Stitt released the executive order Wednesday. It follows one signed by President Trump back in November, aimed at designating "certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters as foreign terrorist groups." It's a move his counterparts in Florida and Texas have already made themselves, even though such authority lies with the federal government.
Members of the Lebanese and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood have worked with Hezbollah and Hamas, which are in armed conflict with the U.S. and its ally Israel in the Middle East. The U.S. has considered Hamas a foreign terrorist organization since 1997.
Trump's order was meant to preempt any terrorist activity from those groups in coordination with Hezbollah and Hamas on U.S. soil. Since the order, the Lebanese and Sudanese chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood have been designated foreign terrorist organizations. The Egyptian and Jordanian branches are listed as specially designated global terrorists.
Those findings by the federal government were related to foreign groups based on actions performed abroad. Stitt is now citing them to target local Muslim social and advocacy groups.
"Organizations affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas have operated in the United States and have raised funds to support Hamas's terrorist attacks in the Middle East," Stitt's order reads.
To justify the targeting of CAIR, Stitt cites a 2009 terrorism financing case against another organization, the Holy Land Foundation. CAIR appeared along with 200 other groups as "unindicted coconspirators" after appearing in banking records from that organization. CAIR was not accused of a crime.
Stitt's order does not offer any proof that CAIR or the Muslim Brotherhood in Oklahoma are colluding with terrorist groups. The order empowers law enforcement agencies like the Oklahoma Departments of Public Safety and Homeland Security to "conduct an intelligence-based assessment" of local Brotherhood chapters and CAIR Oklahoma.
If they find evidence of support for those foreign organizations, the order also directs state law enforcement to make a recommendation to the federal government to designate them as dangerous.
The Executive Order is counter to Stitt's past advocacy welcoming Afghan refugees in 2021. At that time, CAIR Oklahoma was heavily involved in the resettlement process, alongside other faith communities that included Catholic Charities of Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
CAIR Oklahoma Executive Director Veronica Laizure-Henry did not agree to be interviewed for this story, citing pending related litigation in other states, but she did provide a written response on behalf of the organization:
"Throughout CAIR's long history in Oklahoma, our civil rights organization has worked to protect the Constitution's guarantees of free speech, religious freedom and equality under the law. We have also pursued justice for all people, including Oklahoma Muslims impacted by hate. We filed the lawsuit that ultimately struck down Oklahoma's unconstitutional anti-Islam amendment, and just days ago, we filed a lawsuit challenging the City of Broken Arrow's illegal denial of a mosque's establishment. Our successful civil rights work in Oklahoma is exactly why Gov. Stitt is targeting our organization with debunked conspiracy theories. We look forward to continuing our civil rights work in Oklahoma and proving once again that the Constitution is stronger than any politician's bigotry."
In a May opinion piece in The Oklahoman, Laizure-Henry and her colleague Corey Saylor quoted Proverbs 26:11 to argue that anti-Muslim sentiment is something politicians in this state repeatedly return to, "like a dog to its vomit."
The Bible verse, "aptly describes the recent resurrection of efforts to erase a disfavored religious minority from Oklahoma," Laizure-Henry and Saylor wrote. "Agree or disagree with Muslims, the protection of free exercise of religion is a duty the Constitution imposes on federal, state and local government."
