Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is urging the Trump administration to investigate the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) alleged “ties to terrorist organizations like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood” and consider revoking the group’s 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. 

Cotton, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, announced on Tuesday that he had sent a letter to IRS Commissioner Billy Long requesting he look into “recent news and longstanding evidence” demonstrating CAIR’s reported terrorist connections.

“CAIR purports to be a civil rights organization dedicated to protecting the rights of American Muslims. But substantial evidence confirms CAIR has deep ties to terrorist organizations,” Cotton wrote. 

The Arkansas senator pointed to CAIR being “listed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee” in the “largest terrorism-financing case in U.S. history,” as well as the group’s executive director Nihad Awad saying he was “happy to see” the Oct. 7 terror attack in a November 2023 speech.

Awad characterized Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel as Gazans “break[ing] the siege, the walls of the concentration camp.” 

“Government exhibits from the trial revealed that CAIR’s founders participated in a meeting of Hamas supporters in Philadelphia, where they discussed strategies to advance the Islamist agenda in America while concealing their true affiliations,” Cotton said, referring to CAIR’s participation in the 1993 Philadelphia Meeting, a gathering of top Hamas officials trying to find a path forward after the Oslo Accords. “These connections are not mere historical footnotes.”

“The Internal Revenue Code requires that 501(c)(3) organizations operate exclusively for charitable, educational, or religious purposes, and are prohibited from providing material support to terrorism. The IRS has broad authority to examine whether an entity’s operations align with its exempt purpose. Tax-exempt status is a privilege, not a right, and it should not subsidize organizations with links to terrorism,” he continued. 

Cotton went on to request that the IRS “immediately investigate CAIR’s compliance with section 501(c)(3), including a review of its financial records, affiliations, and activities.”

Reached for comment on the letter and Cotton’s allegations, a CAIR spokesperson told Jewish Insider, “Tom Cotton’s baseless demand that the IRS target a nonprofit organization based on debunked conspiracy theories is a political stunt straight from the McCarthy era and an un-American tactic carried out to shield the Israeli apartheid government from criticism.”