Islamophobia: A spreading hate on the Right

Conservative voters in Texas have a new bogeyman, said J. David Goodman in The New York Times: Muslims. Though only 1% to 2% of Texas residents are Muslim, the community is growing fast—and so is fearmongering from the Christian hard right about the spread of “sharia law” and a planned Islamic “takeover.” A proposed mosque development outside Dallas was denounced by influencers as a threat to Western civilization and investigated by state authorities. Multiple conference panels at this summer’s state Republican convention “warned of a Muslim invasion.” And Gov. Greg Abbott has jumped on the bandwagon: He has designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national civil rights group, a terrorist organization; ordered the cancellation of a private water-park party celebrating a Muslim holiday; and earlier this month threatened to pull state funding from Texas airports that provide ritual washing stations for Muslim travelers. “We experience waves of Islamophobia,” said Shaimaa Zayan of CAIR’s Austin chapter. “This is the worst wave.”

It’s not just Texas, said Asma Khalid in The Atlantic. Twenty-five years after 9/11, anti-Muslim rhetoric in the U.S. “has grown.” In Washington, D.C., prominent GOP lawmakers “have made it clear that they don’t see people like me as Americans.” Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina recently posted that every “Muslim holding public office in America is a Trojan Horse,” while Rep. Randy Fine of Florida has said, “We need more Islamophobia.” I first noticed this shift in the run-up to the 2016 election, when Donald Trump called for a “Muslim ban” and claimed falsely that “thousands” of Muslims in New Jersey cheered when the Twin Towers fell. When a presidential candidate spouted Islamophobia, others felt free to join in the hate.

For American Muslims, the worst could still be to come, said Joel Mathis in his Substack newsletter. Texas lawmakers are now trying to craft a legal definition of “religion” that would exclude Islam. A decade ago, I’d have said such a law “would be laughed out of the Supreme Court.” Today, I’m not sure. Can you say with confidence that Justice Clarence Thomas “wouldn’t vote against Islam with the First Amendment on the line?” Conservative Christians must tread carefully, said Bonnie Kristian in Christianity Today. With secularism on the rise, it’s “naive” to believe that a statewide ban on religious practices could never be used against them. The First Amendment is clear: If we want religious liberty, “we must defend it for everyone.”

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