DeSantis Administration Designates Antifa, the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR as Terrorist Organizations

DeSantis Administration Designates Antifa, the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR as Terrorist Organizations

"CAIR's leaders sat with Hamas operatives in 1993 to discuss deception, camouflage and a front organization."

Alexa Ryan
Alexa Ryan
September 29, 2026

"Today, Florida drew a line on terrorism," Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a video posted to X today.

Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet voted to designate three groups as terrorist organizations under Florida law during a meeting this morning, including Antifa, the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR, or the Council on America-Islamic Relations.

"CAIR's leaders sat with Hamas operatives in 1993 to discuss deception, camouflage and a front organization," Uthmeier said in the X video, adding that CAIR's leader later said he was in full support of the Hamas movement. "Supporting these groups is a felony; your tax dollars will not fund them, no contracts, no foothold on our campuses, students who promote them are expelled."

House Bill 1471, signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis in April, allows the state to designate terrorist groups. The day the law was passed, Gov. DeSantis announced his intentions to declare CAIR and Antifa as terrorist organizations.

The White House designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization in September 2025, calling it "a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law."

In January, several branches of the Muslim Brotherhood were designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. Treasury Department.

CAIR is a non-profit Muslim advocacy organization represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which said it plans to fight the designation.

The union is currently litigating a lawsuit against Governor Ron DeSantis' previous designations of CAIR as a terrorist organization.

"There are simply no legitimate grounds to brand our clients with a reviled label, impose crippling criminal penalties, and force them to shut their doors in Florida," Hina Shamsi, director of ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a press release criticizing Tuesday's decision.

Alexa Ryan

Alexa Ryan

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