The Texas Sharia Panic: How a Rallying Cry Became a Curriculum

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Republican leaders across Texas are repeatedly warning that Sharia is an urgent threat to the state — making it a rallying cry as we head into the midterm elections. The Muslim community, which has long stayed quiet, is now organizing and speaking out. 

Today: how the drumbeat of Islamophobic language became school curriculum, and how the small population of Muslim Texans begins to use American strategies to work for their place in Texas.

To understand what is happening in Texas we are joined by RNS journalists Fiona André and Ulaa Kuziez.

This transcript was generated using AI tools and may contain minor transcription errors.

AUDIO CLIP TONY ROBERTSON: Today, as you closely consider what our books in Texas allow children to read, we ask that you reflect back on why you took this position, the promises you made, the action plans you campaigned on, the stated values of the Republican Party of Texas. We as Texans, we need to have the courage of our stated convictions, and we need to look at Western European nations and the hell they live in right now. Please do not Sharia our Texas.

AMANDA HENDERSON: That was Tony Robertson, a member of the Texas Republican Executive Committee, speaking before the Texas State Board of Education in June. The board was deciding what Texas students would learn about Islam in social studies classes. Republican leaders across Texas are repeatedly warning that Sharia is an urgent threat to the state, making it a rallying cry as we head into the midterm elections. The Muslim community, who has long stayed quiet, is now organizing and speaking out. From Religion News Service and the Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture, this is Complexified, a podcast for the religiously curious and politically frustrated. I’m Amanda Henderson. Today, how the drumbeat of Islamophobic language became school curriculum and how the small population of Muslim Texans begins to use American strategies to work for their place in Texas. To understand what’s happening in Texas, we are joined by RNS journalists Fiona André and Ulaa Kuziez. Fiona, Ulaa, welcome back to Complexified.

FIONA ANDRÉ: Thanks, Amanda. We’re so glad to be here.

ULAA KUZIEZ: Thank you for having us.

HENDERSON: Fiona, what did you see when you walked into the room at the State Board of Education meeting?

ANDRÉ: Well, first of all, the first person I saw was a man holding a Confederate flag, and he had been asked to leave the room. So that was kind of setting the scene for me. So we spent hours in the room listening to people. There were people against, there were people for, and I would say after months of covering the discourse, as in discourse coming out of Texas, it was really interesting to see real people, not politicians, regular Texans coming and saying the same stuff about Islam being not a religion of peace, about Muslims being a threat. About really the need for this curriculum to insist on that fact. It was interesting to see real people truly believing in that. And there were a lot of them, there were hundreds of people testifying.

HENDERSON: So there were a lot of people with kind of anti-Islam sentiments there. Ulaa, was the Muslim community there as well?

KUZIEZ: Absolutely. To kind of further set the scene, there were two overflow rooms just because of how many people were there. And so one of those rooms was sort of set for Muslims and their allies. They said that they wanted to have a space where they could go and kind of take a break from the testimonies to kind of strategize amongst themselves, review some of their speeches. And so certainly there was a pretty large Muslim presence, some advocates and activists that are a part of established organizations. But there were also parents, young students who were Muslim that showed up and wanted to, you know, contribute to the testimony. And so it was really a mix of people. In that other overflow room, as I mentioned, many of the folks who supported the controversial curriculum changes gathered amongst themselves. Some we notice were wearing these red, bright red hats that said “No Sharia allowed” or “No Sharia exclamation point.” Many were wearing pins. They had clipboards. And so there were certainly a lot of really organized groups that showed up from both sides.

HENDERSON: All in the same space.

KUZIEZ: All in the same space. And you know, for the most part they tried to kind of separate themselves. But in the hallways, oftentimes I was a part of conversations between people on different sides of this curriculum who were questioning each other. They were trying to understand their points of view. Sometimes it got very tense. Like I spoke with one woman who was wearing hijab, who, you know, the head covering, and she told me somebody questioned her, asked her why she wore it, tried to say that she’s oppressed because she wore it. And then there were other conversations that seemed to go a little bit better in terms of open-ended questions and answers.

HENDERSON: Ulaa, what was the board deciding that night? What brought all those people there?

KUZIEZ: So the Board of Education was tasked with reviewing and making changes to the Texas social studies curriculum for K through 12. And so in June they passed changes to the social studies curriculum for K through 8, so just elementary and middle school. They also passed a mandatory reading list that includes Bible studies and, you know, texts relating to Christianity. The specific standards that relate to Islam that people were debating really framed this religion through the lens of slavery and conquest, and terrorism. And so those were kinds of the three main ways that students would learn about Islam. And so starting in the year 2030, when the textbooks are going to be phased in, the curriculum really is going to highlight Christianity’s positive attributes and its contribution to Texas and the United States. And it’s going to refer to Islam and Islam’s early military campaigns as, quote, “brutal” and talk about the Prophet Muhammad in similar terms. And so that is how the curriculum’s going to frame Islam. Like I said, overall, it really just emphasizes the state’s Judeo-Christian roots. When we talked with a board member who is also a pastor, Brandon Hall, he told us that part of what he is doing is elevating Christian civilization because he believes it is the foundation of which this country was built on. And so that is very much a part of how this is all being framed. The objections here from Muslims and non-Muslims who were showing up in opposition to the curriculum really framed this as a religious liberty discussion and historical inaccuracy. So they were worried that the board is going to teach prejudiced history.

HENDERSON: And the stakes are high. I mean, we’re talking about textbooks that children will be using to inform their knowledge and perception of the world and history for a long period of time. These textbooks, you know, you said they’ll be printed in 2030. But then they’ll be used for many years after that. So absolutely the stakes are high as these folks come together. Fiona, you identify the proposed EPIC development as a major flash point that has led to this time. Can you tell us about this EPIC development? What were they trying to build?

ANDRÉ: EPIC stands for the East Plano Islamic Center. It’s one of the largest mosques in Texas. And in the beginning of 2025, the mosque tries to establish this community. They call it EPIC City. They want to build this big residential community in North Texas. They are planning to have a new mosque, to have senior living quarters, to have kind of an Islamic school, to have a commercial center. They want to build this kind of neighborhood, basically, and they have this promotion video going on social media. They have a mock-up of what it would look like. They call it EPIC City. Yeah, it ends up in the hands of anti-Muslim activists. That’s really how I think this blew up. And so in February 2025, you have a tweet from a prominent anti-Muslim activist, Amy Mek. She was a person who was very involved in the 2010s in the efforts to pass a lot of anti-Sharia bills in many states. And she has this publication that’s very focused on denouncing what she sees as radical Islam. And so she posts the video and she goes, “There’s a new Sharia city in Dallas. You should all be alarmed. This is a sign of radical Islam gaining ground in Texas, in the US.” It’s shared many times, it’s liked many times, and state officials in Texas also reacting to that.

HENDERSON: So this EPIC City or community that is being proposed is, it seems like, an effort for folks in the Muslim community to be able to create space where their community has a place to worship, restaurants that fit. They’re creating this gathering space, and this seems like a big line for a lot of the folks who are fearful that Islam is gaining ground and becoming mainstream in Texas. Fiona, how did the accusation move from social media, and as you named, this kind of spreading by this influencer, into investigations and action by state officials?

ANDRÉ: Well, there’s kind of this snowball effect that happens on X, honestly, where people are sharing this tweet, people are commenting more and more, they’re finding more and more things to criticize about the project. And then Texas Governor Abbott jumps on the issue, and it’s like, well, we’re gonna launch a few investigation and see if everything is legal with this project, which by the way is a thing. There are some, like, religious-centric residential communities in the US. So he direct a dozen agencies in the state to launch an investigation into this project. Texas Senator John Cornyn also asked then–Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation. So the Department of Justice now has an investigation in EPIC. Like I said, there’s a few state agencies looking at that. Mostly they are trying to see if there’s a risk that non-Muslim residents will be discriminated against. So this is kind of like the main focus of this investigation. The idea, and that’s something that Governor Abbott has said to the press, to us in some statements, is to stop this development. The goal is this just can’t happen. This is a line that can be crossed. There’s this effort in the Attorney General Office, the governor’s office, to just find any legal ways to stop that.

HENDERSON: And they’re calling it “Sharia City” in the media and in these efforts. Ulaa, let’s define this term at the center of this argument. What is Sharia? And is there evidence that Muslims are trying to replace Texas or American law with Sharia law?

KUZIEZ: This word has been all over. Sharia in its most simple definition is really a set of daily practices that Muslims believe will bring them closer to God and help them enter paradise. And really, it’s the way that God wants Muslims to live and have a good life and follow religious tradition. Linguistically, the Arabic word means path to water. It includes daily practices like charity or fasting or prayer. It also includes frameworks for marriage or inheritance. But there’s no singular Sharia law. There is no, like, book that tells you how to do Islamic law, as we might imagine it when Governor Abbott or others in elected positions frame it that way. There is really no one way to do Islamic law. It is a constant conversation amongst religious scholars. As you mentioned, some conservative Texas Republicans have used this framing to say that Muslims building mosques represents a Sharia takeover, wanting to do a residential community also is an example of Muslims wanting to replace American standards with Sharia. But in interviews with a lot of American Muslim scholars and also regular citizens, they have consistently said that there is no plan to impose Sharia or any effort to, like, supersede US law. In fact, a lot of times what these scholars will tell us is Sharia guidelines actually tell Muslims, instruct Muslims to follow the law of the land that they are in. So that’s kind of like one unique aspect of it. And I guess just to note, like, Sharia could be comparable to Halacha in the Jewish tradition or even some aspects of canon law in the Catholic tradition. So there are very, like, similar ways to view those religious traditions.

HENDERSON: It sounds like it’s more of, like, a rhythm of life and guidelines for living. And, as you’re saying, those exist in most religious traditions or spiritual traditions, from Buddhism to Judaism to Christianity, and this is the way that Muslim people order their life through this guidelines of Sharia. Ulaa, you’ve reported on how people are both Muslim and Texan, and a good example of this is the halal barbecue story. Tell me about how that played out.

KUZIEZ: So when we were in Texas in June, we visited a few restaurants in Dallas and in Fort Worth that serve either fully halal menus or items with some halal items. And one of the restaurants that we went to is Kafi BBQ. It’s this great joint in Irving, Texas, that opened by Salahodeen Abdul-Kafi a few years ago. He serves really fantastic wagyu brisket I still think about.

HENDERSON: That’s a good thing. So I think we need to make a road trip. We need to have a field trip.

KUZIEZ: Yes, you do. He has, like, really wonderful Iraqi-inspired menu items. Anyway, Salahodeen told us that his restaurant is really an example of what it means to be a Muslim and a Texan and an American. In his view, his restaurant is really a counter to this Islamophobic narrative that Muslims are not a part of American culture or that they don’t try to integrate. They don’t try to assimilate. This pitmaster, who is really, like, obsessed with his craft, he told us, like, “I am a part of this culture. I’m contributing to this iconic Texas cuisine. I’m making it better and I’m doing it as a Muslim and I’m not shy about that. I’m not afraid of being both of those things.” And just to take it a step further, I mean, the restaurants that we went to were full of non-Muslim diners as well who also, like, knew what halal was. They actually told us that they appreciated that these Muslim restaurant owners were, you know, creating a unique take on Texas barbecue. And so the diners that we talked with, the restaurant owners, they all have this idea that they can be both Muslim and Texas and that this political rhetoric that is framing their community that is not a part of Texas is not true in reality and that they reject it.

HENDERSON: And this isn’t new. Fiona, Muslim people in Texas have long been living their lives and eating and kids going to school and, I’m sure, playing soccer side by side. And at the same time, Islamophobic language and rhetoric has been around for many years, of course, peaking after 9/11 and continuing. At this moment, how did the political rhetoric start to impact ordinary life for Muslim people living in Texas?

ANDRÉ: Well, that was one thing we were really glad to be in Texas for, because we’ve been reporting on the discourse and meeting people and just asking, so how are things? How are you doing? And we found, Amanda, so many people who were almost waiting for that occasion to talk about what life has been like for the past year and a half, what it has been like to hear their faith be demonized like that, but also how everyday life has changed. So we spoke with nearly 20 people. And we spoke with one person who worked as a security guard at Many Mosque for years, who was talking about, very practically, there’s a need for more security at mosque now. That’s just a thing. That’s just something communities have to prepare for. But also the fact that this anti-Muslim rhetoric seemed to be in some pockets before, in more extremist circles, and that he felt like this was being mainstreamed now. And so he had stories of people, a lot of women who were hijab because they are visibly Muslim, being harassed. We interviewed a few people who referred— it was in June, so they spoke about that video that was kind of going viral in June of a woman at an H-E-B store, which is like this big Texas chain. She goes to a Muslim woman wearing a hijab and she goes, like, “This is a Christian country and you don’t belong here,” basically. And it’s this whole rhetoric that has been pushed by state officials, by elected officials, and now it’s on the streets.

HENDERSON: Ulaa, I know that Muslim people in Texas have long been both living their life and speaking out when things are harmful, but it seems like this is different. What has changed?

KUZIEZ: Muslim political life isn’t new. Texas has long had Muslim organizers and political activists and organizations, and especially in Black Muslim communities that have always been a part of the civil rights, you know, struggle, social justice movements. But generally speaking, Muslims from immigrant backgrounds really kind of opted to stay in the shadows politically because of legitimate concerns of surveillance and, you know, because of 9/11 and even before that. But what has shifted is that there is this wider recognition now among average Muslims, so not just people who have been involved in politics, that they really can’t afford to stay quiet anymore. That, you know, an average Muslim family can’t just go to work, go to school, go to the mosque, and that’s it. And so you have all of these compounding factors, and especially over the last year of just constant attacks, both rhetorical, you know, policy directive-wise and in the streets, like harassment, that has really pushed the community to a different level of recognizing that they need to organize. Many activists and even average Muslims that we spoke to have said, like, “We really just can’t afford to stay silent anymore. We have to do something. We have to organize and show that we are not gonna take this.”

HENDERSON: After the break: how Muslim Texans are doing the most American thing of all, using courtrooms, city halls, and the state capitol to defend their rights.

HENDERSON: Fiona, with more people stepping forward, what does organizing in the Muslim community look like on the ground?

ANDRÉ: So it’s really interesting. I think one thing we notice with Ulaa is there’s this effort almost systematically when something happens to go in a city council and speak up. And it could just be to show up at some time just to speak for two minutes and say, “This is not right. This is what we believe.” So we’ve seen this on many cases, many issues, people kind of forming coalition pretty quickly and going together, packing a city council. It’s kind of like the same thing that happened at the State Board of Education. It’s Muslim advocates, but it’s also parents, it’s Muslim students coming together and saying, “I just have to say something, and if you give me two minutes I’m gonna talk about the issue at hand but also the broader climate.” So there’s this one thing. There’s also, interestingly, we spoke with these lawyers who have just been activated in the past year and a half. They’ve seen things happen, they’ve seen their community being targeted, and yeah, they told us that, like, we have the skills, we have the times, we have a network, and we’re organizing. So they have this group chat where they are talking about taking on cases, about who could work with who, who have the expertise to tackle certain cases, and we’re talking about cases like mosque facing issues expanding or establishing some mosque because of zoning issues, but also a school voucher program that was excluding Muslim families at the beginning of the year. We met this one lawyer was like, “People are fired up, like, they don’t want to let this happen and they are ready to use their skills and their network for that.”

HENDERSON: A group of Muslim attorneys has come together, formed this network, specifically around the school voucher case. What is this case and why has this been a big emphasis to bring these network of attorneys together?

ANDRÉ: So in February, Texas launched a new statewide voucher program. The idea is to give up to $10,000 to student in private schools. It’s open to most accredited schools. And pretty quickly Muslim families in Texas realized that there are no Islamic schools among the legal schools.

HENDERSON: Even though these Muslim schools do exist in the community. They’re just not on the list of schools that are eligible to receive these vouchers.

ANDRÉ: Exactly. And pretty quickly, I mean, we spoke with some parents who were saying, well, we were monitoring that, trying to see what’s gonna happen. There’s a deadline coming soon. It was in March, so they’re also trying to figure out how they are gonna be able to apply if the deadline just comes. And at the same time there’s this network of lawyers who are talking about it. They are monitoring it also. And when it’s time to file lawsuits, they are stepping up. They are helping Islamic schools and parents who want to file a lawsuit find legal representation. They are kind of helping with the legal strategy, and they win. And so we spoke with two members of this network of lawyers who are like, “This is also an example of we have rights, we have to exert them, because in most cases the discourse we are hearing from state officials on social media about Sharia law, this is not coming into courts. Like, courts are courts at the end of the day. We have rights, we’re Americans, and we are going to do everything to make our rights respected.” So I think many people were talking about it, like, first an important win for the community, but also in this particular moment for their organizing.

HENDERSON: Yeah. Ulaa, you’ve talked about one source telling you that suing is the most American way, which seems pretty on point. What does this reveal about how this community is claiming their rights and their place as Texans?

KUZIEZ: I talked with Imam Muhammad Abdullah of Masjid Al-Islam. That’s a historic African American mosque in Dallas, and he was telling me in his view, Muslims have been successful in many ways in organizing, pushing back. And one of those ways it is through the courts and the laws, and he said this quote, that suing people is the most American way. And he said, “We’ve understood that as a community.” They are not afraid to take up a legal fight, to sue state officials and departments. And even when they are not successful, they are pursuing that avenue and making religious liberty claims, you know, using the Constitution and turning to American courts. And I think the irony here is that these are the same people that are being accused of trying to usurp American law and to, like, trying to replace it, but at the same time, of course, they are very well versed in American law. And so what it shows, as Fiona mentioned, is that they are taking every avenue that they can to assert their rights. And one of those ways is through suing people, the most American players, he said.

HENDERSON: Are they also using this time to build lasting political power in any way?

KUZIEZ: One of the kind of measures that tells us that the community is trying to build political power is organizing, like, civic engagement town halls. We spoke with an organizer who works with Emgage, which is a national civic organization group. And she told us that mosques over the past few years have been more willing to host civic education workshops, to host town halls, and to invite candidates to speak at their mosques. And so in that measure, the community is trying to build political power. That same organizer also mentioned that Muslims are registering in higher numbers to vote. And one last way that shows that the community is trying to take its political power more seriously is by electing Muslim political officials. The state now has 10 Muslim elected officials that include city council positions, two in the state legislature, a few in other kind of local positions. And that, you know, shows again a commitment from this community to be a part of political life, both as voters and as politicians. It’s still a very small percentage of the community there.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

KUZIEZ: I mean, Muslims actually make up just 2 percent of Texas population. And it’s a small number. It’s like 500,000 people. So in the grand scheme of things, it’s a very small community.

HENDERSON: It’s really notable, back to that school board meeting that we started with, that there is a group of these folks who have come to organize themselves and gone to a school board meeting in this context. So Fiona, tell me more about how this fear of Sharia has become such a potent call by Republicans in this year’s midterms.

ANDRÉ: From what we heard from people, there are two things kind of happening here. There’s the election part. So the midterms are coming, there are primaries, and people have told us in interviews, well, in primary you have to appeal to your electoral base and some Republican candidates might think that they have to really go hard on this topic of we, you know, be anti-Muslims, anti-immigrants, anti-like any foreign laws that could come and replace the Constitution, and that could be a message that would appeal to their electoral base. So we heard that. We’ve heard that, but if you look at the school board of education meeting, for example, this is an effort that has been going, like, it’s before 2025, it’s starting in 2024. It’s something that will probably last. I mean, it’s gonna make lasting change in the curriculum. So it’s also maybe part of a broader moment where, like, this is just maybe a genuine concern for Texas Republican that the state population is changing. As Ulaa said, Muslims only represent 2 percent of the population, but we’ve heard so many times the fear about Muslims and the fear about Sharia being tied to this. There’s an effort by Muslim to take over the state. People have said to us multiple times that this is a type of speech that really take off during election year, but also maybe part of a broader moment.

HENDERSON: We know that kind of fear and division is a strong motivator and it seems like that’s certainly at play here. Ulaa, once this election is over, how do you see both the Muslim community who has been kind of mobilized and organizing and the anti-Sharia, anti-Islam movement playing out? Will this continue, this escalation that we have seen, or do you imagine that it will calm down a bit after the election?

KUZIEZ: Yeah, I mean, we posed that question to many of the experts and sources that we were talking with. And one thing that we heard pretty consistently is that the Islamophobia in this cycle seems to be different. It’s not just that Muslims are a boogeyman during the election season, and a lot of activists are expecting some of the rhetoric to stay because it’s no longer just, you know, rhetoric, but it’s a lot of policy directives. It’s this idea that Muslims shouldn’t even be a part of the US. They should be deported. And so basically, the language around Muslims has shifted so much so that it’s gonna have quite an effect even after the election is over. And so in many ways, yeah, a lot of people are expecting this to stick around. At the same time, the activists and the Muslim community leaders that we talked with have said that this time they hope that they are prepared to continue building power, to continue fighting, because they say there’s a new gravity to this. As you mentioned a few moments ago, Amanda, there’s a new gravity that’s compelling people to speak up, and they really believe that they’re in this, like, existential fight for their rights and their children’s right. And a lot of the folks that we spoke with have said, “We are not going to back down.”

HENDERSON: Fiona, Ulaa, thank you again for your reporting, and thanks for coming on Complexified.

KUZIEZ: Thank you for having us.

ANDRÉ: Thanks, Amanda.