Cair letter to Marco Rubio: We're being targeted for Palestine advocacy

MEE is the first to obtain the letter sent by the Muslim-American rights group, which asks the top diplomat to clarify recent remarks he made

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio sits next to Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on 14 July 2025 (Nathan Howard/Reuters)

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) has asked US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to clarify comments he made on a radio show earlier this week, where he appeared to threaten the domestic non-profit group with a terror designation for alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

"Your response, whether intentional or not, appeared to raise the possibility that the State Department is trying to find a way to weaponize federal terrorism laws against Cair and other American Muslim institutions based on a debunked conspiracy theory," the letter said, asking that Rubio's office reply directly.

During an interview on the Sid & Friends In the Morning podcast on Tuesday, Rubio was asked: "Why wouldn't you guys designate the Muslim Brotherhood and Cair?"

"Is that something you think we can count on maybe in the near future? Maybe not Cair just yet, but certainly the Muslim Brotherhood?"

In response, Rubio said: "Yeah, all of that is in the works."

The letter, first seen by Middle East Eye, was sent to the secretary of state on Thursday evening local time in Washington.

Cair insisted that its position on Israel's genocide in Gaza in particular is what has drawn the ire of conservative lawmakers and pro-Israel groups.

"To these groups, whose top priority is protecting the Israeli government from criticism, any American Muslims who recognize that Palestinians are human beings worthy of freedom are a threat who must be smeared and silenced," the letter says.

"The real reason anti-Muslim hate groups and pro-Israel lobby group obsessively target Cair... is because of our steadfast advocacy for Palestinian rights".

Just last week, Republican Senator Tom Cotton sent his own letter calling on the Internal Revenue Service to revoke Cair's nonprofit status for its alleged "ties to terrorist activities" linked to "Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood".

Cair defended its record, noting it has come under attack by extremist groups on all sides.

"Cair has spent 30 years vocally speaking up against all forms of bigotry, including anti-Black racism, Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism and antisemitism, as well as all forms of unjust violence, including hate crimes, ethnic cleansing, genocide and terrorism," the letter said.

Debunked

Cair says that the group has spent years debunking arguments from both "anti-Muslim extremists and
Muslim extremists who attempt to paint Islam as a religion of wanton violence".

"In fact, Cair condemned terrorism so often that Isis once put a target on our national executive director," Cair said, using another term often used for the Islamic State militant (IS) group.

That director, Nihad Awad, wrote an opinion article for Time magazine in 2014, strongly denouncing IS as far beyond mere "jihadists" who should instead be referred to as "anti-Islamic... criminals".

"Despite these facts, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate groups have spent years falsely and nonsensically smearing Cair and other American Muslim institutions as foreign agents of Isis, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the Muslim Brotherhood, all somehow at the same time," the letter to Rubio said.

"None of this makes sense because none of it is true".

Cair maintains that it is an independent American nonprofit organisation in full compliance with federal, state, and local laws and that it has "never been a member, chapter, offshoot, or affiliate of any foreign organization".

And while it admitted it does not see eye to eye with the Trump administration's policies, Cair has urged Rubio to provide assurances that the State Department will not "misuse federal laws" to target their free speech based on conspiracy theories.

"Disagreement is not the basis for public smears, much less legal action," the letter says.

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Cair letter to Marco Rubio: We're being targeted for Palestine advocacy

Cair letter to Marco Rubio: We're being targeted for Palestine advocacy