ORLANDO, Fla. — A day after Gov. Ron DeSantis designated a leading Muslim civil rights organization as a "foreign terrorist organization," leaders of the group's Florida chapter on Tuesday promised a lawsuit and said the state had no legal basis for such a declaration.
The governor's executive order against the Council on American-Islamic Relations was an attack based on conspiracy theories, similar to those aimed in past decades at other minority groups like Jewish, Irish and Italian Americans that created fear and division, Hiba Rahim, the Florida chapter's deputy executive director, said at a news conference in Tampa.
"We are very proud to defend the founding principles of our Constitution, to defend free speech," Rahim said. "We are proud to defend democracy, and we are proud to be America first."
Rahim blamed DeSantis' support for Israel as a reason for the executive order because she said the group's activism had caused "discomfort" to Israel. In October, the group played an active role in advocating for the release of a 16-year-old Palestinian-American from Florida who had been held in an Israeli prison for eight months. Mohammed Ibrahim was released last month.
READ MORE: DeSantis designates Muslim advocacy group a ‘terrorist organization’
Florida has an estimated 500,000 Muslim residents, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR.
"We will not back down here," Rahim said. "Florida will file a lawsuit against Governor Ron DeSantis in response to his defamatory and unconstitutional order."
The order also gives the same "foreign terrorist" label to the Muslim Brotherhood. Neither CAIR nor the Muslim Brotherhood is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
Questioned by reporters at a press event in North Miami Beach on Tuesday, DeSantis doubled down on his administration's decision to label the Muslim civil rights group a "foreign terrorist organization."
"I welcome the lawsuit," DeSantis said, calling the designation "a long time coming."
The governor also said he expects state lawmakers to push "follow-on legislation" on the issue during the regular session that starts in January.
"So I think our executive order is kind of the beginning," he said.
The governor's executive order instructs Florida agencies to prevent the two groups and those who have provided them material support from receiving contracts, employment and funds from a state executive or cabinet agency.
Founded in 1994, CAIR has 25 chapters around the country. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a similar proclamation in Texas. CAIR last month asked a federal judge to strike down Abbott's proclamation, saying in a lawsuit that it was "not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law."
Speaking at the Florida news conference Tuesday, Tampa attorney Miranda Margolis said the governor didn't have any legal authority to unilaterally designate a nonprofit as a terrorist organization.
"This designation is without legal or factual basis and constitutes a dangerous escalation of anti-Muslim political rhetoric," said Margolis, who was representing the National Lawyers Guild, a progressive legal group.
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Associated Press writer Kate Payne in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed to this report.
