Earlier this month, Florida’s principled conservative Governor Ron DeSantis announced that he has received a recommendation to designate the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Brotherhood, and Antifa as domestic terrorist organizations.
He cited authority given to state officials through legislation that had gone into effect just hours earlier, reported the Florida Phoenix.
The law (HB 1471) passed by the Legislature and signed by the governor in March, empowers the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to label organizations as domestic or foreign terrorist groups on evidence they meets specific criteria, including engagement in terrorist activity as defined by Florida law; is based in Florida; and poses an ongoing threat to the security of Florida or the United States.
The measure requires the head of the FDLE (now Mark Glass) to give written notice to the governor and the Cabinet of plans to declare the designation and gives the Cabinet seven days from the date of the receipt of written notice to approve or reject the designation.
Speaking during a press conference held at the Tampa Office of Statewide Prosecution less than 13 hours after the law went into effect, DeSantis said that the state has received recommendations to designate more than 90 groups as foreign terrorist organizations, including but not limited to Cartel de Sinaloa; Tren de Aragua; the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran (IRGC); Cartel del Noreste; and Cartel del Golfo.
The new state law bans state and local governments from providing taxpayer funding, contracts, or other public support to designated terrorist organizations. Public colleges, universities, school districts, and other publicly funded institutions will be banned from using public resources to support or promote designated terrorist groups. Such groups may also be subject to being dissolved, and individuals who knowingly provide material support or resources could face criminal penalties.
One of the elements justifying the designation is CAIR’s alleged ties to foreign governments, a charge that the organization has steadfastly denied. In March, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a temporary injunction blocking an earlier designation based solely on the Governor's executive authority. The judge’s decision was based in part on CAIR’s denial of any ties to foreign governments or terrorist organizations.
In announcing the designation, DeSantis said people should be educated about the CAIR’s involvement in the Holy Land Foundation for Relief & Development case going back to 2007, in which CAIR was listed as an “unindicted co-conspirator” along with 245 other individual and entities, as the Florida Phoenix reported in May.
Although the organization was not criminally charged or indicted, CAIR was cited for involvement with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee (a designated foreign terrorist organization since 1997) or its offshoots.
Now, a new Middle East Forum investigation reveals that the Islamic Development Bank (ISDB), a multilateral bank whose top shareholders include the governments of Iran, Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia, has disbursed $7.7 million to finance "CAIR Plaza," a residential and commercial development in Washington, D.C., designed to provide the Council on American-Islamic Relations with rental income for decades. CAIR's own website states that the group "does not receive funding from foreign organizations or governments."
According to the MEF report, the ISDB approved the project in 2013 at an estimated cost of $30 million, committing $11 million in sharia-compliant financing alongside $5 million from its Awqaf Properties Investment Fund. The bank's 2023 Awqaf fund report records total disbursements of $7.7 million to date. The listed beneficiary is the Washington Trust Foundation, a 501(c) entity whose stated purpose is to support the CAIR Foundation. The development at 201 K Street NE, a few blocks from Union Station, comprises 49 apartments and retail space and is listed by its developers at $18.5 million.
Property records, cited in the MEF report, show the land is owned by the Greater Washington LLC of Delaware. CAIR founder Nihad Awad has served as an official of the LLC, which the Washington Trust Foundation lists as a related entity on its own tax returns.
The Washington Trust Foundation's most recent Form 990, cited in the MEF report, values the construction project at more than $17 million, up from $2 million in 2021. The filings do not disclose the foreign source of the funds. Because the financing is structured as a sharia loan known as istisna, current 501(c) rules impose no meaningful public disclosure requirement on the recipient.
CAIR carries a long record of concern. In 2009, the FBI cut formal ties with the group after federal prosecutors named it an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial mentioned above. The United Arab Emirates designated CAIR a terrorist organization in 2014. The state of Texas did the same in 2025, and as noted previously, the state of Florida has also designated CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization.
The investigation also documents the ISDB's wider American footprint: $13.1 million across 44 K-12 schools, including a North Texas school the Forum previously found was established and staffed by Hamas-aligned operatives; a $90 million dormitory tower in New York for the Turken Foundation, an organization founded and managed by members of Turkish President Erdoğan's family; and $7 million pledged to a residential project of the Islamic Center of Irving in Texas.
“For years CAIR told Americans it takes no foreign money. The Islamic Development Bank's own reports prove otherwise,” said Gregg Roman, Executive Director of the Middle East Forum. “A bank part-owned by the leading state sponsor of terrorism is building a permanent revenue stream for an Islamist group blocks from the United States Capitol. Congress should open an investigation, and the Treasury Department and the IRS must close the disclosure loophole that allowed this to happen in the dark.”
“The paper trail is not hidden—the bank publishes it,” said Sam Westrop, director of the Middle East Forum's Islamist Watch project and author of the investigation. “ISDB reports name the CAIR-linked beneficiary and count the dollars disbursed. CAIR’s tax filings show the assets. The only place this money does not appear is in CAIR’s public claims about its funding.”
We urge all CHQ readers and friends to share this important information widely. Forward this message to your family, friends, neighbors, church and civic club mailing lists and encourage them to call their Representative and Senators to demand Muslim terrorist organizations, such as CAIR, be shutdown and their foreign-born adherents be deported. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121, enlist everyone you know to call TODAY.
George Rasley is editor of Richard Viguerie's ConservativeHQ.com. A veteran of over 300 political campaigns, he served as a staff member, consultant or advance representative for some of America’s most recognized conservative political figures, including President Ronald Reagan, Senator Jesse Helms, Governor Sarah Palin and Representative Jack Kemp. A member of American MENSA, he served on the House and Senate staff and on the staff of Vice President Dan Quayle. Rasley is a graduate of Hanover College and studied international affairs at Oxford University's Worcester College. Rasley has lived, worked and travelled extensively in the Muslim world, including staffing Vice President Quayle on official visits to Saudi Arabia and Indonesia.
