Texas Republicans turn Muslims into new political scapegoat
Imagine if a candidate for, say, the California Assembly showed up at a political event and uttered the following remarks:
“No to kosher meat. No to the yarmulke. No to celebrating Easter. No, no, no.”
He or she would be openly – and rightly – criticized for bigotry and brutal prejudice.
Recently, at a candidate forum outside of Dallas, Larry Brock expressed the following sentiments as part of a lengthy debate about the Muslim faith.
“We should ban the burqa, the hijab, the abaya, the niqab,” said the candidate for state representative, referring to the coverings worn by some Muslim women. “No to halal meat. No to celebrating Ramadan. No, no, no.”
Brock, whose comments were reported by the New York Times, is clearly a bigot. (He’s also a convicted felon, sentenced to two years in prison for invading the U.S. Capitol on January 6. No to lamb slaughtering. Yes to despoiling our seat of government.)
Brock is no exception.
For many Texas Republicans running in the March 3 primaries, Islamophobia has become a central part of their election platform, as a long-held political spear — illegal immigration — has blunted at its edges.
Aaron Reitz, candidate for attorney general, ran an ad accusing politicians of importing “millions of Muslims into our country.”
“The result?” he said with a tough guy look. “More terrorism, more crime. And they even want their own illegal Texas towns to impose Sharia law.” (More on that in a moment.)
One of his opponents, Republican Chip Roy – co-founder of the “Sharia-Free America Caucus” – called for amending the Texas Constitution to protect the state’s soft soil from Islamization by “radical Marxists”.
In the bitter GOP race for U.S. Senate, incumbent John Cornyn faces a potentially career-ending challenge from state Atty. General Ken Paxton aired a television spot accusing his fellow Republican of being “soft on radical Islam” and another describing radical Islam “as a bloodthirsty ideology.”
Paxton responded by calling Cornyn’s claims a desperate attack “that cannot erase the fact that he helped radical Islamic Afghans invade Texas,” a reference to a visa program that allowed people who aided U.S. forces — in other words friends and allies — to come to America after being carefully screened.
There has not been such a concentrated and blistering political attack on Muslims since the agonizing days following the September 11 attacks.
In the latest case, Democrats are calling for the censure of Florida Republican Representative Randy Fine after he wrote on X on Sunday: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not difficult.” » Since then, he has doubled down on his efforts by posting several images of dogs with the words “Don’t tread on me.”
In Texas, the venom starts at the top with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is heading for re-election to an unprecedented fourth term.
In November, Abbott issued an executive order designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations – the latter a major civil rights group – as terrorist organizations.
Not to be demagogued, Bo French, candidate for the Texas Railroad Commission, called on President Trump to round up and expel all Muslims in America. (French, the former Tarrant County GOP chairman, gained notoriety last year for posting an online poll asking, “Who poses the greatest threat to America?” The choice: Jews or Muslims.)
Much of the Republican hysteria has focused on a proposed real estate development in a corn and hay field 40 miles east of Dallas.
The approximately 1,000-unit planned community, known as EPIC City, was initiated by the East Plano Islamic Center to serve as an Islamic-centered community for the area’s growing number of worshipers. (Of course, anyone can choose to live there, regardless of their religious faith.)
Paxton said he would investigate the proposed development, calling it a potentially illegal “Sharia town.” » Last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development launched its own investigation — a move praised by Abbott — after the Justice Department quietly closed an investigation into the project, saying the developers had agreed to follow federal fair housing laws. This investigation was conducted at Cornyn’s request.
The widespread resurgence of anti-Muslim sentiment hardly seems to be a coincidence.
For years, Republicans have capitalized on the problems of illegal immigration and lax enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border. While illegal crossings have slowed to a trickle under Trump, “Republicans cannot rush to the border issue in the same way.” [they] “We’ve done it in the past,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
In addition, the crackdown on immigration no longer brings Republicans together as it once did.
Overall support for Trump’s tougher policies exceeds 80% among Texas Republicans, said Henson, who has spent nearly two decades surveying public opinion in the state. But support drops significantly, between about 45 and 55, when it comes to specific details such as arresting people at church or seizing them when they appear in court.
“Republicans need to find something else that taps into these cultural identity issues” and unifies and enlivens the GOP base, Henson said.
In short, the alarmists need a new scapegoat.
Muslims make up about 2% of Texas’ adult population, according to the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study, completed in 2024. That corresponds to estimates ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 residents in a state of nearly 32 million.
It’s not a huge number.
But that’s enough for happy-go-lucky politicians determined to get elected, even if it means tearing down an entire group of people in the process.
