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In this week’s Unbelief Brief we discuss how Texas Governor Greg Abbott has designated CAIR a terrorist organization. This is a move with unclear legal force and serious implications for free expression.

And again, if you’re an ex-Muslim artist interested in volunteering your talents, we’d love to highlight your voice! Reach out to us at [email protected].

Unbelief Brief

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) a terrorist organization, along with the Muslim Brotherhood. The legal force of the declaration is unclear; Governor Abbott has stated that it will prohibit CAIR from owning land in Texas and pave the way to shutting their Texas chapter down. CAIR has vowed to continue operations and to sue on First Amendment grounds should attempts to shut it down in Texas take place. Regardless, this is not a federal designation, which would grant broad power to American authorities to disrupt the organization’s assets and sources of financing.

CAIR is certainly not above criticism. Our friend Sam Harris once called them “an Islamist public relations firm posing as a civil-rights lobby.” Among other controversies, the organization was previously listed as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a 2007 federal terrorism case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, though there was not enough evidence for a charge and CAIR disputes the characterization.

Nevertheless, a terrorism designation is a serious matter that requires evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt, that CAIR has provided aid to terrorists. Even the Muslim Brotherhood has yet to be designated as a terrorist group by the US government (though it appears that designation may now be forthcoming). Whatever issues one has with CAIR, they have a First Amendment right to speak and to advocate, so long as they do not directly exhort listeners to violence (which they have not). 

In Islamic countries, ex-Muslims are targeted under the false pretense that they pose threats to national security or religious harmony. Both moral principle and the functioning of a free society require that free speech rights be honored, no matter who is doing the speaking. And speech that does not threaten imminent violence is not terrorism, even if it is worthy of condemnation.

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Until next week,

The Team at Ex-Muslims of North America

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