Texas Gov. Abbott directed state police to launch criminal investigations into CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood

On November 20, 2025, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to launch criminal investigations into the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Brotherhood, two days after designating both organizations foreign terrorist organizations by proclamation. In a letter to DPS Director Colonel Freeman Martin, Abbott accused the groups of having "long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam's 'mastership of the world.'" The directive ordered DPS Special Agents assigned to FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces to gather intelligence and open investigations into potential violations of state and federal law, to investigate the groups for illicit funding and money laundering, to partner with the Texas Attorney General's office on nonprofit oversight of CAIR, and to use the state's Terrorist Offender Registration Program where applicable.

Abbott's letter disclosed no evidence that CAIR or the Muslim Brotherhood had committed a crime in Texas; it cited a news report alleging CAIR gave cash grants to university students disciplined for disrupting classes and celebrating the October 7 Hamas attack, and asserted — without independent substantiation — that CAIR is a Muslim Brotherhood "front group" for Hamas. CAIR responded to the underlying terrorist-organization designation by calling Abbott "an Israel First politician who has spent months stoking anti-Muslim hysteria to smear American Muslims critical of the Israeli government" and said it would sue; Abbott said the resulting litigation would let the state examine the groups' "financial transactions and funding" and "misdeeds."