A convicted ISIS terrorist walked out of a Biden-era federal prison last month and killed a decorated Army lieutenant colonel on an American college campus.
Florida was watching.
Today, Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that makes what happened at Old Dominion University significantly harder to repeat in the Free State of Florida.
Florida Makes Material Support for Jihad a Felony and Bans Sharia Law from Courts
HB 1471 is the strongest anti-terrorism legislation any state has ever passed – and it has teeth.
The law gives the Florida Department of Law Enforcement formal authority to designate foreign and domestic terrorist organizations at the state level.
Material support to any designated group is now a felony.
Private schools receiving state voucher funding cannot affiliate with students or organizations that promote violence.
Public universities cannot spend a single dollar promoting terrorism or jihad.
And in a move that has the left absolutely melting down, Florida courts are now barred from enforcing any foreign or religious legal code that conflicts with the U.S. Constitution.
That last one has a name: Sharia law.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2041273577157136463?s=20
Lt. Governor Jay Collins – a retired Green Beret who served in Afghanistan and Iraq – put it plainly at the signing in Tampa.
"I have personally seen women murdered for wanting an education," Collins said. "Today, Florida says no – not now, not ever."
Collins didn't stop there.
"To give money, guns or military training to those savages is a felony. Joining them with intent to spill blood – also a felony. We don't play games."
DeSantis framed the bill as a direct response to the March 12 attack at Old Dominion University, where Mohamed Bailor Jalloh – a man previously convicted of attempting to provide material support to ISIS and released early from federal prison under a Biden-era program – walked into an ROTC classroom, shouted "Allahu Akbar," and opened fire.
He killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, a husband and father who had earned two Bronze Stars and over 600 combat flight hours in service to this country.
ROTC students subdued Jalloh and killed him before he could murder anyone else.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2041205893157532072?s=20
Those cadets received Purple Hearts.
Biden's prison administrators received nothing but silence.
CAIR Named Unindicted Co-Conspirator in Largest US Terrorism Financing Case
DeSantis did not stop at vague gestures toward "extremism."
He named names.
The legislation gives Florida the legal tools to formally designate the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations – better known as CAIR – as terrorist organizations.
This isn't DeSantis being reckless.
In the largest terrorism financing prosecution in American history – the Holy Land Foundation trial – federal prosecutors named CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator and identified it as an associate of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Multiple CAIR officials and founding board members have been convicted and imprisoned on terrorism-related charges.
In 2014, the United Arab Emirates – a Muslim-majority American ally – officially designated CAIR as a terrorist organization.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott took the same step in November 2025.
Trump followed with an executive order directing federal agencies to evaluate Muslim Brotherhood chapters for terrorist designation.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/2041175103829078370?s=20
Now Florida has the legal structure to act – not just by executive order, but through a formal statutory process that requires FDLE designation, Governor approval, and Cabinet sign-off.
DeSantis knows lawsuits are coming.
"They'll sue us like they do on everything," he said Monday, "and we'll win on appeal."
How Florida Can Now Defund the Muslim Brotherhood Before Washington Does
Here is what the left wants you to believe: this bill is dangerous overreach that targets innocent Muslims.
Here is what is actually true: a man convicted of supporting ISIS was released early from federal prison through a loophole Biden's Bureau of Prisons refused to close – even after their own leadership identified the problem.
He killed a decorated Army officer on American soil.
DeSantis signed a law today that cuts off the funding, the institutional cover, and the legal pathways that allow organizations tied to that ideology to operate freely in Florida.
That is not overreach.
https://twitter.com/RonDeSantis/status/2041286700140257368?s=20
That is a governor doing his job.
The federal designation process takes years – lawyers, bureaucrats, interagency review, and political appointees who'd rather not make enemies.
DeSantis just built something faster.
And it includes something Washington has never had the guts to add: a direct financial consequence the moment the designation is approved.
No more taxpayer dollars flowing to organizations with ties to Hamas financing networks.
No more voucher money to schools that look the other way on extremist student groups.
No more university lecture series funded by Floridians that end with a speaker praising the October 7 attacks.
DeSantis said it plainly Monday: "We'll do millions for public safety. Millions for education. But never one red cent for jihad."
That sentence should be on a billboard in every state capital in America.
Sources:
- Staff, "Gov. DeSantis Signs Florida Law Targeting Terrorist Groups," Fox 13 Tampa Bay, April 6, 2026.
- Staff, "DeSantis Signs Bill Expanding State Authority to Target Certain Organizations," My Suncoast (WWSB), April 6, 2026.
- Staff, "Pentagon Leaders Award 2 Purple Hearts to Old Dominion Cadets Who Took Down ISIS Supporter," Fox News, March 24, 2026.
- Staff, "Old Dominion Gunman Previously Convicted for ISIS Support, Was Released Early from Federal Prison," CBS News, March 12, 2026.
- Edmund Fitton-Brown, "Florida Follows Texas, Brands Muslim Brotherhood as Terrorist Organization," Foundation for Defense of Democracies, December 17, 2025.
- Text of H.R. 4097, "Designate CAIR as a Terrorist Organization Act," Congress.gov, 119th Congress.
