A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, To urge and request law enforcement and governmental agencies in South Dakota to avoid and suspend all contacts and outreach activities with the Council on American Islamic Relations.

    WHEREAS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has suspended all formal contacts with the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) due to evidence indicating a relationship between CAIR and Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization; and

    WHEREAS, one of CAIR's directors was sentenced to a year in federal prison for violating United States sanctions against Iraq; and

    WHEREAS, a CAIR director in Virginia pled guilty to terrorism-related financial and conspiracy charges, which resulted in a federal prison sentence; and

    WHEREAS, a communications specialist and civil rights coordinator for CAIR trained with an al Qaeda-tied Kashmir organization that is listed on the United States Department of State's international terror list and was also indicted on charges of conspiring to help al Qaeda and the Taliban battle American troops in Afghanistan and was sentenced to twenty years in prison; and

    WHEREAS, CAIR's former community affairs director pled guilty to three federal counts

of bank and visa fraud and agreed to be deported to Egypt after he had funneled money to activities supporting terrorism and had published material advocating suicide attacks against the United States; these illegal activities took place while he was employed by CAIR; and

    WHEREAS, a CAIR fund raiser was arrested on terrorism-related charges and was deported from the United States due to his work as executive director of the Global Relief Foundation, which was designated as a fund raising front organization for a foreign terrorist organization by the United States Department of the Treasury for financing al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations; and

    WHEREAS, CAIR opened its first office in Washington, D.C., with the help of a grant from the Holy Land Foundation; and

    WHEREAS, the federal case against the Holy Land Foundation, a charitable organization that was shut down by the United States Department of the Treasury for funding Jihadist terrorist organizations, was the largest successful terrorism financing prosecution in United States history, and the case identified CAIR as a Muslim Brotherhood front group, and CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial; and

    WHEREAS, the cofounder of CAIR's parent organization, Islamic Association for Palestine, was sentenced to prison on terrorism charges for financing Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist organization; and

    WHEREAS, CAIR is heavily involved in the Syrian refugee resettlement efforts; and

    WHEREAS, the federal government and private social organizations are resettling thousands of Syrian refugees throughout South Dakota; and

    WHEREAS, recent Islamic terrorist acts across the world are a constant reminder that Islamic terrorist organizations continue to actively target innocent citizens of our country:

    NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the Senate of the Ninety-Second Legislature

of the State of South Dakota, the House of Representatives concurring therein, that the Legislature of South Dakota urges and requests law enforcement and governmental agencies in South Dakota to avoid and suspend all contacts and outreach activities with the Council on American Islamic Relations, and to increase interstate efforts to protect the citizens of South Dakota from the real threats of Islamic terrorism.