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Imam Abdullah Antepli, president of Rothko Chapel, poses for a portrait in the historic spiritual space in Houston, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026. Antepli began his role at the\u00a0Rothko Chapel in September 2025.<\/p>\n
Brett Coomer\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Houston Stands with Palestine rally participants, including former Houston City Councilman M.J. Khan, in red, pray at Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park after a march around The Galleria Saturday, May 22, 2021, in Houston.<\/p>\n
Yi-Chin Lee, Houston Chronicle \/ Staff photographer<\/p>\n
Six days after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001<\/a>, former President George W. Bush visited a mosque in Washington, quoted the Quran and lamented the attack and the anti-Islam response that followed it.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMuslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country,\u201d Bush said as he stood alongside the co-founder of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. \u201cThe face of terror is not the true faith of Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n A year later, Texas’ then-governor, Rick Perry, praised Muslim people when he attended the opening of an Ismaili Muslim center in Sugar Land. “Texas is a better place because of your contributions and sacrifices,” he said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n FROM THE\u00a0ARCHIVES: Ismaili Muslim center opens in Sugar Land<\/a><\/p>\n Texas\u2019 relationship with its growing Muslim population has shifted sharply since then. Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Muslim leaders in Houston said today\u2019s climate is far worse for their community than the aftermath of attacks that forever changed Americans’ relationship with Islam and Muslim-majority countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the last two years, the state\u2019s Republican political leaders have warned of a “Muslim invasion.”<\/a> Last year, Gov. Greg Abbott declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations<\/a> to be a foreign terrorist organization, and said he\u2019d barred members of the civil rights group from owning property in Texas.<\/p>\n Last month, the governor asked the Department of Justice<\/a> to investigate facilities at Texas airports designed to accommodate Islam\u2019s directive that Muslims wash before prayer. He argued they were unfair to non-Muslims and amounted to religious discrimination.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cTen Commandments = good. Muslim foot washing rituals = bad. Next question,\u201d U.S. House Rep. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound posted to X<\/a> after Abbott began criticizing the facilities.<\/p>\n Diplomats, imams and politicians said in interviews that they\u2019re worried rising hostility toward the Muslim community will worsen the United States’ ability to fight terrorism and maintain a healthy democracy. They urged members of their own community to participate as much as possible in American democracy \u2014 to build political institutions with a broader focus than fighting Islamophobia, and cultivate coalitions and relationships outside of their comfort zones.<\/p>\n READ MORE: \u2018A sense of belonging\u2019: Muslim travelers defend IAH washrooms amid Greg Abbott\u2019s attacks<\/a><\/p>\n “It pains me, really, to see half of Texas fearful of Sharia,” said Imam\u00a0Abdullah Antepli, president of the\u00a0interfaith Rothko Chapel in Montrose. “They see an image of Islam and Muslims, and they are enveloped with fear, and my community has yet to develop a discourse or counter-strategy in any meaningful and effective way.”<\/p>\n From Sept. 11 to Oct. 7<\/p>\n On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked and crashed two planes into the Twin Towers in New York\u2019s World Trade Center, setting the buildings aflame until they eventually collapsed. A third plane hit the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field, killing everyone on board, after passengers fought the hijackers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The attacks killed 2,977 people<\/a>, not counting the 19 hijackers. An estimated 17,400 people<\/a> were in the two towers that morning, and thousands were injured.\u00a0<\/p>\n Muslim city leader M.J. Khan said Houston was a \u201cmodel of interfaith harmony\u201d in the aftermath of those attacks. He praised Texas and national leaders for distinguishing between Muslims as a whole and the actions of radical terrorists.\u00a0<\/p>\n Q&A:\u00a0M.J. Khan, Houston mayoral candidate, answers questions from the editorial board<\/a><\/p>\n Two years after the attacks, Khan was elected the first openly Muslim member of the Houston City Council.<\/p>\n \u201cI can say categorically that I never faced any kind of hurdles because of my faith or because of my ethnicity running for City Council,\u201d he said. Khan served on the council from 2004 to 2009, representing District F.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Candidate M.J. Khan, standing on stage, gives his introduction statement along with other candidates as Casey Curry, in yellow, moderates during a mayoral candidates forum, sponsored by the Calition for Barrier Free Living and The Mayor\u00d5s Office for People with Disabilities, held at the West Gray Multi Service Center Thursday, Sept. 14, 2023 in Houston.<\/p>\n Michael Wyke\/Contributor<\/p>\n For many Americans, the horrific attacks were the first time they paid serious attention to a religion that\u2019s been around for over a thousand years, according to Antepli. He said it took time for negative views of Islam to percolate.<\/p>\n \u201cHate is something learned, and it has a long incubation period,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n He cited a 2002 Pew Research report<\/a> that found 47% of U.S. respondents said they viewed Muslims favorably, and 29% said they viewed them unfavorably. In contrast, a 2023 report found that only 17% of Americans<\/a> viewed Muslim people very or somewhat favorably. More than half reported a view that was neither favorable nor unfavorable, or answered that they didn\u2019t know enough to say.<\/p>\n So why has the attitude toward\u00a0Muslims in the U.S. undergone such a shift?\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n READ MORE: Fight over Islam is key focus ahead of pivotal high school curriculum vote<\/a><\/p>\n All the Muslim leaders who spoke to the Chronicle for this story cited one date as the turning point: Oct. 7, 2023. That was the day Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 others hostage, according to the Israeli military.\u00a0<\/p>\n In response to the attacks, Israel\u2019s military offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which was part of the Hamas-run government. The ministry maintains detailed records that U.N. agencies and international organizations generally view as reliable, according\u00a0to the Associated Press<\/a>. It does not distinguish between civilians and militants, but says women and children make up around half of all fatalities.<\/p>\n Muslim leaders didn\u2019t know for sure why the 2023 Hamas attacks had been followed by such a spike in hostility to Islam, but they offered several possible explanations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tarek Hussein, the founder of CAIR-Houston, said the slew of negative messaging about Muslims is a tool to distract Americans from empathizing with the tens of thousands of civilians who have been killed in Gaza, whose population is predominantly Muslim. He worried that labeling Muslims as “the enemy” would erode Americans’ empathy.<\/p>\n Tarek Hussein is seen during the Texas GOP Convention at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Saturday, June 13, 2026.<\/p>\n Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s very dangerous, very dangerous in anyone to believe that it’s okay that I can kill a child,\u201d he said. Hussein was a delegate at the Republican Party of Texas Convention this summer, but was asked to leave<\/a> the convention due to his affiliation with CAIR and Muslim identity.\u00a0<\/p>\n READ MORE: As Texas GOP leaders preached unity, delegates targeted Muslim party members<\/a><\/p>\n Antepli described what he called an \u201cIslamophobia industry\u201d \u2014 a network of influencers, blogs, and think tanks that focus primarily on sharing provocative, fear-inducing content about Muslim people or communities.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTheir ability to dehumanize Islam and Muslims advances their political agenda and justifies certain foreign policy issues in the United States,\u201d he\u00a0said, citing foreign policy goals such as war with Muslim-majority countries like Iran.\u00a0<\/p>\n Islamophobia and its consequences<\/p>\n Sada Cumber, a former diplomat appointed by President Bush, praised how the former president distinguished between terrorists and all Muslims in the aftermath of Sept. 11.\u00a0At the time, terrorist groups wanted to portray Sept. 11 as the start of a religious war between Islam and the West, according to Cumber. \u201cIf America had accepted that framing, we would have strengthened their recruitment narrative and alienated potential partners,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n READ MORE: Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans ramp up anti-Sharia rhetoric. Religion scholars call it a distortion.<\/a><\/p>\n In 2008, Bush appointed Cumber as a special envoy to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which today includes 57 member states. Cumber said his job was to convince Muslim-majority countries that \u201cthe U.S. was not at war with Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n As part of his work, he pressed OIC leaders to condemn terrorism and suicide bombing unequivocally, preventing extremist groups from claiming they spoke for the broader Muslim world. Now, the U.S. doesn’t have a dedicated special envoy to the\u00a0OIC, though another diplomat is taking on some of those duties.<\/p>\n Cumber said the absence of a full-time diplomat in that role is a loss primarily for the U.S. It \u201ccreates space for American competitors and extremist movements to define America\u2019s intentions,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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