Washington, D.C. | www.mpac.org | August 13, 2025 — In an interview with Sid Rosenberg on Sid and Friends in the Morning, Secretary of State Marco Rubio dishonestly and dangerously linked mainstream Muslim civil society organizations—specifically the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)—to terrorism. Responding to Rosenberg’s inflammatory question about designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations, Secretary Rubio stated that such designations were “in the works,” an unprecedented comment from a Secretary of State about a domestic institution.
The Secretary of State does not have the authority to casually smear lawful American organizations or treat political disagreement as grounds for terrorism designation. In the United States, we do not live in an autocracy. The rule of law—not political whim—governs which groups face legal sanction. Civil society organizations, including those representing American Muslims, operate within the bounds of our Constitution and are entitled to full protection under it.
Such rhetoric is not only reckless—it undermines the credibility of legitimate counterterrorism efforts, endangers communities through guilt-by-association, and fuels anti-Muslim bigotry while platforming Islamophobia in the highest levels of government. We stand with our civil society partners and CAIR against these baseless attacks by continuing to defend constitutional protections and ensure that government agencies cannot make authoritarian decisions targeting communities out of prejudice.