Fears of Islamist terrorism in the United States

There are growing fears of domestic terrorism inspired by Muslim groups active in the United Staes. Deciding whether an association should be labeled as a terrorist organisation is the domain of the federal government. The authorities in Washington, in reaching the determination that an organisation is a terrorist group, draw on the vast domestic antiterrorism intelligence infrastructure and globe-spanning intelligence services. Much of this was developed after the attacks of September 11, 2001 in which thousands of people were killed. Now some Republican governors are getting into the game. In recent months, the leaders of Texas and Florida have formally designated some groups as terrorist organisations. Both states have conferred the designation on the Council on American Islamic Relations, or CAIR, one of the largest Muslim civil rights groups in the country.

CAIR is a 32-year-old non-profit organisation with headquarters in Washington and chapters in more than 20 states. It has long been targeted by conservative Christan groups. CAIR is challenging Florida and Texas in court, arguing that they violate its rights to free speech, assembly and due process. The stakes are high, particularly in the southeastern state of Florida where a new law makes it a felony to knowingly offer "material support" for a designated terrorist organisation, and allows the state to dissolve such groups in some situations. If the move survives the legal challenge, it is likely to force the permanent closure of CAIR's Tampa-based organisation which says it represents a Muslim community in Florda that numbers more than half a million people. Some right-wing Republicans have taken to targeting CAIR, at a time when prominent conservatives have been portraying Islam as incompatible with American values. In 2016, when Donald Trump was elected for his first term as the United States president, he said in an interview that "I think Islam hates us." Other senior political figures also spoke against Islam and those who were prominently engaged in defending the religion. In 2025, Senator Tom Cotton called upon the Department of Education "to ensure that CAIR is not given an opportunity to push its radical, pro-terrorist, anti-Israel ideology on American schoolchildren". In January 2026, Representative Jason Smith, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, asked the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the tax-exempt status CAIR's California Chapter for, among other things, supporting pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses. In a social media post prompting the law aimed at curtailing the influence of Muslim organisations, Florida Governor Ron DeSatntis wrote: "We have a responsibility to defend and reinvigorate Western Civilization and that means protecting against creeping sharia in all forms." In 2023, the Biden White House condemned the CAIR's director, Nihad Awad, after it was revealed that he had told a group, American Muslims for Palestine, that he was happy to see Palestinians "break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp on October 7", the day of the Hamas-led attack on Israel killing roughly 1,200 people. Awad, in his defence, said that his remark was taken out of context. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, a staunch supporter of Isreal, has a long history of feuding with CAIR Florda, which has proclaimed its support for the Palestinians and wants their fundamental rights to be free from the Israeli occupation.

The state of Texas led by Governor Greg Abbot designated CAIR as a terrorist organisation in November 2025, citing testimony from the Holy Land Foundation trial in which an FBI agent described CAIR as front group for the Palestinian organisation Hamas. Governor Abbot said his move bans CAIR from buying or acquiring land in the state. In a statement, Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for Governor Abbot, said the governor's actions "are targeted at radical groups that seek to forcibly impose sharia law on Texans".

"The states were shaping up as potential battlegrounds," wrote Richard Fausset in a long article he contributed to The New York Times and published by the newspaper on August 7, 2026 under the caption, "Muslim nonprofit gets terrorism label in Florda and Texas." Continued Fausset: "This year bills were introduced in a number of Republican-led states, including Louisiana. Oklahoma and Arizona that would have given state officials the power to designate groups as terrorist organizations, according to Elly Page, a senior legal adviser with the International Center for Not-for-Profit Law. Those proposals did not become law but in Indiana, a new law allows the governor to designate groups 'as affiliates' of federally designated terror groups."

Several Muslim leaders were deeply concerned at the open expression of anti-Muslim sentiments by prominent political figures and rightist political organisations. "CAIR is probably at a place where it's in the most danger than it's ever been before," said Farid Senzai, an associate professor of political science at Santa Clara University who studies Muslims in America. She was quoted in the above mentioned article by Fausset.

Islam has been seriously studied by an American scholars, notably Dr John Esposito who died at the age 86. He opened doors across the Muslim world, drew international experts to conferences he sponsored. In 1993, he was recruited to become the founding director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding which was named in 2005 after Saudi donor, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. In a book co-authored by Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, Who Speaks of Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think, the authors based their work on Gallup surveys in 35 Muslim countries. They told their readers that the vast majority of Muslims condemned 9/11 and supported peace, democracy and women's rights. Only 7 per cent said they condoned 9/11.

In recent years, Esposito directed a research project called the Bridge Initiative housed in Washington's Georgetown University that monitored issues related to Islamist bigotry around the world. "Islamophobia as I define it," he told the Daily Oklahoma in 2014, "is not about people who have a kind of good fact-based criticism of the Islamic religion. Theirs is nothing negative about that. People are entitled to those types of criticism. Islamophobia is when you have an unfounded irrational fear that tends then to lead to bias, discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes."