AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The Center for the Study of Organized Hate, in a report titled "Constructing the Muslim Threat: Inside the Republican Party's Anti-Muslim Campaign on Social Media and Legislation," revealed that the current wave of Islamophobia among elected Republican officials began with a tweet by Texas Governor Greg Abbott on February 24, 2025.
In that tweet, Abbott introduced a Muslim-led residential project in North Dallas as an example of "Sharia cities," which he claimed are prohibited under state law. The post received 3.6 million views and 57,000 likes, sparking a wave of "Sharia law" and "Sharia takeover" content among right-wing influencers.
According to the 39-page study, from February 2025 to March 26, 2026, 46 elected Republican officials published a total of 1,111 discriminatory and conspiratorial posts against American Muslims, representing a 1,450 percent increase in the monthly average. Five members of Congress posted 73 percent of all these posts.
Nearly one-third of the posts (322 cases) framed Muslims through the lens of terrorism and national security. Sixty-four posts explicitly called for the expulsion or stripping of citizenship of Muslims, and 63 posts used dehumanizing language such as "devil," "death cult," "cancer," and "plague."
Additionally, 48 Republican representatives have sponsored eight Sharia-related bills in the Senate and House of Representatives. The governors of Texas and Florida have also declared the local chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as terrorist organizations.
The report emphasizes that the core of this narrative is the conspiracy theory that the U.S. Constitution is being replaced by Sharia law—a claim with no factual basis that creates artificial fear among voters.
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