Muslims across Texas have described a pattern of harassment in schools, stores, and at public gatherings that community members say mirrors the language of elected officials, following a Republican primary runoff in which anti-Muslim rhetoric featured prominently.
Naila Syed, a Dallas resident and member of the Islamic Center of North America Council for Social Justice, told The Guardian that her two young daughters were confronted at school by a fellow student who asked if they knew that followers of Islam treated women poorly. “To have a kid who has these points ready and memorized like this is just very concerning as a parent,” Syed told The Guardian. “It definitely trickles down,” she said, describing the effect of political rhetoric.
At the University of Houston, Muslim students who were praying said a man approached them and burned a Qur’an, according to The Guardian. Other Muslims reported being verbally attacked for wearing traditional garments. Several people requested pseudonyms because they have already faced threats and online harassment, community members said.
At the Texas Republican convention in Houston earlier this month, Muslim attendees — including some delegates — said they were told to convert to Christianity or leave the country, according to The Guardian. One Muslim who attended and spoke to the press on condition of anonymity said he has since been attacked online by strangers. He said several attendees stood up for him when he was singled out, but he was rattled by hearing Muslims repeatedly called terrorists and told to leave. “We care about the issues that every single American cares about,” he said. “We are family people, we are fathers, we are husbands, we are employees, we are employers.”
The convention also adopted a legislative priority called “Don’t Sharia Our Texas,” according to The Guardian, which community members said effectively calls for the criminalization of Sharia law. Experts have repeatedly pointed out that no individual or institution has been trying to implement Sharia law in Texas, The Guardian reported.
Separately, a woman filmed verbally accosting two Muslim women in a grocery store, saying “Islam is a terrorist organization, not a religion” and “This is not a Muslim country; this is a Christian country,” has raised nearly $145,000 from supporters, according to The Guardian. Republican Rep. Nancy Mace has expressed support for the woman, the article said. Mace and Rep. Brandon Gill, who represents Texas’s 26th congressional district, have introduced legislation to bar or suspend immigration from countries such as Somalia. The Guardian reported that Gill sent a fundraising email to constituents titled “Stop Islamic Immigration Now or Our Children Will Pay the Price” and said on Fox News that if immigration from Muslim-majority countries continues, “my daughter and daughters across the country who are going to public schools wearing burqas.”
The Texas State Board of Education recently advanced a proposed rewrite of social studies standards, according to The Guardian, that would place greater emphasis on American exceptionalism and Judeo-Christian influences while reducing lessons on slavery, segregation, and civil rights, and scaling back instruction on world cultures and religions. At a hearing, at least half a dozen speakers objected to lessons about Muslim civilizations and the role of Islam in world history, The Guardian reported. Syed, who attended, said she felt participants were speaking about Muslims rather than to them. “I would just look at them and be like, ‘Hello, I’m right here. I’m a visible Muslim. I wear the hijab,’” she recalled.
Shehla Faizi, a Green Party candidate for state comptroller, told The Guardian she was not surprised by the convention’s bigotry. “It was only a matter of time before something like this happened to a Muslim who always backed Republican,” she said. Faizi said racism causes people “to shrink themselves in a sense in their everyday lives. It’s a psychological suppression, because you are shrinking yourself to just be sure that you are not attacked.”
Dr. Suleman Lalani, one of Texas’s two Muslim legislators, founded the state House’s interfaith caucus in response to politicians using religion as a weapon, according to The Guardian. On June 23, he hosted a panel in Houston on “the politicization of faith” with imams, rabbis, and reverends. “Ignorance leads to fear, and fear leads to hate,” Lalani told the audience, according to The Guardian.