Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday announced that he is designating the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the Council on American Islamic Relations (Cair) – the largest civil liberties group for American Muslims – as both foreign terrorist organisations and transnational criminal organisations.

As a result, both groups would be barred “from purchasing or acquiring land” in the state of Texas, Abbott said.

The proclamation gives the state’s attorney general leeway to sue the groups accordingly.

It also specifically names Nihad Awad, the executive director of Cair, citing his past remarks that American Muslims are “ready to move to the next phase”, and that within the next 15 years the Muslim community “will have 50,000 – an army – of these people” who “will design [Islam’s] image, protect the truth and the news [and] many of these people will run for public office, and they will become lawmakers”.

Abbott insisted the intent there is to “advance Sharia law”.

Cair has long faced accusations that it is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, but it maintains that its budget is overwhelmingly derived from donations by the American public, Muslim or otherwise.

Awad told Middle East Eye on Tuesday that Abbott’s move is a “stunt” and that Cair is reviewing its response.

In its official statement, the organisation said it has always denounced terrorism and antisemitism, and that Abbott’s move is ultimately designed to curtail criticism of Israel.

“Greg Abbott is an Israel First politician who has spent months stoking anti-Muslim hysteria to smear American Muslims critical of the Israeli government,” Cair said.

“By defaming another prominent American Muslim institution with debunked conspiracy theories and made-up quotes, Mr Abbott has once again shown that his top priority is advancing anti-Muslim bigotry, not serving the people of Texas. His latest publicity stunt has no basis in fact or law, nor can it stop our civil rights work,” the statement read.

“We have successfully sued Greg Abbott three different times for shredding the First Amendment for the benefit of the Israeli government, and we are ready to do so again if he attempts to turn this publicity stunt into actual policy.”

American Muslims for Palestine, a non-profit organisation that educates Americans and lawmakers on Palestinian issues, called Abbott’s proclamation “a direct assault on civil liberties and an egregious abuse of power” that “serves no purpose other than to inflame division and appease extremist networks”.

Longtime effort

In September, Texas Senator Ted Cruz said it was high time the US designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation because it was the alternative to killing the movement’s members and affiliates.

Ted Cruz suggests US either sanction or kill Muslim Brotherhood members

“The Muslim Brotherhood and its branches should be designated as terrorist organisations because of that overwhelming and ongoing history of violence, extremism and destabilisation,” he told a crowd at the far-right Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington, DC.

“That’s a straightforward policy when one is faced with a terrorist organisation – or at least it’s the other solution to killing the terrorists, which is a damn fine policy as well.”

In July, Cruz, a Republican and constitutional scholar, introduced the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025 – his fifth time bringing forward such a bill in the last ten years.

“We have a Republican Congress and a Republican president who is committed to countering the threat that Islamic terrorism poses to American national security. So we have both legislative and executive options,” he said.

Cruz also said Washington needs to align with its Arab allies on the issue.

The Muslim Brotherhood is currently listed as a terrorist group in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia. Critics have long insisted that blacklisting the political movement is a way of ensuring it will no longer pose a threat to monarchies and authoritarian leaders in the region.

Cruz said the Brotherhood – whose popularity remains high in parts of the Arab world because of its combination of Islamic religious tradition, political activism and social welfare programming – is a threat to US national security.

Middle East Eye previously put the question to George Washington University professor Nathan Brown, who is an expert on Middle East politics and sits on the board of trustees at the American University in Cairo.

In what ways is the Muslim Brotherhood a threat to US national security?

“None at all,” he said.

The movement does not have a defined control centre as it did for much of the 20th century in Egypt, where it began. One of its “offshoots” that Cruz repeatedly referenced is Hamas in Gaza, which is already designated as a terrorist organisation in the US.

But Hamas does not act outside of the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.