When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that his administration would designate the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a "foreign terrorist organization", civil rights lawyers were stunned — not merely by the inflammatory rhetoric but by its utter legal invalidity. Under United States law, only the federal State Department may issue such designations after formal intelligence review and congressional notification. No governor holds this power. Yet the declaration was made publicly, widely amplified and politically weaponised. It was never meant to be law — it was spectacle. And it fits squarely inside a long American tradition: transforming Muslims, and the idea of Sharia, into domestic enemies during moments of political anxiety.

Florida's move did not emerge in isolation. Weeks earlier, Texas Governor Greg Abbott had taken an almost identical step - publicly declaring that both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood should be treated as "terrorist organizations", despite the fact that no governor possesses any such authority. Abbott paired the announcement with directives cutting ties between state agencies and Muslim civil society groups, effectively translating baseless accusation into administrative sanction. The move relied on no evidentiary findings, no criminal investigation and no statutory authority — only political theater masquerading as counterterrorism. Together, the Florida and Texas actions reveal a coordinated escalation: right wing governors converting conspiracy rhetoric into executive action, deploying the language of terrorism to stigmatise constitutionally protected religious and civil rights organisations.

This latest episode is not isolated. It is part of........

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