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Texas Rep. Gene Wu speaks during a rally featuring California Governor Gavin Newsom in Houston, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
The day after a shooting at San Diego\u2019s largest mosque, where gunmen killed three community members, U.S. Rep. Keith Self<\/a>, R-McKinney, didn\u2019t issue a statement on social media acknowledging the attack. Instead, he warned tens of thousands of followers about Muslim \u201cjihadists\u201d taking over the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf the jihadists take total control of our country, non-Muslim Americans will be forced to make a choice: convert, submit, or die,\u201d Self wrote. \u201cThat\u2019s the dark reality of Sharia. It cannot be allowed to operate in America.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n READ MORE: Houston City Council members raise concerns over Islamophobia, political attacks on Muslims<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The rhetoric from GOP leaders, some Texas Democrats say, is creating a climate of hostility against Muslims that can fuel violence. After the attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, Democratic state Reps. Gene Wu, Salman Bhojani and Suleman Lalani put out a joint statement condemning the shooting in San Diego, as well as a threat law enforcement officials say was made at Houston\u2019s Ismaili Center last month<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Authorities are investigating Monday\u2019s shooting in San Diego as a hate crime. The victims were 51-year-old Amin Abdullah, 78-year-old Mansour Kaziha and 57-year-old Nadir Awad.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis hatred does not come from a vacuum,\u201d the Texas representatives said. \u201cIt is fed and allowed to fester by politicians like Greg Abbott and Ken\u00a0Paxton, by the online figures who launder bigotry into content, and by the leaders who know exactly what they are doing when they talk about Muslim communities as an invasion, a conspiracy, or a threat to Texas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Bhojani and Lalani are the first Muslims elected to the Texas Legislature<\/a>. Other Democrats who criticized Republicans\u2019 messaging on Muslims included U.S. Rep. Lloyd\u00a0Doggett of Austin. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cHate breeds violence and today that meant death in San Diego,\u201d Doggett said on social media on Monday. \u201cHate of Muslims is every bit as despicable as hate of Jews or any other minority. Yet Texas Republican politicians have been fanning that hate daily with phony sharia tales just as so many have scapegoated minority communities for social ills.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesman for Abbott, said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle the Democrats\u2019 remarks were an attempt to make a tragedy political.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Democrats making baseless claims that Governor Abbott is somehow responsible for horrific violence in California is a despicable effort to politicize the loss of human life,\u201d Mahaleris said. \u201cGovernor Abbott strongly condemns all violence and threats against places of worship. Governor Abbott will continue to take decisive action against any group that seeks to violate our Constitution and laws, regardless of faith.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Attorney General Ken Paxton did not respond to request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n READ MORE: Woman arrested after plot to ‘kill as many Jews as possible’ at Houston’s Beth Israel, officials say<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Republicans have spent months running a campaign against \u201cSharia law,\u201d using language that frames it as an anti-American legal system as opposed to a spiritual framework for Muslims. While some officials condemn Sharia, others, like U.S. Rep. Chip Roy<\/a> \u2014 who is vying for attorney general \u2014 have said Islam in its entirety is a threat, incompatible with Western civilization.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last month, a Washington-based think tank, the Center for the Study of Organized Hate, released a report tracing the origins of the recent wave of what it referred to as an anti-Muslim campaign. The researchers reviewed over a thousand social media posts from elected officials and said many \u201csatisfy all five criteria for speech likely to inspire violence.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The report attributes the start of the campaign to a social media post from Abbott on Feb. 24, 2025<\/a>. Abbott responded to anti-Islam activist Amy Mekelburg and said that Sharia law, Sharia cities and \u201cno go zones,\u201d are not allowed in Texas.\u00a0Mekelburg’s post was about the East\u00a0Plano Islamic Center City, now called The Meadow, which is a controversial planned Muslim-oriented community that leaders accused of trying to implement Sharia law in Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAbbott’s post served as a catalyst,\u201d the report said. \u201cMultiple right-wing influencers immediately began posting about \u2018creeping Sharia,\u2019 \u2018Sharia law,\u2019 and \u2018Sharia takeover\u2019 in the US, citing EPIC city as an example.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Gov. Greg Abbott speaks at a primary election night event hosted by the Young Conservatives of Texas and the Texas Young Republicans at Cedar Door Patio Bar & Grill in Austin on Tuesday, March 3, 2026.<\/p>\n Jay Janner\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n \u2018The Muslim boogeyman\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Raqib Naik, the nonprofit\u2019s founder and executive director, said in an interview with the Chronicle that much of the anti-Muslim rhetoric today had previously existed in more fringe political communities, but has now entered the mainstream through the GOP. \u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cYou have these MAGA influencers, social media influencers, and elected officials reinforcing each other’s talking points and building off of these giant national campaigns that sometimes turn into bills in Congress itself and the caucuses,\u201d Naik said.\u00a0<\/p>\n One influencer who has emerged as a prominent voice in anti-Islam online spaces is Alexander Duncan, who previously ran an unsuccessful bid in Texas for a U.S. Senate seat. Duncan frequently posts about an Islamic invasion in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n