Ali Sohail Ishaq, an Austinite and practicing Muslim in his 40s, remembers growing up playing Call of Duty with his childhood friends, firing shots through virtual war zones set in majority-Muslim countries. “Islamophobia is something that American Muslims are familiar with – we’ve all grown up with it,” Ishaq said.
But it’s becoming increasingly present in Texas, he noted. Since around November, the beginning of the 2026 March primary election season, Texas GOP candidates have flooded their campaign messaging and materials with anti-Muslim rhetoric, “to throw red meat at their base,” Ishaq suspects.
Incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texan Republicans and runoff candidates racing for the U.S. Senate seat in November against Democrat James Talarico, have both made policy against the “Islamification of Texas” a cornerstone of their campaigns.
In mid-February, Cornyn brought the “Defeat Sharia Law in America Act” to the Senate, while Paxton wields his office to sue and investigate Muslim organizations in the state. “Sharia Law is the antithesis of the rights, beliefs, and values that make Texas and America great, and we must root out and eradicate this existential threat to our way of life,” Cornyn said in a statement.
On March 18, U.S. Rep. Keith Self announced that the “Sharia Free America Caucus” he chairs with Rep. Chip Roy has grown to 57 U.S. House members across 22 states, including 16 from Texas. “Texas is under assault, and Sharia Law is directly in conflict with Western civilization,” Roy posted to X in January.
“It’s pretty crazy, especially because of the hollow, kind of empty reasoning behind it,” Ishaq said. “There’s a bunch of people who are trying to get reelected, and that’s it.”
Shifting Blame
As Austin mourned the horrific mass shooting at Buford’s bar on West Sixth Street that killed four people and injured 15 more on the morning of March 1, Texas and federal Republicans logged on to social media to use the tragedy as fodder for anti-Muslim rhetoric. They referred to the fact that the shooter, Ndiaga Diagne, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Senegal, had worn clothing that read “Property of Allah” with imagery of an Iranian flag, as reported by the Associated Press.
Gov. Greg Abbott quickly scapegoated the immigrant community for the senseless tragedy. “The problem here … is not the gun show loophole. It’s the unvetted immigrant loophole. Allowing unvetted immigrants who are hostile to America, who are loyal to our adversaries like Iran, must end,” the governor wrote hours after the shooting.
Aaron Reitz, failed 2026 GOP candidate for attorney general, also took to X: “In light of the shooting in Austin at the hands of an African Muslim immigrant, remember: Islam is not compatible with American Civilization. Audit all ‘legal’ immigrants’ papers and deport as many as possible. Eliminate ‘gun free zones’ – aka ‘we’re sitting ducks zones.’”
Reitz referred to the fact that while Sixth Street is subject to open-carry gun law, private businesses like Buford’s have the right to impose their own no-gun policies.
Austin City Council Member Zo Qadri, who represents the district where the shooting occurred, watched with disappointment as state and federal legislators continued to publish Islamophobic comments through the early weeks of March, scapegoating entire communities of Muslims and immigrants for the loss of life in Austin. “And there was no one censoring them,” he told the Chronicle. “There was no one pushing back.”
“Rather than focus on … the fact that this person was deeply disturbed, had domestic violence cases, and was still able to legally buy the guns that he had on him – that he shot, killed, and injured folks – it’s just become Islamophobia, Islamophobia, Islamophobia,” Qadri said.
Islamophobic rhetoric from our state’s top elected officials has trickled down to some of their constituents, seemingly emboldened by the comments made by their representatives, Qadri added. “They’re tweeting at me, ‘Your religion did this.’ ‘Muslims shouldn’t be in this country.’ ‘Muslims shouldn’t be in elected office,’” Qadri said.
Aneela Charania, a Muslim Austinite and Texan of almost 50 years, is saddened to once again see mounting Islamophobia after a tragedy. “Having grown up in Texas, and having been through what we went through after 9/11, it’s so difficult to see Muslims being framed by something completely different from what we stand for,” Charania said.
“Anytime anybody is hurt, victimized, or killed, it absolutely saddens and breaks my heart,” she continued. “At the same time, when a white Christian person commits a crime or mass shooting … nobody tries to blame Christianity, or white people as a race, or as a religion, because nobody should.”
Smoke and Mirrors
As Charania scrolled through Facebook and X, reading posts made by top Texas GOP members – Roy, Self, Abbott, Paxton, and others seeking reelection or higher office in November – warning against “the threat of Sharia law,” she wondered if they had any idea what the term meant.
“It’s similar to the Ten Commandments,” Charania clarified. “Sharia is guiding basic principles on giving charity, being kind to your neighbor, respecting your parents, not drinking alcohol, not gambling … that people can choose to follow on a personal level.”
Several Texas officials have claimed that the Muslim community seeks to impose “Sharia law” over the U.S. Constitution. “Even the Quran itself says to abide by the rules of the land that you’re in,” Charania said.
In the name of banning Sharia law, Abbott and Paxton are spending state resources to shut down one organization in particular: the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Founded in 1994, CAIR is the largest and longest-standing Muslim civil rights nonprofit organization in the U.S., with branches in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Houston.
“The first thing we do is we offer pro bono legal services and representation for civil rights violations, for anyone who is being discriminated against for their race, gender, age, religion, or disability,” Imran Ghani, operations director of CAIR-Texas, told the Chronicle, noting the organization also frequently meets with elected officials to discuss policy issues.
CAIR has also loudly vocalized opposition to the genocide in Gaza, even as acting Comptroller Kelly Hancock doubled Texas’ investment in Israeli bonds in February. In early March, the two countries initiated war in Iran, with Iran and Lebanon alone reporting over 4,000 deaths as of March 19. On March 17, CAIR called on the U.S. Congress to force an end to the war.
“Our analysis shows that anytime the American people begin to question America’s involvement with the foreign state of Israel, one of the most effective ways to distract people from that line of questioning is to foment anti-Muslim bigotry and hatred,” Ghani said. “We’re seeing that as a direct effect of the change in public opinion on … how America uses our tax dollars towards wars that the American people do not support.”
Jordan Greenberg, an Austin spokesperson for Jewish Voice for Peace, says the organization opposes “the immoral and illegal war” that Israel and the U.S. have launched in Iran, and calls for a “mass anti-war movement” to stop it.
“We stand in solidarity with the people of Iran and against U.S. and Israeli imperial warmongering,” Greenberg said. “We stand with our Muslim neighbors and people of all faiths and backgrounds against this war, and we know that the overwhelming majority of Americans don’t want genocide, and don’t want endless war.”
Back in November, Abbott designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, an international movement with no evident involvement in the U.S., as “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations,” claiming that CAIR has ties to Hamas. Paxton, less than a month before the primary against Cornyn for the Republican U.S. Senate candidacy, additionally sued CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood in February to shut down all operations in Texas.
“The governor has called us Hamas-backed, Hamas supporters, when we’ve condemned terrorism as a whole,” said Sameeha Rizvi, CAIR-Texas’ civic engagement organizer.
State governors don’t have formal authority to designate foreign terrorist organizations. That power is reserved for the U.S. secretary of state, a fact recently affirmed by a federal judge’s ruling in favor of CAIR against Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attempt to similarly designate them a “terrorist organization” in Florida.
Nonetheless, Abbott has used Texas Property Code to block CAIR members from purchasing or acquiring land in Texas. In the group’s Austin-based lawsuit against Abbott, CAIR-Texas argues the declaration is defamatory and a violation of its members’ property and First Amendment rights. “The governor is testing how far he can push the law,” Rizvi said.
Ghani says that the governor’s designation is akin to historical attempts to shut down cultural nonprofits. “Just like the NAACP and LULAC were attacked for their advocacy work … CAIR is being attacked for our effective advocacy and mobilization within the Muslim community,” Ghani said.
The ACLU of Texas, while not involved in the lawsuit, similarly condemned Abbott’s action. “This proclamation raises significant First Amendment and due process concerns. It represents the latest escalation by state officials in a pattern of politically motivated attacks on nonprofit organizations led by, and primarily serving, immigrants and communities of color,” the group said in a statement.
Ghani voiced confidence that CAIR-Texas is “right behind” CAIR-Florida in winning a preliminary injunction to block Abbott’s “blatantly unconstitutional” executive order. “It’s a complete witch hunt, with the details that they’re asking for and the documents they’re asking us to procure,” Ghani told the Chronicle on March 16.
State efforts to target Islamic institutions in Texas haven’t been limited to nonprofits. Texas’ private school voucher program, which was set to close applications March 17, attempted to exclude Islamic private schools statewide from accepting vouchers, even as other faith-based schools were approved for vouchers.
“That’s right. We don’t want school choice funds going to radical Islamic indoctrination with historic connections to terrorism,” Abbott posted to X on March 12.
But the discrimination against Islamic schools didn’t hold up in court. Hours before applications closed, acting Texas Comptroller Kelly Hancock was forced by a federal judge to extend the deadline until March 31 to allow Islamic schools to apply. At least four have been approved as of March 20.
Ishaq has young children, and he questions why Texas officials don’t look up what Sharia is, rather than stay willfully ignorant and spread misinformation that alienates Muslim children attending both private and public schools in the state.
“For our kids, we really want to work hard to invoke a sense of pride in their faith and in their culture, and the fact that those aspects of their identity are not in contradiction with us being here in Texas or the United States,” Ishaq said.
Rizvi emphasized that by directing attention and state resources against Sharia and the Muslim community, elected officials do their constituents a disservice. “They’re not addressing the real issues that Texans are facing, like water shortages. Data centers are being built without regulation. With oil prices going up because of the Iran war, affordability has always been an issue. Public schools are shutting down,” she said.
“I was under the impression that their job was to make life easier for all Texans,” Rizvi continued. “Anti-Muslim bigotry and misinformation is not making life easier for any person whatsoever, clearly.”
“A Moral Responsibility”
The day before the tragic mass shooting in Austin, the first American strikes hit Iran, with one strike reportedly killing over 150 people and children in a school. As the U.S. enters another war to force regime change on a majority-Muslim country, Qadri said the country’s rhetoric around the moment feels terribly familiar.
Qadri remembers what being a Muslim kid was like after 9/11, which happened when he was 11 years old. After the tragedy, his family moved from New York to Texas, where he grew up encountering prejudice against his community.
“I was always the kid with a funny name, the brown kid, the Muslim, and this and that. I dealt with 9/11 and never really felt a sense of comfort after that, truthfully, in any academic setting or otherwise,” Qadri reflected.
There was a time when he thought that Texans, and the U.S. as a country, were past the point where blatant Islamophobia was found socially and politically acceptable. “I mean, surely we’re in 2026,” Qadri said. But he fears that in the GOP’s present culture, arguably more so than even post-9/11, “it’s just more digestible and accepted to be a bigot.”
“I have a baby at home. And I’m hoping he’s not going to live in the same type of world that I lived in – one that’s filled with bigots attacking him because of his name, or what he believes in, or what he looks like,” Qadri continued. “But unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve made much progress since 2001.”
The present Islamophobia, Ishaq emphasized, feels like an ongoing mental tax. “I’m a 43-year-old bearded guy. Someone seeing me walk around in a flannel might think I’m just an old hipster,” he said. “But my wife wears hijab. She’s visibly Muslim, and she’s trying to be vigilant and hyper-aware of personal safety, because the statements that leaders make, they have an impact.”
Charania said she would like to see her elected officials “stand up against Islamophobia as quickly as they stand against antisemitism and hate against any religion or race.”
Some Texas Democrats, like Rep. Gene Wu, Rep. Suleman Lalani, Rep. Salman Bhojani, and Rep. Ron Reynolds, have criticized the anti-Muslim rhetoric and legislative actions of their Republican colleagues. On Feb. 19, 55 Texas Democrats co-signed a letter against the exclusion of Islamic schools from the state voucher program. At the same time, Qadri questions why more haven’t spoken up on behalf of their Muslim constituents.
“As someone who’s a Democrat and someone who believes in empathy and kindness, I don’t understand, at times, silence,” Qadri said. “I think it’s a moral responsibility for folks who call themselves Democrats or progressives to push back, fight back, and speak up.”
Qadri is hopeful that Texas voters will usher in new leadership for the state in 2026, rather than Texas GOP members willing to normalize Islamophobia as a strategy to build up their voter base ahead of the November election.
“I don’t consider these people to be strong, or to be leaders. I think these are weak people who will just do anything to stay in office, and I think that’s why elections are important,” Qadri said.
“I’m optimistic that we can have folks like Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico as the face of the state,” he added. “Not folks like Greg Abbott, John Cornyn, or Ken Paxton, who are all drinking the Islamophobia Kool-Aid. That we will have people who lead with decency, and kindness, and empathy.”
![“This desperate hail mary can’t erase the fact that [John Cornyn] helped radical Islamic Afghans invade Texas and that his family’s making a fortune securing visas for foreigners.”
– Attorney General Ken Paxton, Jan. 22 on X](https://i0.wp.com/www.austinchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Islamophobia_HorribleThings-3.png?resize=780%2C151&ssl=1)
This article appears in March 27 • 2026.