Muslim advocacy group fights for trust after Texas brands it a terrorist group

AUSTIN, Texas (RNS) — It was just past 9 p.m. on June 22, during the Texas State Board of Education meeting, when Shaimaa Zayan, a staffer with the Austin chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was called up to testify. She braced herself, knowing what was coming.

“Can we have a leader of a foreign terrorist organization testify for the state board of education?” Brandon Hall, a Republican board member, asked the chairman, just as Zayan rose to the podium.

Hall was referring to an order by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designating CAIR a terrorist group last November. The group, one of the country’s largest Muslim advocacy organizations, however, is not listed on the U.S. Department of State’s list of terrorist organizations , which is officially responsible for such designations.

The chairman said Zayan had a First Amendment right to speak.

“OK, I won’t listen to it,” Hall said, before walking out of the room.

CAIR has spent decades positioning itself as the country’s leading Muslim civil rights organization. But state and federal Republican leaders’ attempts to brand it as a terrorist front in recent months has tested CAIR’s legal standing and cast…