(2/2/2026) Every year, Muslim families and advocates from across Florida travel to Tallahassee for Muslim Day at the Capitol — a chance to meet with their elected officials, discuss legislation, and exercise the most basic right of any citizen: the right to petition their own government.

This year, they were greeted by armed police and a social media post from the state’s top law enforcement official treating their presence as a security threat.

Shortly before CAIR Florida’s press conference Monday morning, Attorney General James Uthmeier posted a message on X: “CAIR, a designated foreign terrorist organization under state law, has called for a presence around the Florida Capitol today. I’ve requested law enforcement to be on heightened alert for any possible security threats. Further, terrorist organizations are barred from using any and all state resources, and we expect the governor’s executive order to be upheld. Alert FDLE and FHP immediately if you see suspicious activity.”

The result was immediate. At least seven members of the Florida Capitol Police stood sentry in the rotunda as the press conference took place — a visible show of force directed at Muslim citizens exercising their constitutional rights.

Hiba Rahim of CAIR-Florida, speaking in the Capitol in Tallahassee on Feb. 2, 2026.
Credit: Mitch Perry / Florida Phoenix

“The fact that we have massive amount of security today is unreal to me,” said Jacksonville Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon, who addressed the gathering. “These are your brothers. Your neighbors. Your sisters. Your friends. They deserve compassion. They deserve to be treated with respect and dignity.”

This was not Uthmeier’s first move against Florida’s Muslim community. In October, he posted on social media that “the use of taxpayer-funded school vouchers to promote sharia law likely contravenes Florida law and undermines our national security,” while reposting a video from an anti-Muslim organization apparently shot at a Tampa-area Islamic school. His office did not respond when asked to provide examples of Shari’a law being promoted in voucher-funded schools or explain how religious instruction at Islamic campuses differs from what happens at hundreds of Christian schools in the same program. Now, four months later, the same attorney general was calling in armed officers because Muslim citizens showed up at their own Capitol.

Hiba Rahim, deputy executive director of CAIR Florida, described Uthmeier’s post as offensive and an act of intimidation. “We decided the most patriotic thing to do was to come, was to meet with our elected officials,” she said. Rahim noted the chilling effect of the governor’s December executive order, which designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as “foreign terrorist organizations” , a designation CAIR is challenging in federal court.

“My concern is once you have a label, it sticks,” Rahim told reporters, referencing Uthmeier’s post. “We’re seeing right now that take place on social media, where accusations are being thrown with no evidence by a single appointed individual. That is creating a lot of fear and sense of intimidation between all parties. There’s nothing scary about Muslim Day at the Capitol.”

CAIR National responded directly to Uthmeier on social media: “The thought of Florida Muslims exercising their constitutional right to visit the State Capitol and meet with their elected officials might terrify keyboard warriors like @AGJamesUthmeier. But Mr. Uthmeier’s cowardice and his contempt for the Constitution are his problems, not ours.”

Then the former House Speaker weighed in.

Paul Renner, now running for governor, released a statement declaring that he stood with DeSantis in “naming Muslim groups, like CAIR, ‘foreign terrorists.'” He went further: “As Governor, I will never allow them to take toehold here in our state, and I will take any legal means to get them out. This is not a matter of partisan disagreement — it is a matter of protecting our Republic, rejecting political extremism, and standing firmly for our Judeo-Christian heritage.”

The words were unmistakable. A leading candidate for governor — a former speaker of the Florida House — publicly declared his intention to remove Muslim civil rights organizations from the state. He framed it as a defense of “Judeo-Christian heritage.” He did this on a day when Muslim families had come to the Capitol to talk to their representatives.

Florida Muslims came to Tallahassee to speak against several bills, but the central target was HB 1471 — the bill Cassel filed on January 9 after withdrawing her original “No Shari’a Act” the same day. HB 1471 would empower the state to designate domestic terrorist organizations, cut off their funding, expel students who support them, and restrict their access to the voucher program. It cleared its first committee three days earlier on a 14-3 vote. The bill’s companion, SB 1632, was set to go before the Senate Judiciary Committee the following day.

Rahim warned that the student expulsion provisions in HB 1471 would create a campus atmosphere of fear and self-censorship. “Students will be forced into self-censorship because they’re afraid of getting their student loans cut, their scholarships cut, they won’t be able to speak their minds freely,” she said. She added that all students should be concerned — whether they are with an environmental organization, Planned Parenthood, or the NRA. “We have an administration today that can target things on their agenda, specific groups, but tomorrow it will be a different administration, tomorrow a different group of individuals.”

Cassel acknowledged during the hearing that the United States has no federal list of domestic terrorist organizations. But she said that because Florida is the 15th largest economy in the world, “surrounded by water, ports, military bases,” it is “necessary to protect our state accordingly.”

The legislative session continues. And the Muslim families who came to Tallahassee on Monday, who walked into a building ringed by police, watched their attorney general call their visit a security threat, and heard a leading gubernatorial candidate promise to drive their civil rights organizations out of the state — went home knowing exactly where they stand in the eyes of Florida’s government.