{"id":139616,"date":"2026-01-27T08:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T08:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/139616\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T08:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T08:30:19","slug":"anti-islam-rhetoric-takes-over-texas-gop-primaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/139616\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-Islam rhetoric takes over Texas GOP primaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Aaron Reitz aired his first television ad<\/a> Wednesday pitching himself to voters as the best Republican candidate for Texas attorney general. But his commercial didn\u2019t highlight his endorsement from outgoing attorney general Ken Paxton or his work under President Donald Trump. He didn\u2019t discuss border security or election law.<\/p>\n

Instead, Reitz pledged to target a religion practiced by hundreds of thousands of Texans.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoliticians have imported millions of Muslims into our country,\u201d Reitz said in the ad. \u201cThe result? More terrorism, more crime and they even want their own illegal cities in Texas to impose Sharia law. Not on my watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reitz\u2019s ad is the latest example of Texas GOP candidates making anti-Muslim rhetoric a central piece of their messaging this cycle. As conservative activists push Republicans to take a harder line against Muslims, and the GOP and its factions debate what constitutes American identity, opposition to Islam has become a key campaign pillar for some Texas Republicans in statewide races and beyond.<\/p>\n

Muslim civil rights groups say the negative messaging from Republicans around Islam is broader, more extreme and more frequent than in years past, and they worry about the cumulative effect of both heightened rhetoric and anti-Muslim policies. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely more coordinated than it was before,\u201d said Sameeha Rizvi, the policy and advocacy coordinator for the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing it on a national and state level, and we\u2019re seeing so-called influencer activists on the far right using this as a tool to further burn the flames of anti-Muslim rhetoric and hate.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are over 300,000 Muslims in Texas \u2014 more than all but four states \u2014 and long-established Muslim communities in Houston and North Texas. <\/p>\n

The candidates characterize their opposition to Islam as an immigration issue, criticizing Muslim immigrants for not properly assimilating and claiming they wish to proliferate their values among other Texans .<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a coordinated political effort to Islamify Texas, and you\u2019ve got to say it, you\u2019ve got to mean it, you\u2019ve got to push the Legislature to pass laws,\u201d U.S. Rep. Chip Roy<\/a>, who is also running for attorney general, said<\/a> in an interview with Steve Bannon. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to tweak the Texas Constitution. Whatever\u2019s necessary to protect Texas from being Islamified by the radical Marxists.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with The Texas Tribune, Roy said he respects freedom of religion and has no problem with people who hold different beliefs but love America. The problem, he said, is when the practice of their religion becomes political \u2014 and he believes Islam to some extent is inherently political.<\/p>\n

Roy and Rep. Keith Self<\/a>, R-McKinney, formed the Sharia-Free America Caucus in December. Both are sponsors of a bill that would deny anyone who \u201cadheres to Sharia law\u201d entry into the U.S. and mandate the removal of non-citizen Sharia adherents.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just campaign rhetoric. In November, Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a> issued an executive order designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, as terrorist organizations. Numerous Republican politicians in Texas have attempted to stop the proposed East Plano Islamic Center, a planned residential development in North Texas that has become a flashpoint in state GOP politics as Republicans accuse leaders of attempting to create an exclusive community that enforces Sharia law. Developers say the community is open to all Texans, regardless of religious background.<\/p>\n

Muslim civil rights organizations are fighting<\/a> many of these actions in court, and are confident that items like Abbott\u2019s CAIR proclamation violate the Constitution. CAIR has vehemently denied<\/a> Abbott\u2019s accusations that it has any ties to terrorist groups, and The Houston Chronicle reported<\/a> that the organization worked with the FBI to stop an attack on President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n

But advocates say even if the policies are unenforceable or legally dubious, the political rhetoric around Islam is intended to undermine Texas\u2019 Muslim community and members\u2019 ability to practice civic engagement. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt forces impossible choices,\u201d Marium Uddin, the legal director at the Muslim Legal Fund of America and a longtime Texas lawyer, wrote in an email. \u201cUnder this framework, Muslims are punished for ordinary civic participation. Organize? You may be designated extremist. Donate? Your charity may be weaponized decades later. Build a community? It may be labeled a \u2018compound.\u2019 Speak out? Your speech becomes evidence against you. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not regulation,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is systematic exclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In campaigns<\/p>\n

In the attorney general\u2019s race, both Roy and Reitz, a former deputy attorney general, are pledging to use the office to go after what they call Islamification, including the East Plano Islamic Center development, which is now called The Meadow.<\/p>\n

Roy told the Texas Tribune as attorney general, he could use deceptive trade practice law and look closely at the finances of organizations he believes are promoting political Islam \u2014 legal tools, he said, that do not infringe on freedom of religion.<\/p>\n

Reitz, meanwhile, has said he will \u201ccreate a legal environment so inhospitable\u201d to Islamists \u2014 or people who believe Islam should influence public life and government \u2014 that they\u2019ll self-deport or go to jail.<\/p>\n

In an interview with OAN in November, Reitz criticized \u201csquish Republicans\u201d who believe the First Amendment, which enshrines freedom of religion, prevents politicians from taking on CAIR and developments like the one in North Texas. Reitz told the Tribune he believes \u201cterror-linked outfits\u201d have \u201cburrowed\u201d into Muslim communities in Texas, and that they pose an \u201cexistential threat to our civilization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reitz said he plans to treat \u201cIslamism\u201d, as he\u2019s referred to it, like federal prosecutors treated organized crime syndicates\u2014 successfully going after them for process crimes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Texas Attorney General, I\u2019ll crush this sprawling web of Sharia supremacists just like the feds dismantled the Mafia, unleashing every tool in my legal arsenal: corporate crackdowns, nonprofit shutdowns, environmental enforcements, health and safety violations, regulatory hammers, criminal prosecutions, financial seizures, property forfeitures, and constitutional challenges,\u201d Reitz said. \u201cWe\u2019ll starve them out until they have no choice but to pack up and crawl back to where they came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the hotly contested U.S. Senate primary, candidates have used Sharia law as a cudgel to go after one another. Paxton, who is challenging Sen. John Cornyn<\/a> in the GOP primary, sued<\/a> the East Plano Islamic Center development and its leaders in December. But Cornyn has kept the heat on Paxton over the development, saying in a digital ad<\/a> as early as April that Paxton is \u201ctoo corrupt and compromised\u201d to protect Texans from what the ad\u2019s narrator calls a \u201csafe haven for Sharia law.\u201d The Cornyn campaign has routinely attacked Paxton for sharing a personal lawyer with the Islamic Center\u2019s developers.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Cornyn campaign launched a TV ad<\/a> called \u201cEvil Face\u201d in which Cornyn, narrating and speaking to the camera says, \u201cRadical Islam is a bloodthirsty ideology\u201d and notes his efforts to revoke CAIR\u2019s tax-exempt status.<\/p>\n

Paxton, meanwhile, called Cornyn\u2019s attacks a \u201cdesperate hail mary that can\u2019t erase the fact that he helped radical Islamic Afghans invade Texas\u201d \u2014 referencing a visa program for Afghans who helped U.S. forces to come to the country after a significant screening process. Both Cornyn and Hunt have supported<\/a> the program, though Cornyn said<\/a> in 2025 he does not have confidence in the vetting process for separate parole programs used by Afghan evacuees.<\/p>\n

Houston Rep. Wesley Hunt<\/a>\u2019s campaign released a digital ad<\/a> of his own called \u201cSharia John\u201d, using clips of Cornyn wishing Muslim Texans a good fast for Ramadan.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Hunt framed the debate as one about immigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs someone who served in combat in the Middle East, I have witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences of Sharia law,\u201d Hunt said. \u201cIt is fundamentally incompatible with the values that define America, individual liberty, equality under the law, and freedom of conscience. We are a welcoming people and a nation built by immigrants, but America does not survive without assimilation.\u201d<\/p>\n

House hopefuls are also jockeying to be more stridently opposed to Islam than their opponents.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Steve Toth launched a primary campaign against Houston Rep. Dan Crenshaw in July, and has attacked him on a number of issues, bashing his support for Ukraine aid and his rebukes<\/a> of fellow Republicans who contested the 2020 election. But in his first campaign ad, Toth went after Muslims.<\/p>\n

\u201cDan Crenshaw\u2019s immigration plan is dangerous, demanding we allow more Muslim immigrants,\u201d a narrator says in Toth\u2019s ad<\/a>. \u201cCrenshaw even voted to bring thousands more from Afghanistan to our neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crenshaw\u2019s campaign called Toth\u2019s ad disingenuous and disrespectful. The congressman has supported resettling Afghans who assisted U.S. forces in the wake of the Taliban takeover of the country in 2021, with proper vetting, through Special Immigrant Visas. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the Taliban seized control, our allies who survived were forced into hiding, hunted by terrorists, or murdered for their cooperation with the United States,\u201d the Crenshaw campaign said in a statement. \u201cAbandoning them was a moral failure \u2014 and pretending their protection is reckless immigration policy only compounds that disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Implications<\/p>\n

Texas\u2019 Muslim community has grown in size and in political power over the years. The first two Muslim state legislators, both Democrats, were elected<\/a> to their positions in 2022. <\/p>\n

But Muslims are an increasingly swingy political group. The Pew Research Center\u2019s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Survey<\/a> found that 42% of Muslim adults lean Republican, and that while the majority have preferences on immigration and the size of government that align with Democrats, majorities also have social beliefs on sexuality and gender identity, for example, that are more aligned with Republicans.<\/p>\n

Texas lawmakers who traffic in anti-Muslim rhetoric could be isolating potential voters.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Anti-Muslim rhetoric] is a familiar pattern in Texas politics,\u201d Rizvi said. \u201cThey\u2019re just recycling the same political tactics, but intensifying it through their own political advocacy. But at the same time, they\u2019re also seeing how Muslim and non-Muslim communities have been responding. We\u2019re also organized. We\u2019re also effective.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Aaron Reitz aired his first television ad Wednesday pitching himself to voters as the best Republican…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30485,288,392,11672,3309,2915,27,29,28,6588,6474],"class_list":["post-139616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-council-on-american-islamic-relations","tag-elections","tag-greg-abbott","tag-islam","tag-john-cornyn","tag-religion-and-politics","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-well-c-homepage","tag-wesley-hunt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}