Interfaith Coalition Backs Bill to Designate CAIR as a Terror Entity
A 22-organization interfaith coalition spanning Muslim reformers, Jewish groups, Christians, and Hindus, backs legislation to designate CAIR as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist
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On June 9, 2026, a coalition of 22 organizations spanning Muslim reformers, Jewish advocacy groups, Christians, Hindus, and Iranian dissidents signed an open letter urging Congress to pass H.R. 8236—legislation that would designate the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
The Middle East Forum-led coalition cited decades of alleged Hamas ties, including an October 2025 Al-Zaytouna Centre online event attended by CAIR-Ohio Director Khalid Turaani and Majed al-Zeer, a U.S.-sanctioned Hamas official in Europe.
Jewish Onliner’s analysis of the Arabic-language event revealed speakers expressing hope that the Turkish army would deploy to Gaza and engage Israeli forces. The coalition’s interfaith composition, which includes Muslim reform advocates, ex-Muslim activists, Iranian dissidents, Jewish organizations, Christians, and Hindus, challenges CAIR’s longstanding claim that designation efforts are driven by Islamophobia.
The Muslim Reformers Leading the Charge
A notable feature of the coalition is the role of Muslim reformers, ex-Muslim activists, and Middle Eastern diaspora figures. Six organizations led by Muslims, ex-Muslims, or Middle Eastern diaspora communities signed on: the AHA Foundation, founded by Somali-born author and Hoover Institution fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali; the American Islamic Congress, led by Iraqi-American Zainab Al-Suwaij, a Shia Muslim who helped lead the 1991 uprising against Saddam Hussein; the CLARITy Coalition, co-founded by Syrian-American physician and U.S. Navy veteran Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser; the American Muslim & Multifaith Women’s Empowerment Council, headed by Pakistani-American Anila Ali, who has publicly argued “Zionism is in the Quran”; the Alliance Against Islamic Regime of Iran Apologists, a group of Iranian-American former political prisoners seeking accountability for the Islamic Republic; and the American Mideast Coalition for Democracy, co-directed by Lebanese Maronite Tom Harb.
“This coalition spans faith communities, reform advocates, and national-security researchers. It also crosses party lines—proof that opposing CAIR is not a partisan stance but an American consensus,” Benjamin Baird, director of MEF Action, said in a statement.
The Bill and Its Bipartisan Precedent
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who co-chairs the newly formed Sharia-Free America Caucus, introduced H.R. 8236 earlier this year. The legislation directs the U.S. Treasury Department to list CAIR as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224, which would block the organization’s assets, bar U.S. persons from transacting with it, add it to OFAC’s SDN list, and suspend its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status under section 501(p).
The coalition letter detailed a bipartisan record of CAIR condemnation. The FBI suspended formal non-investigative contacts with CAIR under President George W. Bush, a policy later maintained under the Obama administration. The Biden White House disavowed the group in 2023 after its national director, Nihad Awad, declared he was “happy to see” the October 7 attacks in Israel. Republican governors in Florida and Texas have moved against CAIR by executive action, and a Democratic attorney general in Maryland removed two successive CAIR officials from a state hate crimes commission.
The October 2025 Event That Drew Congressional Scrutiny
Eight days after Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) sent a letter requesting a Treasury investigation into CAIR’s potential Hamas ties, CAIR-Ohio Director Khalid Turaani chaired the first panel of a Beirut-based Al-Zaytouna Centre conference titled “Palestinians Abroad and Regional and International Strategic Transformations in the Light of Al-Aqsa Flood”—Hamas’s name for its October 7, 2023 massacre.
The second panel featured Majed al-Zeer, a senior Hamas member whom the U.S. Treasury had sanctioned one year prior, and Sami al-Arian, who was convicted of conspiracy to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and later deported.
Jewish Onliner analyzed the Arabic-language sessions and found that speakers on Turaani’s panel expressed hope that the Turkish army would deploy to Gaza and potentially engage Israeli forces in combat. Al-Zeer claimed during his remarks that “solidarity and the resistance” were key to maintaining momentum in what he described as a strategic shift in how Europe views the Palestinian issue. Al-Arian stated that “the overall Palestinian situation is much better strategically than it was before the Flood.”
The George Washington University Program on Extremism subsequently documented the Turaani-al-Zeer conference in a November 2025 report cited by the coalition letter. Under the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, coordinated services, training, expert advice, or personnel support to a designated foreign terrorist organization can fall within prohibited material support.
The Holy Land Foundation Shadow
The coalition letter also referenced CAIR’s designation as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007-2008 Holy Land Foundation trial, the largest terrorism financing prosecution in U.S. history. Federal prosecutors named CAIR among entities “who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee.”
The Holy Land Foundation was convicted of funneling over $12 million to Hamas. Though a district court later sealed these records, Judge Jorge Solis refused to strike CAIR’s name, ruling that prosecutors demonstrated “ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR … with Hamas.”
A Coalition Spanning Communities
Beyond the Muslim reform and diaspora signatories, the coalition includes Jewish and pro-Israel organizations, Christian and Hindu advocacy groups, and policy institutions such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Center for Security Policy.
The letter concluded by urging both House and Senate members to support H.R. 8236, noting that passage would “signal support for the Treasury Department to independently designate CAIR under existing statutory authority.” The coalition letter argues that the legal framework already exists, citing what it says are at least nine domestic nonprofits that have lost tax-exempt status after SDGT designation since 9/11.