In Texas, ordinary Muslim religious practices are increasingly being treated as political threats

Key Points:

• Texas elected officials have increasingly framed ordinary Muslim religious practices—such as prayer, dress, marriage counseling, and mosques—as political threats, with some openly expressing hostility, including calls to remove Muslims from the state.
• Governor Greg Abbott and other officials have taken actions including designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a terrorist organization, investigating Muslim housing developments, and threatening to withhold funding over Muslim religious accommodations.
• Efforts by Texas lawmakers to define Islam as “more than a religion” aim to strip Muslim practices of First Amendment protections, despite the lack of clear criteria distinguishing religious from cultural or political aspects of Islam.
• Muslim religious arbitration, such as the Islamic Tribunal in Dallas, faces unique legal scrutiny in Texas, unlike comparable Christian and Jewish religious arbitration bodies, reflecting a broader suspicion of Islamic institutions as legal or political threats.
• The suspicion extends to everyday Muslim religious practices, including prayer accommodations and religious dress, which are increasingly viewed as foreign or politically suspect, despite similar accommodations routinely granted to other religious groups.