(WASHINGTON, DC – 11/19/2025) The US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO), America’s umbrella group of national, regional, and local Muslim organizations, today condemned Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s defamatory and unconstitutional attempt to smear and silence the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and its Texas chapter in retaliation for their criticism of U.S. support for the Israeli government’s human rights abuses.
USCMO said that the notion that the Texas governor could unilaterally and baselessly label an American organization a terrorist group and seek to ban them from operating threatens not only the Texas Muslims, but all Texans and the Constitution. USCMO also noted that this deliberate subversion of American democratic values and institutions has been done in the service of a foreign entity.
CAIR – a truly American civil rights success story – is now in its fourth decade as the largest Muslim civil rights advocate for justice, mutual understanding, and the democratic rights and empowerment of American Muslims and others.
USCMO Secretary General Oussama Jammal said in a statement:
“Greg Abbott has a long track record as a both political carnival barker for the Israeli government and as a dangerous enemy of the First Amendment. His attempts to sow division among Texans and Americans for the purpose of advancing the agenda of a foreign nation is despicable and unacceptable.
“We encourage all American Muslims and our partners in other communities to speak out against Greg Abbott weaponization of conspiracy theories that threaten Muslim Texans, their property, establishments, and communities.
““The American Muslim community stands in solidarity with CAIR, CAIR-Texas and the broader Texas Muslim community. We trust that CAIR-Texas will continue its crucial civil rights work on behalf of American Muslims and others in Texas ‘and vigorously defend its right to do so’ in the face of ‘Governor Greg Abbott’s “defamatory and lawless” proclamation smearing the organization.’”
USCMO requests that members of the Texas state legislature who care about due process, free speech, religious freedom and justice for all to condemn Governor Abbott’s lawless conduct.
USCMO calls on all Americans concerned for the continued survival of our fundamental First Amendment rights to support CAIR against Texas Governor Abbott’s dangerous, defamatory, un-American, and undemocratic acts by which he seeks to disenfranchise and deinstitutionalize Muslim Texans and American Muslims.
CAIR has and deserves our undivided support.
###
