PHILADELPHIA, January 28, 2026 — A federal judge has dismissed all claims brought by the South Florida Muslim Federation (SFMF) against the Middle East Forum (MEF) and its allies for the second time, delivering a decisive legal victory that vindicates MEF’s decades-long efforts to expose Islamist organizations operating in America.
U.S. District Judge Raag Singhal of the Southern District of Florida dismissed SFMF’s amended complaint on January 27, 2026, after previously dismissing the original complaint in May 2025. The court found that SFMF—an umbrella organization representing Muslim entities in South Florida—failed to establish standing for injunctive relief and, critically, failed to demonstrate racial discrimination under 42 U.S.C. § 1981. The racial discrimination claim was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.
The lawsuit arose after MEF and local community leaders brought attention to SFMF’s activities and the Coral Springs Marriott decided to cancel SFMF’s January 2024 conference.
The lawsuit arose after MEF and local community leaders brought attention to SFMF’s activities and the Coral Springs Marriott decided to cancel SFMF’s January 2024 conference. MEF had published research documenting SFMF’s ties to radical Islamist movements and individuals with connections to foreign terrorist organizations. The hotel cited “significant undesirable interest” in canceling the event.
In a notable passage, Judge Singhal rejected SFMF’s attempt to conflate religious identity with racial discrimination: “To accept SFMF’s premise that prejudice against a Muslim community group is akin to racial and ethnic discrimination, the Court would need to equate MENASA [Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia] ethnicity with the Muslim religion. The two are not the same.” The judge further noted that “not one of the alleged discriminatory statements concerned race” and that SFMF’s religious affiliation was “coincidental and not at all related to the alleged discriminatory actions.”
“This is a tremendous victory for the Middle East Forum and for all Americans who believe in the right to expose Islamist extremism,” said Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum. “The court has affirmed what we have always maintained: raising legitimate concerns about organizations with troubling ties to radical movements is protected speech—not discrimination. SFMF’s attempt to weaponize civil rights law against its critics has failed spectacularly.”
“We will not be silenced or intimidated,” said Benjamin Baird, director of MEF Action, who worked with local activists in Florida to urge the Marriott to stop hosting SFMF events. “MEF will continue pushing hospitality providers to disassociate from terrorist-supporting organizations.”
The dismissal represents MEF’s latest courtroom success in defending its research and advocacy.
The court victory comes amid mounting evidence that MEF’s research has had significant impact. Following increased scrutiny of its associations, SFMF cut ties with CAIR-Florida—the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Florida chapter. This development follows a wave of state-level action against CAIR that vindicates MEF’s decades of warnings: Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated CAIR as a terrorist organization in January 2025, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis followed with an executive order on December 8, 2025, designating both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations and directing state agencies to deny contracts, employment, and funding to the groups.
Sam Westrop, director of the Middle East Forum’s Islamist Watch project, noted: “SFMF may claim to have cut ties with CAIR, but it continues to include some of the most extreme Islamist organizations in the country among its membership, including humanitarian aid charities such as Helping Hand for Relief and Development, which has openly partnered with terror operatives, or Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen, a local mosque whose website once referred to Jews and Christians as ‘liars’ and ‘enemies’ to be ‘cursed.’”
Following the October 7 attacks, one SFMF event featured a youth seminar titled “Finding Hope from Our Past,” which focused on the Islamic “conquests ... of Jerusalem.” SFMF’s top officials have included Azhar Subedar, who trained in the United Kingdom with Tablighi Jamaat, a global Deobandi missionary movement linked by security services to dozens of terrorism and radicalization cases.
Westrop observed: “Given these deep extremist ties, it would be reasonable, it seems, for the Florida governor to target SFMF next for designation.”
“Given these deep extremist ties, it would be reasonable, it seems, for the Florida governor to target SFMF next for designation.”
“The fact that SFMF itself has now distanced itself from CAIR speaks volumes,” Roman added. “Our research exposed connections that even SFMF ultimately found indefensible. When Texas and Florida—two of America’s largest states—designate CAIR as a terrorist organization, it confirms what MEF has documented for decades. This is exactly why MEF exists—to shine a light on Islamist networks and hold them accountable.”
The dismissal represents MEF’s latest courtroom success in defending its research and advocacy. MEF has a strong track record of prevailing against legal challenges from Islamist organizations, including funding successful defamation defenses and supporting litigation that has exposed fraud and other misconduct.
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For more information, visit www.meforum.org.
For immediate release
For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
roman@meforum.org
+1 (215) 546 5406
