119-hr4097

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4097 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 4097

 To direct the Secretary of State to review whether the Council on 
 American-Islamic Relations meets the criteria for designation as a 
 foreign terrorist organization, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 June 24, 2025

 Mr. Fine introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
 Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To direct the Secretary of State to review whether the Council on 
 American-Islamic Relations meets the criteria for designation as a 
 foreign terrorist organization, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Designate CAIR as a Terrorist 
Organization Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 Congress finds the following:

    (1) The Council on American-Islamic Relations

    (CAIR) has 
 been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Holy 
 Land Foundation terrorism financing trial.

    (2) Multiple State legislatures, including Florida and 
 Arizona, have passed resolutions urging avoidance of engagement 
 with CAIR due to its alleged affiliations with terrorist 
 groups.

    (3) The Federal Bureau of Investigation has suspended all 
 formal contacts with CAIR due to evidence demonstrating a 
 relationship between CAIR and Hamas, designated as a foreign 
 terrorist organization by the United States Department of State 
 and the monsters behind the brutal attack on the State of 
 Israel on October 7, 2023, indiscriminately raping, torturing, 
 and killing over 1,200 innocent persons, including Israelis, 
 Americans, and other nationals, among whom were babies and 
 Holocaust survivors, and taking 240 Israelis, Americans, and 
 other civilians as hostages.

    (4) Since October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists and their 
 allies have launched over 11,500 rockets into southern and 
 central Israel, the sole goal of which was to kill Israeli 
 civilians.

    (5) Hamas and Iranian leadership have called for the 
 extermination of Israelis, Americans, Jews, and Christians 
 around the world and the establishment of a global Islamic 
 caliphate.

    (6) The stated goal of Hamas and its allies is the complete 
 and total destruction of the State of Israel and the Jewish 
 people.

    (7) In the Federal criminal prosecutions of persons 
 involved with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and 
 Development, the largest successful prosecution of terrorism 
 financing in our country's history, CAIR was identified as an 
 associate of the Muslim Brotherhood and was named an unindicted 
 co-conspirator in the trial.

    (8) CAIR, soon after opening its first office in 
 Washington, DC, received a grant from the Holy Land Foundation 
 for Relief and Development, a charitable organization that was 
 closed and was designated a Specially Designated Global 
 Terrorist by the United States Department of the Treasury for 
 funding jihadist terrorist organizations.

    (9) In 2009, Ghassan Elashi, who was a member of the 
 founding board of directors of the Texas branch of CAIR and a 
 leader of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, 
 was sentenced to a total of 65 years in prison after being 
 convicted of--
        (A) 10 counts of conspiracy to provide, and the 
 provision of, material support to a designated foreign 
 terrorist organization;
        (B) 11 counts of conspiracy to provide, and the 
 provision of, funds, goods, and services to a Specially 
 Designated Terrorist as determined by the United States 
 Secretary of the Treasury;
            (C) 10 counts of conspiracy to commit, and the 
 commission of, money laundering;
            (D) 1 count of conspiracy to impede and impair the 
 Internal Revenue Service; and
        (E) 2 counts of filing a false tax return.

    (10) In October, 2000, at a large CAIR rally in Washington, 
 DC, featured speaker Abdurahman Alamoudi, later a convicted 
 terrorist and Al Qaeda financier, publicly expressed support 
 for both Hamas and Hezbollah as the crowd cheered him on.

    (11) Randall Todd Royer, also known as Ismail Royer, who 
 served as a communications specialist and civil rights 
 coordinator for CAIR and trained with and set up an internet 
 based newsletter for Lashkar-e-Taiba, an al Qaeda-tied Kashmir 
 organization that is listed on the United States Department of 
 State's international terror list, was also indicted on charges 
 of conspiring to help al Qaeda and the Taliban battle American 
 troops fighting in Afghanistan and was sentenced to 20 years in 
 prison on April 9, 2004.

    (12) In September 2003, CAIR's former community affairs 
 director, Bassem Khafagi, pleaded guilty to 3 Federal counts of 
 bank and visa fraud, and agreed to be deported to Egypt after 
 he had funneled money to activities supporting terrorism and 
 had published material advocating suicide attacks against the 
 United States, illegal activities that took place while he was 
 employed by CAIR.

    (13) Rabih Haddad, the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based CAIR 
 fundraiser, was arrested on terrorism-related charges and was 
 deported from the United States due to his work as Executive 
 Director of the Global Relief Foundation, which in October 2002 
 was closed by the United States Department of the Treasury for 
 financing al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.

    (14) In March 2011, Muthanna al-Hanooti, a director within 
 CAIR, was sentenced to a year in Federal prison for violating 
 United States sanctions against Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

    (15) United States ally, the United Arab Emirates, 
 officially designated CAIR as a terrorist organization in 2014.

    (16) In 2014, CAIR honored convicted terrorist and 
 Palestinian Islamic Jihad financier Sami Al Arian and in 2020 
 CAIR-Florida featured Al Arian in its livestream interview 
 series. A former professor at the University of South Florida, 
 Al Arian was convicted in 2006 of providing material support 
 for a designated terrorist organization, Palestinian Islamic 
 Jihad, and was deported after serving his prison sentence.

    (17) Zainab Chaudry, Executive Director of the Council on 
 American-Islamic Relations--Maryland Office, was suspended from 
 the Maryland Commission on Hate Crimes Response and Prevention 
 by Maryland's Attorney General on November 21, 2023, following 
 multiple social media posts, including one comparing Israel to 
 Nazi Germany with the comment, ``That moment when you become 
 what you hated most''.

    (18) On November 24, 2023, Speaking at the American Muslims 
 for Palestine convention in Chicago, CAIR Executive Director 
 Nihad Awad proclaimed ``The people of Gaza only decided to 
 break the siege, the walls of the concentration camp, on 
 October 7. And yes, I was happy to see people breaking the 
 siege and throwing down the shackles of their own land, and 
 walk free into their land, which they were not allowed to walk 
 in. And yes, the people of Gaza have the right to self-defense, 
 have the right to defend themselves, and yes, Israel, as an 
 occupying power, does not have that right to self-defense''.

SEC. 3. REVIEW OF WHETHER CAIR MEETS CRITERIA FOR DESIGNATION AS 
 FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.

 Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary of State, in collaboration with the Attorney General and the 
Secretary of the Treasury, shall--

    (1) pursuant to 

section 219 of the Immigration and 
 Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1189), conduct a formal review of the 
 Council on American-Islamic Relations to determine whether it 
 meets the criteria for designation as a foreign terrorist 
 organization under such section; and

    (2) submit to Congress a report summarizing the findings of 
 the review conducted under paragraph

    (1) , including--
        (A) any resulting designation of the Council on 
 American-Islamic Relations as a foreign terrorist 
 organization under such 

section 219; or
        (B) if the Secretary determined that the Council on 
 American-Islamic Relations did not meet the criteria 
 for designation as a foreign terrorist organization, 
 the a summary of the findings leading to such 
 determination.
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