Texas becomes flashpoint as anti-Muslim politics enters mainstream
From candidate's call for "every Muslim" to be "gone" to state action against mosques and Eid events, ordinary Muslim life is being recast as a threat
HOUSTON (MNTV) — Texas has become one of the most visible fronts in a broadening campaign on the American right that portrays ordinary Muslim communities and religious practices as threats — a shift Muslim advocates call the most severe wave of Islamophobia they have seen.
The rhetoric has grown explicit. Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, wrote on social media in June, “I won’t rest until every Muslim is gone,” and earlier posted a poll asking whether Jews or Muslims were a “bigger threat” — prompting condemnation from senior Texas Republicans, including Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker, who called for his resignation as Tarrant County GOP chair.
At the state Republican convention, multiple panels reportedly warned of a “Muslim invasion.”
State action has followed the rhetoric: Governor Greg Abbott designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest U.S. Muslim civil rights group, a terrorist organization under Texas law — a step even the Trump administration has not taken, though Florida later followed — threatened to pull $530,000 from the city of Grand Prairie over a private Eid celebration at a water park, and targeted ablution facilities, used for ritual washing before prayer, at Texas airports.
Much of the campaign treats routine religious practice as evidence of political ambition.
Officials have singled out Islamic arbitration for scrutiny, though, like Jewish and Christian religious arbitration, it is voluntary and subject to U.S. courts; and the East Plano Islamic Center’s proposed mosque, school, and housing development near Dallas has faced state scrutiny far beyond an ordinary land-use dispute. Some Texas lawmakers are exploring ways to define what qualifies as a religion — potentially placing Islam outside normal constitutional protection.
Advocates say the trend extends well beyond Texas, 25 years after the September 11 attacks, with figures such as Representatives Nancy Mace and Randy Fine making openly hostile statements.
“This is the worst wave I’ve witnessed,” said Shaimaa Zayan of CAIR’s Austin chapter.
The deeper danger, critics argue, is a precedent that religious protection can hinge on political approval: the First Amendment, they note, does not shield only popular faiths, and a standard used against Muslims today could reach other communities tomorrow.
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