CAIR Action Operates Illegally In 22 States

The Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is a louche group that claims to be a “civil rights organization” but in fact is a Muslim supremacist group that spreads anti-Israel propaganda, admires Hamas, conducts voting drives for Muslim candidates, and warns its members not to cooperate with law enforcement on terrorism. It now turns out that it has been operating “without legal authority” or proper “registration” in 22 states. More on CAIR’s widespread violations of the law that have just been revealed can be found here: “CAIR political arm operating illegally in 22 states, linked to Turkish gov’t, report finds,” by Mathilda Heller, Jerusalem Post, December 9, 2025:

The political arm of the Council of American-Islamic Relations has been acting without legal authority, licenses, or registration in 22 American states, according to a joint report by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) and Intelligent Advocacy Network (IAN), first published in The Washington Free Beacon.

CAIR National is known for its radical anti-Israel activities, pro-Palestinian stance, and potential ties to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. CAIR Action is its political arm that operates as a national political-solicitation and voter-mobilization enterprise.

CAIR Action does have the ability to engage in political activity under its 501(c)(4) status. However, this is only the case if it complies with state and federal reporting laws and registrations, which the NCRI and IAN found was not the case in 22 states.

In these 22 states, CAIR Action solicits donations, collects membership dues, and coordinates votes, all without the license or registration required of political nonprofits. Even in Washington, DC, where the group is incorporated and from where it directs its nationwide activity, CAIR Action has never obtained the Basic Business License it would need to be able to operate legally. In California, it is registered but only as an out-of-state nonprofit, which does not allow it to solicit funds. In the other states, there are no registrations.

According to the report, that makes CAIR Action an unlicensed interstate political-solicitation enterprise, operating “entirely outside the legal framework required for entities seeking funds across state lines.”

This creates two legal problems: first, federal criminal exposure, such as wire fraud, deceptive solicitation, and false statements to the Internal Revenue Service; and second, state-enforced exposure nationwide. The latter is because every state in which CAIR Action solicits funds can treat its fundraising and political influence as unlawful. Because CAIR Action is openly presented as CAIR National’s political arm, any unauthorized solicitation is CAIR National’s responsibility.

The report also found that CAIR Action’s ecosystem exhibits a “converging pattern of foreign-state alignment,” especially regarding Turkey. This includes sponsorships from Turkish Airlines (state-linked), political programming hosted at the Turkish government’s Diyanet Center of America, multiple CAIR leaders’ appearances on Turkey’s state-run broadcaster (TRT World), and technical indicators showing CAIR Action’s official accounts routing through the Turkey App Store.

Taken together, these factors indicate that CAIR Action is functioning as an unregistered national 501(c)(4) political-influence machine operating entirely outside the regulatory framework that Congress requires, the report added.

NCRI and IAN urgently referred CAIR Action to the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Internal Revenue Service for investigation….

What a mess CAIR has created for itself. It could potentially have to shut down the operations of CAIR Action in 22 states. It might have to close down CAIR Action altogether. And as the just-released report gets greater coverage, the pressure on CAIR to shut down certain unauthorized operations will increase. The bad publicity for CAIR could decrease membership and drive away donors.

CAIR offers hollow bravado, but things are not looking good for this unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land trial. It could potentially have to shut down its operations in 22 states. It might have to close down CAIR Action altogether. And with this new information about CAIR Action’s violation of the law now published, how many more governors will follow the lead of Abbott and De Santis, and designate CAIR, along with the Muslim Brotherhood, to be a “foreign terrorist organization” and a “transnational criminal organization”?

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