As Islamophobia ramps up in US midterms, Texas Muslims eye local stakes

Houston, Texas – The final stretch of the United States midterm elections has been shrouded in growing Islamophobia, centred most prominently on Muslim candidates, such as Michigan Democratic Senate hopeful Abdul El-Sayed.

This climate of prejudice may be presenting as a national issue, but it has been years in the making in Texas, where state politicians have pushed rhetoric and policies that Muslim voters say stigmatise their very existence.

Even without a Muslim candidate on a statewide ballot, the election’s stakes, Muslim voters said, are extremely local.

“Honestly, I feel it most through my kids,” said Samir Nadjam, a lawyer from Houston, who attended a “Fall Fest” celebration at a local Islamic centre with his family just days before the November 3 vote.

“As adults we can pick and choose who we associate with,” the 45-year-old said. “But kids, they all go to school together and you’ll have certain families who watch certain news. And kids will say things, just off-putting things.”

Muslims account for less than two percent of Texas’s population, but community organisers hope a major increase in voter turnout could flex electoral muscle. Regardless of party, many Muslim voters told Al Jazeera they wanted to send a message that they are not to be treated as anyone’s political boogeyman.

“Muslims are pushed out. They are discriminated [against] everywhere,” said Emran Gazi, the president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, which oversees more than 30 mosques in the sprawling metropolis.

The society vastly expanded voter registration drives this year, with religious leaders pushing the message during Friday prayers. The ISGH does not endorse specific candidates, Gazi said, but instead urges members to vote their conscience.

“We want to make sure the politicians and officials understand that Muslims need to be factored before they make any decision against Muslims,” he said.

‘Don’t Sharia my Texas’

Several voters said it was not hard to understand the grim rationale of “othering” another group for political gain. But the verve with which the rhetoric and policy have escalated in the Republican-dominated state has been staggering.

“Honestly, it’s been hell,” said Mariam Ahmed, a 42-year-old physician. “It’s got to a point where, within the last two years, I contemplated leaving the US in general.”

“I have a child. I don’t want him to be viewed as a terrorist,” added Ahmed. “I’ve already had to deal with that. I don’t want that to happen to my kid.”

The messaging from Republican Governor Greg Abbott and the state Republican party has coalesced around the concept that ‘Sharia’ – an amorphous term for Islamic customs and practices, which some countries have codified into their governments – poses an imminent threat to the people of Texas.

“We are not waiting on Washington, DC,” Abbott said at the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas last month. “We will fully ban Sharia Law in Texas.”

Senator Ted Cruz, speaking at the same event, echoed the sentiment, saying “Sharia law is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution and we need to stand together and stop it now.”

In June, the state Republican party adopted an official platform dubbed “Don’t Sharia my Texas”, vowing “criminal punishment; disqualification for public, military, and law enforcement service; denaturalisation; and deportment” for any of its proponents.

Texas state legislators launched the “Sharia-free Texas Caucus” in March, which has since gained 38 members in the 150-seat chamber. That came just months after two US Representatives from Texas, Chip Roy and Keith Self, launched the “Sharia-Free America Caucus” in Congress, which has grown to 68 members.

Rights advocates and residents said the emphasis on Islamic law has been as baffling as it has been disconcerting. No jurisdiction in Texas, or the US for that matter, has enacted any form of Islamic law.

“In real life, nobody’s hating on everyone as much as they’re making it seem to be,” said Sarah Dabbas, a 33-year-old physician who recently moved to Houston. “And never in the history of the United States has anyone imposed anything like Muslim law on the government.”

“We can’t do that,” she added. “It’s just how we practice.”

Monitors say state officials have distorted a handful of unique cases, including investigating a company that sought to develop a Muslim-centred housing development in North Texas and groups that oversee voluntary Islamic arbitration, similar to practices in Christianity and Judaism.

The Bridge Initiative, a Georgetown University-based Islamophobia tracker, has said state politicians have increasingly pointed to “ordinary expressions of Muslim civic life” in arguing that Islamic law is encroaching.

That includes “public participation, demographic growth … and involvement in community development,” the group wrote in a report published in February. “In effect, they frame Muslims’ engagement as active citizens, and at times their mere existence, as evidence of a broader threat.”

‘Very hurtful’

The political climate has not spared prominent Republican Muslims in Texas, with the situation coming to a head in June during the Republican Party of Texas Convention.

In one instance, outgoing Republican Party chair Abraham George told two Muslim delegates they should leave the party, the Texas Tribune reported. In another instance, a state senator told a panel that Muslims were “required by Sharia to lie” to fly below the radar.

Those targeted with harassment included the son of party delegate Tarek Hussein, who founded the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) Houston office in the early 2000s.

Governor Abbott, who faces an upstart challenge from Democrat Gina Hinojosa, has sought to designate CAIR Texas as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, a label typically applied by the federal government.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running in a tight Senate race against Democrat James Talarico, has since sued CAIR, seeking to force it to stop operating in the state. CAIR Texas has, in turn, sued Abbott on constitutional grounds of freedom of speech and expression.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, a Muslim Republican who attended the event described the experience as “very hurtful”.

“I have been involved with Republicans for a long time,” said the attendee, who asked that his name not be used for fear of further harassment. “I identify with their business values, family values.”

While still involved in local Republican politics, he said he will leave some Republican candidates off his ballot.

Other conservative Muslims, he said, “may not vote outside the Republican Party, but they might skip voting for some of the candidates”.

‘Raise your hand if you’ve voted yet’

Local organisers said it has been difficult to translate community dismay into statewide political action.

Sania Rahim, who works with the Coalition for Peace, Relief, and Equity, pointed to the vast diversity of Muslims in both Houston and the wider state, with no one ethnicity dominant.

“You can’t just go on an Arabic radio station and tell people about voting, because a large percentage of people don’t speak Arabic,” she said.

Muslim voters in the area have been typically more engaged in local politics than in statewide races, she said.

Still, the Texas Board of Education’s recent approval of a high school curriculum that critics say focuses disproportionately on the concept of “radical Islam”, as well as a misportrayal of the prophet Muhammad, has been a particularly energising issue.

Manning a CAIR Action table at the Islamic centre’s “Fall Fest” in Houston, Sameeha Rizvi, the organisation’s civic engagement organiser, grimaced as she recounted the difficulties of overcoming what she called the “model immigrant” mindset.

“I think the issue that we’re seeing right now is a lot of our leaders think that the best way to move past what is happening to us is putting your head down and staying quiet,” she said. “They may be telling people to vote, but they’re not speaking out in the court of public opinion about a lot of these issues.”

Picking up a microphone, she strained her voice over the din of bounce houses, petting zoos and food vendors.

“Raise your hand if you’ve voted yet,” she said. “Raise your hand if you’re registered to vote and haven’t voted yet.”

“The way we can change things, the way we can make this a safe state for our families, is by voting in this election,” Rizvi said. “There is a clear choice.”