‘Sponsoring terror’: Governor calls on attorney general to withdraw CAIR’s tax-exempt status

The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, already has declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the pro-Islamist lobbying and activist organization, as a foreign terrorist organization.

Now he wants his attorney general, Ken Paxton, to go through a legal process that would end up with CAIR losing its tax-exempt status in the state.

Abbott already has called for federal investigations of CAIR, asking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to move against the group’s tax-exempt benefits because of its alleged terrorist ties.

And he’s asked that CAIR be investigated for its ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, claims that CAIR has denied and over which it has sued.

Further, a report at the Center Square pointed out that Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has proposed legislation that would let the federal government end the tax benefits for groups that provide material support to terrorists.

“CAIR is a radical group of terrorist sympathizers with a long history of undermining American values and trying to unconstitutionally impose Shariah Law on Texas,” the senator has charged.

“The Texas Attorney General is the only elected official charged with regulating nonprofits that may be violating the law, like CAIR,” the governor told Paxton in a letter. “The Texas Constitution authorizes you to investigate and seek judicial forfeiture of CAIR’s nonprofit charter. Our state laws empower you to inspect, examine, and copy records of nonprofits. A nonprofit that refuses to comply ‘forfeits the right … to do business in this state,’ and individuals who refuse to comply also commit a crime.”

He said the state can compel CAIR to provide documentation, answer questions and more.

He said the state even can seek liens against CAIR property in the state.

Abbott’s declaration the group is a foreign terror group comes from its board members, staff and others who have been sentenced to prison over the years for financing terrorism and more.

It also was named, but not charged, in the Holy Land Foundation case, one of the largest terror financing cases in the nation’s history.

Abbott charged, “Regardless of the façade CAIR attempts to portray in press releases, CAIR cannot be allowed to use its ‘nonprofit’ status as a shield for sponsoring terror, advancing radical Islamism in Texas, or fronting for the Muslim Brotherhood.”