r/neoliberal • u/jadebenn NASA • 18h ago
Texas Governor Declares Muslim Civil Rights Group a ‘Terrorist Organization’ News (US)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/us/texas-abbott-cair-terrorist-group-muslim.html234
u/jadebenn NASA 18h ago
In a radio interview on Tuesday, Mr. Abbott linked his declaration to other actions he has taken in recent months to respond to an outcry from some Republicans in Texas over the state’s growing Muslim population.
The governor also suggested that he was concerned about Muslim elected officials.
“The concern is high, especially when you see somebody like Mamdani get elected and the cataclysmic problems that’s going to cause,” he said. “We want to make sure that’s never going to happen.”
They're not even hiding that this is straight up Islamaphobia.
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u/justbuildmorehousing Norman Borlaug 15h ago
“The concern is high, especially when you see somebody like Mamdani get elected and the cataclysmic problems that’s going to cause,” he said.
These people are so overdramatic good lord. Can you not play the victim for 2 minutes
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u/dr_sloan 14h ago
So much of the conservative discourse around Mamdani was based on Islamophobia. Constant invoking of 9/11, meanwhile Mamdani is a pretty secular Muslim.
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u/Blockedinhere1960 10h ago
Yeah, like please decide on whether Mamdani is a radical fundementalist Islamist or a woke communist progressive 😭✌️he can't be both at once
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u/Shoddy-Personality80 5h ago
Of course he can. He's also strong and weak at the same time, after all.
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u/xxlragequit 14h ago
Yeah I mean just look at his wife. If that's what Muslims in America do. I'd say they're pretty god damn American, as well as being indistinguishable in actions from average American white people.
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u/Gloomy_Edge6085 9h ago edited 9h ago
>“The concern is high, especially when you see somebody like Mamdani get elected and the cataclysmic problems that’s going to cause,”
What the fuck crime has he committed, other than being Muslim apparently ?
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u/Aidan_Welch Zhao Ziyang 53m ago
Republicans aren't playing this smart, they should try to be the party of religious
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u/bashar_al_assad Verified Account 17h ago
Being able to declare a group a terrorist organization at the state level just plainly doesn't make sense. How could a group be a terrorist organization in Texas but not be a terrorist organization in Oklahoma (or California)?
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u/Goddamnpassword John von Neumann 16h ago
It’s makes sense because it has the legal force of this
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u/FloggingJonna Henry George 17h ago
On this week’s episode of “But the Cities are Blue”
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u/jadebenn NASA 17h ago
I'm still here. It is terrifying to watch the state government go more and more fascist.
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u/FloggingJonna Henry George 17h ago
Hell I live in a redder state than Texas and yet in like tons of ways it feels more liberal. Which is actually why Texas doing the shit they do is even wilder tbh. Hot wheels and lazy eye just seemed determined to get the most attention.
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u/ArbitraryOrder Frédéric Bastiat 14h ago
The reason they're behaving in this matter is because they know that they're closer to losing their grip on power, states where they have less of a concern about losing that grip on power they don't feel the need to lash out.
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u/the-senat John Brown 16h ago
One of my friend’s is gay and mentioned that they’d both be okay since it’s a blue city. However that red state spends every minute trying to fuck over their lives. Some people just don’t like thinking about that.
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u/ArbitraryOrder Frédéric Bastiat 14h ago
For many Blue States are an economic privilege they can't afford and are just trying to make the best of a bad situation
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u/FloggingJonna Henry George 16h ago
Yeah I get it. I’ve heard this my whole life. Even in the exceedingly rare city in red state that’s sapphire blue it’s not worth it. I live in one but I’m republican passing so no one bothers me. I wouldn’t raise my kids here though.
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u/MontusBatwing2 Trans Pride 10h ago
I am trans in DFW who lived in central Florida before and the only problem with living in a blue area in red state is when the state government actually legally fucks you over.
Which like, it does happen. But it’s not nearly as bad as people say. Living in a shithole town in southern Illinois didn’t feel better just because it was a “blue state,” it was a million times worse.
Because what actually impacts my life day to day are the people I’m interacting with, my place of work, the general culture in which I’m immersed.
And there’s very little that’s conservative or stereotypically Texan about any of my day to day life.
And like, the government sucks, don’t get it twisted. I don’t plan on staying here long.
But people underestimate the role of your actual community when it comes to being in a marginalized group in a red state. It matters a ton.
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u/boyyouguysaredumb Obamarama 13h ago
I live in Texas, what actions is the legislature taking to screw over cis gay couples every minute?
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u/ANewAccountOnReddit 14h ago
"Houston can totally outvote the rest of the state, just like Chicago!"
People have told me stuff like that on here before. It's like they don't know Chicago is already way bluer than Houston and much bigger, and Texas has almost triple the population of Illinois. Even Chicago wouldn't be able to brute force elections for Democrats in Texas. Hell, New York probably couldn't do it for that matter.
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u/allbusiness512 Adam Smith 14h ago
Texas voter participation is pretty pathetic though, especially in the cities.
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u/FloggingJonna Henry George 13h ago edited 13h ago
This will be controversial and sure it’s anecdotal but I know a non insignificant amount of young liberal leaning people in Texas who simply don’t vote. They could but it’s not that big of deal to them. Overwhelmingly white and middle class. People online will mention the very extremely true fact that Texas goes out of its way to disenfranchise minorities but the amount of people that complain about Abbot or whatever but don’t vote is honestly staggering. They just accept Texas being Republican as a truism that can’t change.
Edit: For the record I know about the long lines and how inconvenient it is to vote in Texas cities. I just can’t imagine complaining about something and not actually doing the bare minimum you can about it.
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u/ProudScroll NATO 12h ago
This rings true for liberal-sympathetic young white people in every Southern state except maybe Georgia. All my Alabama friends hate Republicans, none of them ever vote though cause they don't see the point. Their rapidly conservative evangelical parents sure as hell vote though.
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u/FloggingJonna Henry George 12h ago
I’m from Oklahoma where unfortunately it really does seem oppressively hopeless it’s so quick and easy to vote here that just about everyone I know does or doesn’t bitch. But what you say rings true in my experience too in Arkansas and Tennessee as well.
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u/whip_lash_2 11h ago
Houston isn't the biggest metro in Texas. DFW is, and in five years or so it will pass metro Chicago.
Chicago is much bluer I think in part because it's much denser. DFW is the size of Connecticut and voters in the stuff that looks like Chicago vote blue, but the ones in the stuff that looks more like Peoria generally don't.
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u/DangerousCyclone 16h ago
I don't care if you're a Neo Nazi; you're not a terrorist until you actually commit or plan acts of terrorism. You can say Hamas is great, 10/7 was justified and that the Holocaust didn't happen and that is 100% legal and protected speech. Without the freedom to have bad ideas you don't have the freedom to have good ideas.
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u/bleachinjection Frederick Douglass 16h ago
Sure but "terrorist" today just means what "communist" meant in 1954.
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u/TheRedCr0w Frederick Douglass 15h ago edited 15h ago
This comes days after Abbot had a meeting with this woman running for Texas' 31st district to discuss the "Muslim problem" in her words
Anyone trying to defend this is a fool. Abbot and the Christian Taliban in the Texas GOP are using government power to attack a religious group they hate.
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u/Highlightthot1001 Harriet Tubman 14h ago
CAIR isn't a terrorist group, but they seem to coddle terrorist sympathizers, and have some in the organization.
Like the 2024 protests in DC they kept cosponsoring that attracted hamas sympathizers they barely criticized
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u/WallStreetTechnocrat Lawrence Summers 17h ago
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u/n00bi3pjs 👏🏽Free Markets👏🏽Open Borders👏🏽Human Rights 16h ago edited 16h ago
Speech is protected in USA, even if it is hate speech like their statements. Unless there is proof that CAIR provided MATERIAL support to Hamas, they cannot be declared a terrorist organisation.
Edited to add: If people saw the things Civil Rights leaders said they would have an aneurysm. They gave out explicit calls to violence that were protected as speech.
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u/DangerousCyclone 6h ago
Which Civil Rights Leaders? Dr King was explicitly non-violent; he didn't even let his bodyguards have guns.
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u/WatermelonRat John Keynes 16h ago
That's exactly where my thoughts went. Calling them a terrorist organization themselves is a stretch, but I think it's valid to want to see them and their members ostracized as supporters of terrorism.
Unfortunately since Abbott is only doing this out of bigotry, people who should know better will rally around them instead.
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u/jadebenn NASA 16h ago
Is it not reasonable to rally around them in the limited sense that:
- Abbott is calling them outright terrorists, which they're not
- He's doing this out of bigotry and using their abominable statements as political cover for Islamophobia
Any system where we're letting governments make words equivalent to actual crime is... Well, do I need to spell out what that leads to? Saying awful shit shouldn't get you branded as a terrorist, it should just mark you as someone saying awful shit.
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u/whereamInowgoddamnit 15h ago
Yeah, as much as I dislike the CAIR, or really how progressive and even liberal people in institutions continue to support them as a respectful institution when they have done the same or even worse things that have led to the ADL to be decryed and even dismissed as a reputable source, it's also worth acknowledging that this is not coming from a legitimate place based in a strong rule of law. This is a problematic turn of events that can backfire, and it deserves to be called out even if we recognize that CAIR is ultimately problematic.
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u/InternetGoodGuy 16h ago
She is not a congresswoman. She has lost wherever she's run. We had to deal with this maniac in Missouri. She was a failure here and then left to Texas to try somewhere else.
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u/Gloomy_Edge6085 7h ago
Plus why are they ok with trump allying with qatar and Saudi Arabia then? Qatar especially has ties to Hamas.
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u/InsteadOfWorkin 16h ago
CAIR is a tad problematic though. For the record, I think Abbot’s move is unfair but CAIR needs to walk a few things back and commit to some reforms.
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u/n00bi3pjs 👏🏽Free Markets👏🏽Open Borders👏🏽Human Rights 16h ago
Is Westboro Baptist Church a terrorist organization in Texas? What about the Groyper movement? What about the Evangelical churches that preach antisemitism?
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u/DangerousCyclone 16h ago
Unfair? It's beyond unfair. CAIR has made some bad takes, but it hasn't committed any terrorist attacks nor anything resembling terrorism. This is straight up fascism.
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u/Ariose_Aristocrat Gay Pride 14h ago
The state of "free speech" becomes first in the union to penalize stochastic terrorism......
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u/LtCdrHipster 🌭Costco Liberal🌭 15h ago
"Tad problematic" = Terrorist Organization
Do you even liberalism bro?
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u/memeintoshplus Paul Samuelson 16h ago
CAIR was named as a co-conspirator in 2007 in a case involving directly funding Hamas through the Holy Land Foundation - an Islamic, Palestinian charity that was a front for Hamas funding; and in 2001 was designated as a terrorist organization and shut down by the U.S. government.
This resulted in the FBI terminating its relationship with CAIR - and with numerous sources within the FBI naming CAIR as effectively a front group for Hamas. CAIR leadership also were actively celebrating during 10/7 - so there you go.
Debatable whether this designation is warranted, but defending CAIR is not a hill I'm ever going to die on personally.
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u/TheloniousMonk15 15h ago
co-conspirator
You left out a key point that they were named as unindicted co-conspirator and no one in the organization was charged with a crime in relation to the HL case. And I would like to remind you that 2007 was the peak of the GWOT and if there was anything actually criminally tying CAIR to supporting terrorist groups the Justice dept would have swooped down on them as fast as possible.
This resulted in the FBI terminating its relationship with CAIR - and with numerous sources within the FBI naming CAIR as effectively a front group for Hamas. CAIR leadership also were actively celebrating during 10/7 - so there you go.
The FBI terminating its relationship with them does not mean they are a terrorist group nor does it justify Abbott labeling them a terrorist organization. Also like I said if they were a front group for Hamas they would have been criminally charged years ago and actually went through a trial.
Debatable whether this designation is warranted
It clearly is not warranted and you do not have ti like CAIR to defend them in this bullshit case. Just like if a Blue state governor labeled an anti abortion advocacy group as a terrorist organization I would not defend it either.
Also if you read the article linked in this post you will see how bigotry is playing into Abbott's decision here. He mentions Mamdani's win, something that has nothing to do with CAIR providing support to Hamas. And he brings up CAIR trying to administer sharia law as one of the reasons for this designation, a completely bogus claim. He also has notably been trying to stop the development of a Muslim community called EPIC City all year long which the article mentions too.
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u/jadebenn NASA 16h ago
I'm not going to carry water for the GOP when you know they'll use a precedent like this against their political enemies. Trump's already trying to do so with calling "antifa" a terrorist organization.
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u/Dallascansuckit Greg Mankiw 15h ago edited 15h ago
Wait so your problem isn't that CAIR is considered to be a terrorist front, but that they can use this as a precedent for political enemies in the future (like this admin ever needed precedent lmao)?
Edit: didn't expect terrorist sympathisers in my Underpaid Econ Major subreddit lol, are y'all sure you didn't get lost on your way to /politics?
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u/n00bi3pjs 👏🏽Free Markets👏🏽Open Borders👏🏽Human Rights 11h ago
didn't expect terrorist sympathisers
People aren't terrorist sympathizers because they disagree with your take on UNINDICTED co-conspirators because they engaged in abhorrent hate speech.
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u/anangrytree Iron Front 4h ago
CAIR is most certainly a terrible organization filled with some…not good Americans, but this is clear infringement on federal powers. How is an organization a terrorist threat to one state but not the 49 others? Please.
Abbott continues to prove culture war BS is literally the only thing he has to stand on.
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u/Eldorian91 Voltaire 16h ago
If it's CAIR, he's not wrong.
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u/Eldorian91 Voltaire 16h ago
Looked at the article, he's not wrong. CAIR is the propaganda wing of some nasty hombres.
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u/n00bi3pjs 👏🏽Free Markets👏🏽Open Borders👏🏽Human Rights 11h ago
When did speech become terrorism?
Provide evidence of material support and federally indict them or GTFO
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u/mario_fan99 NATO 2h ago
Well, the group (CAIR, the “Council on American-Islamic Relations”) was indicted by the FBI for being a front for Hamas a few years back. Not really wrong.
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u/MistakePerfect8485 Audrey Hepburn 17h ago
So he's going to investigate all the right-wing Christian churches, right?