Republican Reps. Chip Roy and Keith Self of Texas voiced their support for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to crack down on Islamic groups accused of having ties to terrorist organizations.
On Wednesday, Abbott urged an independent school district to sever ties with the Council on Arab Islamic Relations after administrators planned to hold the “Islamic Games” sporting event. In 2025, he signed legislation to designate CAIR as a terrorist organization over their ties to Hamas and blocked Islamic Sharia Law only developments in Texas.
CAIR announced that they aspire to take Abbott “to a court of law” for “crossing every line of basic decency” through his “campaign of hate.”
But Roy and Self believe Abbott was right to act.
“Governor Abbott was right to demand Cy-Fair ISD sever ties with the group and designate CAIR as a terrorist organization,” Roy told The Daily Signal.
Roy then told The Daily Signal that the sporting event ties into “a broader effort to advance Sharia law and ideologies linked to radical Islamism,” which “seek to gain a foothold in our communities and undermine the Constitution and the Western values on which our nation was founded.”
Self also applauded Abbott’s intervention, stating that “Islamic extremism has no place in our state.”
The congressmen’s remarks come after CAIR accused Abbott of falsely linking CAIR-New Jersey to sponsoring a Houston high school’s “Islamic games” sporting event.
However, the organization added that even if they did sponsor the sporting event, it was done by one of their individual chapters, which they allege is not banned from hosting events in Texas.
“Abbott’s demand that a county cancel a Muslim youth sporting event because of a false claim that it was sponsored by CAIR-New Jersey makes no sense,” CAIR told The Daily Signal. “Even if Abbott’s lawless proclamation was enforceable, and it’s not, Attorney General Paxton has already sworn in court that the proclamation only applies to CAIR’s national office, not our chapters.”
The organization continued its statement, adding that they will attempt to press legal charges against the governor over his “campaign of hate.”
“By placing Muslim children at the center of his campaign of hate, Governor Abbott is crossing every line of basic decency and digging himself a deeper legal hole,” CAIR added. “He is the governor of Texas, not the emperor of Texas, and we look forward to reminding him of that in a court of law. God willing.”
Despite their strongly worded statement, Self told The Daily Signal that CAIR’s aggression as a terrorist organization is taken lightly by the American justice system.
“The opinions of a designated terrorist group carry no weight here, especially when they attack efforts to protect our children from extremist influence.”
