For many Muslims in Texas, the fear is no longer theoretical.
Before dawn in early June, Ghulam Kehar rose to attend Fajr prayer at his local mosque in Irving before leaving for a months-long deployment with the United States Coast Guard. He had served away from home before, but this time felt different.
The father of four was worried about leaving his wife and children behind in an atmosphere where anti-Muslim rhetoric had become louder, more official and more dangerous.
Across Texas, Muslim communities have been reporting a growing sense of unease. At mosques such as the Valley Ranch Islamic Centre in Irving, worshippers and religious leaders have been sharing stories of hostile comments directed at Muslims while praying in public, sitting in parks or simply existing visibly as Muslims.
For Kehar, the concern was not abstract politics. It was his family’s safety.
He eventually arranged for them to join him near the Canadian border during his deployment.
That decision captures the current reality for many Muslims in Texas: a state that once attracted Muslim families with affordable homes, strong schools and growing Islamic communities is now becoming a frontline in America’s renewed campaign of Islamophobia.
Texas Was Becoming a Muslim Stronghold
For decades, many Muslim families moved to Texas seeking stability, opportunity and community.
The Dallas-Fort Worth area in particular became one of the most important Muslim hubs in the United States. Families found large mosques, Islamic schools, halal businesses, community institutions and neighbourhoods where Muslims could raise children with confidence in their faith.
Irving became one of the best-known examples. The Valley Ranch Islamic Center, founded in 2009, grew into a major community anchor. Its campus now serves a large and expanding congregation, with plans for further development including a major expansion.
For many American Muslims, this growth represented success.
It showed that Muslims could build, contribute and live openly in America without abandoning Islam. It showed that Islamic life could flourish through mosques, family networks, education and public service.
But that same growth has now become the target of resentment.
Political Leaders Are Turning Islam Into a Threat
The rise in anti-Muslim hostility in Texas did not happen in isolation.
Republican politics has long used the language of fighting “radical Islam”, but in Texas that rhetoric has increasingly moved beyond campaign slogans. It is now being turned into state action against Muslim organisations, Islamic institutions and even basic religious accommodations.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has repeatedly targeted Muslim civil rights groups and Islamic practices. In November 2025, Abbott designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations, better known as CAIR, and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organisations and transnational criminal organisations under Texas law. He claimed that they sought to impose Sharia law, a claim Muslim organisations have strongly rejected as part of a broader anti-Muslim campaign.
In January 2026, Abbott also demanded that the Texas Attorney General use existing powers to strip CAIR of nonprofit status and prevent the organisation and its affiliates from operating in Texas.
These moves are extraordinary.
CAIR is one of the most prominent Muslim civil rights organisations in the United States. To label such an organisation as terrorist at the state level sends a dangerous message: Muslim advocacy itself can be treated as suspicious.
Even Wudu Has Become Political
The hostility has become so extreme that even wudu facilities at airports have been dragged into the political battlefield.
Wudu is the simple act of ritual washing before prayer. It is a basic part of Muslim worship, performed by millions of Muslims around the world every day. It is not political. It is not threatening. It is cleanliness before standing before Allah.
Yet in August 2026, Governor Abbott asked the US Justice Department to investigate foot-washing stations at major Texas airports, claiming they provided special religious treatment. Reuters reported that Muslim advocates condemned the move as an anti-Muslim political stunt.
Abbott’s office also described ablution facilities at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport as discriminatory religious facilities and said DFW had abandoned plans to install additional facilities after the referral.
This is the absurdity of Islamophobia.
A small accommodation for travellers washing before prayer is treated as a constitutional crisis, while the same state pushes to expand Christian symbols and practices in public life.
Christianity Elevated, Islam Suspected
The double standard is impossible to miss.
While Texas leaders attack Muslim organisations, Islamic practices and mosque-linked developments, they have also pushed to expand Christianity’s role in public life.
The concern is not that Christians practise their religion. Muslims respect sincere worship and believe religious freedom should be protected. The issue is the selective application of that freedom.
When Christian identity is promoted by the state, it is described as heritage or morality. When Muslims seek basic accommodation, it is treated as Sharia infiltration.
That is not neutrality. That is hierarchy.
It tells Muslims that their faith is tolerated only when it remains private, quiet and politically powerless.
Islamic Institutions Under Pressure
The pressure on Texas Muslims has extended beyond airport facilities.
State leaders have investigated or challenged Muslim-linked institutions, Islamic community developments and religious practices. Reporting has linked the escalation to opposition against a mosque-centred development associated with the East Plano Islamic Center, which became a major flashpoint in early 2025.
Since then, Muslim institutions across the state have faced increasing scrutiny from political leaders and activists who portray Islamic community-building as a threat to American life.
This rhetoric is dangerous because it turns normal Muslim activity into evidence of suspicion.
A mosque expansion becomes a warning sign.
A Muslim school becomes a political target.
A religious counselling service becomes a threat.
A family Eid event becomes controversial.
A civil rights organisation becomes labelled as extremist.
This is how Islamophobia moves from speech to policy.
Muslims Are Being Told They Do Not Belong
The hostility has not come only from officeholders. It has also appeared among activists, candidates and ordinary members of the public emboldened by political rhetoric.
One statewide Republican candidate, Bo French, reportedly wrote online: “I won’t rest until every Muslim is gone.” The quote has circulated widely in coverage of rising Islamophobia in Texas.
Such language is not merely offensive. It is eliminationist.
When public figures speak about removing Muslims, they are not debating policy. They are attacking the existence of a religious community.
This is why Muslim families are worried. They understand that words can create permission structures. Political language can make harassment feel acceptable. State hostility can make ordinary bigots feel empowered.
The Muslim Response Must Be Strong
Muslim leaders in Texas are now debating how best to respond.
For years, many pursued interfaith outreach, civic engagement and patient public service, hoping their record would speak for itself. Mosques opened their doors. Muslims volunteered, donated, served, taught and built relationships.
But many now feel that goodwill alone is not enough.
Dr Omar Suleiman, a prominent Muslim scholar based at the Valley Ranch Islamic Center, has argued that the moment requires strength and legal accountability. He has said that false attacks against Muslims must become legally and politically costly.
That is the correct posture.
Islam teaches patience, but patience is not surrender. Islam teaches wisdom, but wisdom is not silence in the face of oppression. Islam teaches good character, but good character does not mean allowing lies about Muslims to spread without consequence.
Muslim communities must defend themselves through law, media, political engagement and disciplined organisation.
Islam Is Protected by Religious Freedom
The United States Constitution protects freedom of religion. That protection does not belong only to Christians, Jews or politically favoured groups. It also belongs to Muslims.
Muslims have the right to build mosques.
They have the right to pray.
They have the right to perform wudu.
They have the right to establish Islamic schools and community centres.
They have the right to seek religious counselling, organise Eid gatherings and advocate for civil rights.
They have the right to raise their children as Muslims without being treated as enemies of the state.
Any attempt to redefine Islam as something other than a religion, or to deny Muslims the protection given to other faith communities, is an attack on religious liberty itself.
Some hard-line conservatives in Texas have reportedly explored ways to define religion in a manner that could exclude or regulate Islamic practices. Such efforts should alarm not only Muslims, but anyone who claims to believe in constitutional freedom.
If the state can decide that Islam is not protected like other religions, then religious freedom has already been replaced by political permission.
Texas Muslims Are Part of America
Texas Muslims are not outsiders.
They are doctors, veterans, engineers, teachers, business owners, parents, students, public servants and neighbours. They contribute to the economy, serve in the military, build institutions and strengthen local communities.
Their mosques are not foreign outposts. They are houses of worship.
Their Islamic centres are not threats. They are places of prayer, learning, charity, family support and moral formation.
Their desire to live according to Islam is not a challenge to America’s stability. It is an exercise of the religious freedom America claims to defend.
The real threat is not Muslim growth in Texas. The real threat is the attempt to make an entire religious community feel unsafe, unwelcome and politically vulnerable.
Faith Under Pressure
The situation in Texas is a warning for Muslims across the West.
Islamophobia does not always arrive first as violence. Sometimes it begins as political language. Then it becomes investigations. Then funding threats. Then public harassment. Then attempts to restrict worship, institutions and legal protections.
This is why Muslims must remain alert.
The solution is not retreat. It is stronger community infrastructure, better legal defence, more confident media engagement, political literacy, mosque coordination and unwavering attachment to Islam.
Muslims in Texas should not have to apologise for praying Fajr, building mosques, performing wudu or raising their children upon tawhid.
They should not have to choose between being Muslim and being safe.
Texas may be testing the limits of American religious freedom, but the Muslim response must be clear: Islam is not a threat, Muslims are not guests, and religious freedom is not valid if it excludes the followers of Muhammad ﷺ.
The houses of Allah will remain open.
The call to prayer will continue.
And Muslim families in Texas have every right to live with dignity, safety and faith.
