an unregistered national 501(c)(4) political-influence machine operating entirely outside the regulatory framework that Congress requires, the report added.
NCRI and IAN urgently referred CAIR Action to the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Internal Revenue Service for investigation.
Florida gov. designates CAIR, Muslim Brotherhood as terror orgs.
EARLIER ON Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order designating both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations.
As such, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Highway Patrol have been directed to undertake all lawful measures to prevent activities being carried out by the designated groups.
In the order, DeSantis noted that CAIR was founded by people with connections to the Muslim Brotherhood and that it has already been designated as an unindicted co-conspirator by the US government in the US vs Holy Land Five terrorism-financing case.
The executive order is effective immediately.
“From the moment Ron DeSantis took office as Florida governor, he has prioritized serving the Israeli government over serving the people of Florida,” said CAIR National in response. “He hosted his very first official cabinet meeting in Israel. He diverted millions in Florida taxpayer dollars to the Israeli government’s bonds. He threatened to shut down every Florida college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, only to back off when CAIR sued him in federal court.”
“Like Greg Abbott in Texas, Ron DeSantis is an Israel First politician who wants to smear and silence Americans, especially American Muslims, critical of US support for Israel’s war crimes.
“We look forward to defeating Gov. DeSantis’s latest Israel First stunt in a court of law, where facts matter and conspiracy theories have no weight. In the meantime, we encourage all Floridians and all Americans to speak up against this latest attempt to shred the Constitution for the benefit of a foreign government.”
DeSantis is not the first state governor to designate the two groups. Texas’s Greg Abbott designated both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood last month.