Oklahoma Governor Calls for CAIR and Muslim Brotherhood to Be Designated Terrorist Groups

Governor J. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma signed an executive order on August 12 directing the state’s Office of Homeland Security and Department of Public Safety to investigate the Council on Islamic-American Relations, the Muslim Brotherhood and their affiliates for any immediate terror-related risks. The order further requests that these agencies lobby the federal government to list both organizations as foreign terrorist organizations under 8 U.S.C. § 1189, and urges the Oklahoma Legislature to enact comparable statutes.

Stitt argued that the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology conflicts with core American principles and referenced the Trump administration’s earlier designations of several Brotherhood branches abroad. He noted that the FBI has limited contact with CAIR after a major terrorism-financing case tied the group to Hamas, and that court documents have identified CAIR as a subsidiary of the Brotherhood. The governor’s proposal mirrors actions by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who designated CAIR a foreign terrorist organization, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who labeled it a domestic terrorist organization, though Stitt’s approach is less forceful.