Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that Muslims are a “threat to our freedom” on Tuesday as he targeted the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the U.S. with a foreign terrorist organization label in an escalation of a movement of anti-Muslim hate in the state.

Abbott announced on Tuesday that he was designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as “foreign terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations.” His office said this allows the state attorney general to sue to shutter the groups and bans the groups from owning land in Texas.

Only the U.S. Secretary of State can designate a group as a foreign terrorist organization, a process that requires the authorization of numerous other federal officials, and notification of

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