CAIR: Record 8,683 Civil Rights Complaints in 2025 as Representative Andy Ogles Promotes Anti-Muslim Bigotry

CAIR’s 2026 Civil Rights Report recorded a record 8,683 anti-Muslim civil-rights complaints in 2025, the highest single-year total since the organisation began tracking cases in 1996.

“Washington, DC – As the United States and Israel continue to wage war with Iran, civil rights experts have noted a troubling trend: an ongoing rise in Islamophobia, even in the highest echelons of the US government”

Al Jazeera

The report, released in early 2026, flagged a small rise from 2024 and described broader trends of negative rhetoric and actions by public officials that CAIR says contributed to the spike.

Al Jazeera

CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor framed the pattern as an assault on the right to be different, warning that “powerful public officials argued — explicitly or by implication — that ‘freedom’ means the right to be like them: to speak the approved lines, worship the approved way and trace ancestry to approved places.”

CAIR’s report links the rise in complaints to targeted state actions and rhetoric, naming Florida among five states (with Illinois, Minnesota, Oklahoma and Texas) that saw steady increases over three years.

The coverage highlights specific state measures — including proposals that would categorically disqualify Islamic schools from funding framed as bans on “sharia” — and cites Florida officials, including Governor Ron DeSantis, as using state authority to cast Muslim advocacy and institutions as suspects.

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera emphasised that the report singled out state-level moves such as HB 1471 in Florida and the labelling of CAIR by some governors, which CAIR says stigmatise Muslim civic participation.

The report attributes part of the increase to federal policy and messaging, pointing to actions by the Trump administration that CAIR says rolled back civil-rights operations at federal agencies and incentivised harsher enforcement in the states.

“Washington, DC – As the United States and Israel continue to wage war with Iran, civil rights experts have noted a troubling trend: an ongoing rise in Islamophobia, even in the highest echelons of the US government”

Al Jazeera

Al Jazeera cites rollbacks at the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Education and the White House’s efforts to punish campuses for pro‑Palestinian protests.

The reporting also links federal enforcement actions such as “Operation Metro Surge” in Minnesota to racist presidential remarks and increased scrutiny of Somali and Afghan communities.

CAIR documented harms to education and civic participation: students and faculty involved in pro‑Palestinian protests faced investigations, deportation attempts, and frozen federal funds for universities.

CAIR itself faced state-level labelling as a “foreign terrorist organization” in Texas and Florida and has sued governors for defamation and First Amendment violations.

Al Jazeera

The organisation warned that proposed federal bills targeting “sharia” language would effectively ban Muslim practices or bar entry of Muslims, and it tied the cumulative effect of these measures to growing discrimination and civic exclusion.