TEXAS \u2014 Targeting Islam and stopping what many conservatives call the \u201cIslamification\u201d of Texas is an increasingly\u00a0popular campaign promise.\u00a0Islam is a faith practiced by over 300,000 Muslims in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are a variety of Islamist movements operating across Texas,\u201d said Samuel Westrop, the director of the Islamist Watch project at the Middle East Forum.<\/p>\n
The national\u00a0conservative\u00a0think tank Middle East Forum is dedicated to defeating\u00a0what it calls\u00a0radical Islam, a claim that people within the faith want to impose their own religious law\u00a0on secular society. Westrop wants to see politicians distinguishing between\u00a0people whose interpretation of Islam threatens others and those who peacefully practice the religion.<\/p>\n
There is still a dangerous impact on the Muslim community, according to Sameeha Rizvi, a policy and advocacy coordinator for the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. In November, Gov. Greg Abbott designated CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, Islam, extremists, etc., have been conflated with one another. And then also on top of that, they\u2019re attacking civil rights groups like CAIR and using terrorist imagery to depict us when we\u2019ve only denounced terrorism,\u201d said Rizvi.<\/p>\n
In his bid for reelection, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, ran an ad outlining his opposition to CAIR.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m fighting to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Council on American-Islamic Relations,\u201d said Cornyn.<\/p>\n
And when an ad from a PAC on behalf of Cornyn called\u00a0Texas Attorney General Ken\u00a0Paxton, his top opponent, \u201cweird,\u201d Paxton called out Cornyn for his support of \u201cradical Islamic Afghans<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n