GOP runs coordinated anti-Muslim hate campaign, report finds

WASHINGTON, United States (MNTV) – A new report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate has documented a sweeping, coordinated campaign of anti-Muslim bigotry by Republican elected officials across the United States, involving more than 1,100 social media posts, eight pieces of federal legislation and a formal congressional caucus — all traceable to a single gubernatorial social media post in February 2025.

The report, titled “Manufacturing the Muslim Threat: Inside the GOP’s Anti-Muslim Social Media and Legislative Campaign,” analyzed posts from 46 Republican members of Congress, governors and a state attorney general published between February 2025 and March 2026.

It found that monthly posting volume surged by 1,450 percent over the study period, growing from an average of 11 posts per month in early 2025 to more than 260 per month by March 2026, as the number of participating officials expanded from 13 to 43.

How one post launched a national campaign

The report traces the campaign’s origin to February 24, 2025, when Texas Governor Greg Abbott amplified a post from a known anti-Muslim activist falsely claiming that a Muslim-led housing development near Dallas — called EPIC City — was a “Sharia city.” Abbott’s repost was viewed 3.6 million times and received more than 57,000 likes, immediately catalyzing a wave of anti-Muslim content from right-wing influencers and elected officials.

Within weeks, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a formal investigation into the development, followed by the Texas State Securities Board opening a second probe. Senator John Cornyn then wrote to the Department of Justice requesting a federal investigation over allegations of “Sharia law.”

When the DOJ launched its own inquiry in May 2025, a further surge in anti-Muslim posts followed from multiple members of Congress.

What the report describes as “a campaign that had begun with a single gubernatorial repost of a far-right activist account” grew within thirteen months into an operation involving 89 Republican elected officials across three coordinated tracks: social media, legislation and a formal congressional caucus.

The report identifies five members of Congress as responsible for 73 percent of all anti-Muslim posts. Representative Randy Fine of Florida alone accounted for 29 percent of the dataset, averaging more than one post per day during his most active months. Texas and Florida-based officials together produced 71 percent of all content in the study.

Dehumanizing language and calls for deportation

The report categorizes the rhetoric into several overlapping frameworks. The term “Sharia” appeared in 48 percent of all posts, functioning as what the researchers call the campaign’s “master frame.”

Nearly a third of all posts framed Muslims through the lens of terrorism and national security, often weaponizing real violent incidents to attribute collective guilt to the entire Muslim-American community — including in cases where the perpetrator had no Muslim background. Representative Fine, for instance, described a Washington shooting as “Muslim terror” the night of the attack, despite the suspect having no connection to Islam.

Sixty-three posts deployed explicitly dehumanizing language, describing Muslims and Islam as “demons,” a “death cult,” a “cancer” and a “plague.” Sixty-four posts made explicit calls for the deportation or denaturalization of Muslims, with language that in many cases made no distinction between citizens, legal residents and extremists.

The report notes that such language from state actors “amounts to the advocacy of ethnic cleansing through policy.”

Cities with visible Muslim-American populations were described as “conquered” or “invaded,” with New York City appearing in 66 posts — driven largely by Islamophobic attacks on Mayor Zohran Mamdani during his mayoral campaign.

Dearborn, Michigan, appeared in 15 posts, and Dallas in 11. The report says this language closely mirrors the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, which casts minority populations as engaged in a deliberate demographic conquest of white-majority nations.

From social media to congressional infrastructure

The report documents how the campaign moved beyond social media into formal legislative and institutional structures.

Eight bills invoking Sharia were introduced in both chambers of Congress between June 2025 and March 2026, co-sponsored by 48 Republican lawmakers.

These include the “No Sharia Act,” the “Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act,” the “PAUSE Act,” and the “Protecting Puppies from Sharia Act” — the last of which the report describes as “incoherent as legislation but effective as provocation,” reducing Islam to a caricature while using the machinery of Congress to legitimize bigotry. That bill has 13 co-sponsors.

The Sharia-Free America Caucus, launched in December 2025 by Representatives Chip Roy and Keith Self, grew to 62 members within four months. The report notes that even peripheral membership in the caucus is significant, as it lends institutional legitimacy to the conspiracy theory that Islamic religious practice poses a legal threat to America — a claim the report describes as baseless.

As the report points out, Sharia is not a codified legal system but a broad framework of personal religious and ethical guidance derived from Islamic scripture, analogous to Jewish halakha or Catholic canon law, and the Constitution’s Establishment Clause already prohibits enforcement of any religious law.

The Dangerous Speech Project, which contributed analysis to the report, assessed the posts against its five-factor framework for speech likely to inspire violence — examining content, speaker influence, audience susceptibility, medium and historical context.

The report concludes that the posts satisfy all five criteria.

“It is speech that places Muslim Americans in danger,” the report states, adding that the pattern of elected officials positioning a religious minority as an enemy within “is often the precursor to ethnic violence campaigns against rhetorically targeted groups.”