Texas Republicans turn Muslims into new political scapegoat

Imagine, say, a California Assembly candidate attending a political event and saying the following:

“No kosher meat. No yarmulkes. No celebrating Easter. No, no, no.”

He or she would be openly and rightfully criticized for their bigotry and naive prejudices.

At a recent candidate forum outside Dallas, Larry Brock offered the following thoughts as part of a lengthy examination of the Muslim faith.

“We must ban the burqa, the hijab, the abaya, the veil,” the candidate for state representative said, referring to the veils worn by some Muslim women. “No to halal meat. No to celebrating Ramadan. No, no, no.”

Brock, whose comments were reported in the New York Times, is clearly a bigot. (HE also a convicted criminalHe was sentenced to two years in prison for invading the US Capitol on January 6. No to lamb slaughtered by hand. Yes to the looting of our seat of government.)

Brock is not unusual.

For many Texas Republicans participating in the March 3 primaries, Islamophobia has become a central part of their election plans as illegal immigration, long a political thorn in their side, has dulled around the edges.

Attorney General candidate Aaron Reitz released an ad accusing politicians of “bringing millions of Muslims into our country.”

“Conclusion?” he says with a tough man’s look. “More terrorism, more crime. They even want their own illegal city in Texas to impose sharia law.” (More on this in a moment.)

One of his opponents, Republican Rep. Chip Roy, co-founder of the “America Without Sharia Caucus,” has called for an amendment to the Texas Constitution to protect the state’s sensitive lands from Islamization by “radical Marxists.”

In the tight GOP race for the U.S. Senate, incumbent John Cornyn faces a challenge from the state attorney that could end his career. Gen. Ken Paxton accused his fellow Republican of being “soft on radical Islam” in one TV ad, while another described radical Islam as a “bloodthirsty ideology.”

Paxton responded by calling Cornyn’s claims a desperate attack that “failed to take away the fact that he helped radical Islamic Afghans invade Texas”; This was a reference to a visa program that allows people who assist U.S. forces — in other words, friends and allies — to come to America after careful vetting.

There has not been such an intense, passionate political attack on Muslims since the uneasy days after the September 11 attacks.

In the latest example, Democrats are calling for the censure of Florida Republican Rep. Randy Fine after he wrote on X on Sunday: “If they force us to choose, it wouldn’t be hard to choose between dogs and Muslims.” She has since doubled down, posting several photos of dogs with the words “Don’t tread on me.”

In Texas, the poison starts at the top with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott heading for re-election to an unprecedented fourth term.

In November, Abbott issued an executive order designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (the latter a prominent civil rights group) as terrorist organizations.

In order not to go beyond demagogy, candidate Bo French Texas Railroad CommissionHe called on President Trump to round up and deport every Muslim in America. (French, the former Tarrant County GOP chairman, gained notoriety last year for posting an online poll asking “Who is the greater threat to America?” The choice: Jews or Muslims?)

Much of the Republican hysteria has focused on a proposed real estate development project in a corn and hay field 40 miles east of Dallas.

Known as EPIC City, the master-planned community of approximately 1,000 homes was launched by the Islamic Center of East Plano to serve as a Muslim-centered community for the growing number of worshipers in the area. (Of course, anyone can choose to live there, regardless of religious belief.)

Paxton said he would investigate the proposed development as “a potentially illegal ‘Sharia City.'” Last week, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development launched its own investigation after the Justice Department quietly closed an investigation into the project, saying the developers had agreed to comply with federal fair housing laws, a move welcomed by Abbott. That investigation came at Cornyn’s behest.

The rapid resurgence of anti-Muslim sentiment seems hardly coincidental.

For years, Republicans have capitalized on issues of illegal immigration and lax enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border. While illegal crossings have reached a trickle in the Trump era, “Republicans cannot proceed this way on the border issue [they] It has existed in the past,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

Moreover, curbing immigration no longer brings Republicans together like it used to.

Henson, who has spent nearly two decades sampling public opinion in the state, said overall support for Trump’s toughening policies exceeds 80% among Texas Republicans. But when it comes to details like arresting people in church or seizing them when they appear in court, support drops dramatically; roughly mid-40s to mid-50s.

“Republicans need to come up with something else that taps into these cultural identity issues and unites and energizes the GOP base,” Henson said.

In short, fear mongers need a new scapegoat.

Muslims make up 2 percent of the adult population in Texas. Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape StudyIt was completed in 2024. That fits with estimates ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 residents in the state, which has about 32 million residents.

It’s not a very big number.

But that’s enough for reckless politicians who are determined to get themselves elected, even if it means tearing down a group of people.