Gov. Ron DeSantis Fights ‘Stealth Jihad’ in Florida

Violent acts of terrorism are not the only attacks on our culture that we need to watch for. For many years, “stealth jihad” has been infiltrating our organizations, including governments and schools, laying the groundwork for undermining our Constitution and instituting sharia law.

Gov. Ron DeSantis takes the threat of these organizations very seriously. Recently he issued an Executive Order designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as terrorist organizations. One U.S. District Judge Mark Walker granted a preliminary injunction to CAIR, calling DeSantis’s action “political posturing.”

But the Florida legislature backed up DeSantis and passed a bill, HB 1471, to protect Florida and its citizens, which the governor has since signed. This new legislation forbids financial support for organizations that are terrorism-related:

The legislation … blocks foreign judgments, contracts, or legal provisions that attempt to bypass those protections. [snip] Also, public universities and colleges are prohibited from spending state or federal funds to support programs or campus activities that promote a designated terrorist organization. The measure also outlines rules for expelling students at state universities who ‘promote’ support for such groups.

A variety of organizations are pushing back: CAIR and five other religious organizations have protested the law, claiming that the government is punishing dissent. A leader of CAIR summarizes their protest in this way:

‘Our courts already do not allow any foreign law to supersede the constitution of the land,’ said Hiba Rahim of CAIR. ‘That protection is already there, my brothers and sisters. And no Muslim from the people to the pulpit, advocates bringing Sharia to America. So why do they focus on that? Because it’s a distraction. What this actually is, is an anti-free speech law. It’s an anti-due process law. It’s an anti-first amendment law.’

Why does Ms. Rahm call the new legislation “a distraction”? What does that mean? Distraction from what? The accommodations that they constantly demand?

Muslims routinely insist on a long list of accommodations based on the expectations of their religion: setting flexible hours so they can adhere to religious requirements; adjusted breaks for prayer; avoiding the scheduling of lunch meetings during fasting periods; providing educational materials to non-Muslims; scheduling time off for Eid, particularly the last ten days, which are considered to be especially sacred; and some universities were even expected to install $25,000 footbaths.

If the law didn’t strike a nerve, there wouldn’t be any problem with an official prohibition on funding groups that are at best, extremely anti-American and pro-sharia, and at worst, truly terroristic.

There’s a reason that this incursion into the norms and laws is called “stealth jihad” — there are plenty of Muslims who would love to see sharia instituted here (clips of such advocacy can be found across X), despite CAIR’s duplicitous denial.

[originally published in American Thinker]