Manufacturing the Muslim Threat

Executive Summary

Anti-Muslim bigotry by Republican Party elected officials across the United States has surged dramatically since early 2025. In more than 1,100 posts on their official social media accounts, Republican members of Congress and governors have promoted conspiracy theories about Muslim Americans, called for the deportation and denaturalization of Muslims, promoted negative portrayals of Islam, described U.S. cities with significant Muslim populations as “conquered” or “invaded”, weaponized domestic terror attacks to vilify Islam and Muslims even when no Muslim had anything to do with them, used dehumanizing language, and invoked claims of a supposed Muslim takeover of the United Kingdom and Europe to whip up anti-Muslim hysteria and fearmongering at home. 

This wave of hateful, false, frightening rhetoric puts Muslims in danger. The ongoing rhetoric paints any and all Muslims as threats, and it constitutes dangerous speech¹ — since it can make people more likely to commit or condone violence against members of another group, in this case, Muslims. This rhetoric is especially dangerous because it carries the imprimatur of elected officials. One of the primary vehicles through which these elected officials have promoted anti-Muslim bigotry is social media. They post Islamophobic content on their official accounts, which amplifies and promotes anti-Muslim hate broadly in the United States. Further, the fact that bigotry and lies are echoed by people holding public office lends conspiracy theories an alarming veneer of legitimacy. 

For this report, we analyzed social media posts by 46 GOP elected officials, including members of Congress (House of Representatives and the Senate), governors, and an attorney general, that reference Muslims, Islam, or anti-Muslim conspiracy theories. The dataset covers content posted from February 2025, when we first observed a marked surge in officials targeting Muslims in a domestic American context, through March 31, 2026.

Key Findings

• The hate campaign originated with a single post by Texas Governor Greg Abbott on February 24, 2025, amplifying a claim by anti-Muslim provocateur Amy Mek that a Muslim housing development near Dallas was a “Sharia city.” Within thirteen months, it grew into a coordinated movement spanning social media, legislation, and a formal congressional caucus.

• Forty-six Republican elected officials published 1,111 posts targeting Muslim Americans with bigotry and conspiracy theories between February 2025 and March 2026. Monthly volume increased by 1,450 percent over the study period.

• Five members of Congress produced 73 percent of all posts. Rep. Randy Fine alone accounted for 29 percent.

• Texas and Florida-based officials produced 71 percent of all posts.

• The “Sharia” conspiracy appeared in 48 percent of posts, serving as the campaign’s master frame. The language of “invasion,” “conquest,” and “Islamification” mirrors the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, recasting Muslims as a population threat engaged in deliberate civilizational conquest.

• Nearly a third of all posts (322) framed Muslims through the lens of terrorism and national security. Sixty-four called explicitly for the deportation or denaturalization of Muslims. Sixty-three used dehumanizing language, labeling Islam and Muslims as “demons,” “death cult,” “cancer,” and “plague.”

• Eight bills referencing Sharia were introduced across both chambers of Congress between June 2025 and March 2026, sponsored or co-sponsored by 48 Republican lawmakers. A tightly coordinated core of four members of Congress drove the legislative effort.

• The Sharia-Free America Caucus, launched in December 2025, grew to 62 members within four months.

• In total, 89 Republican elected officials participated in at least one track of the campaign: social media, legislation, or caucus membership.

• The posts satisfy all five criteria of the Dangerous Speech Project’s framework for speech likely to inspire violence.

Genesis of the Anti-Muslim Campaign

The current campaign of anti-Muslim bigotry from elected Republican officials can be traced to a specific point of origin. On February 24, 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott shared an X post² from prolific anti-Muslim provocateur Amy Mek,³ who in the preceding weeks had published dozens of posts⁴ targeting a proposed Muslim-led housing development near Dallas, Texas called East Plano Islamic Center city, or EPIC city, claiming it was a “Sharia city” and singling out local Islamic preacher Yasir Qadhi, who also serves as a resident scholar at the EPIC. Her posts carried headlines such as “Alert Texas,⁵” “Warning Texas,”⁶ and “Sharia City is Being Built in Texas—And YOU Are Helping Fund It!”, which were collectively viewed by millions of people. Governor Abbott’s repost of Mek’s EPIC city post, in which he said that “Sharia law” was not permitted in the state, was viewed 3.6 million times and received over 57,000 likes.

Abbott’s post served as a catalyst. Multiple right-wing influencers immediately began posting about “creeping Sharia,” “Sharia law,” and “Sharia takeover” in the US, citing EPIC city as an example. A month later, on March 25, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a formal investigation⁷ into the EPIC city development, citing potential violations of Texas consumer protection laws. Two days later, Governor Abbott issued another post announcing a Texas State Securities Board investigation into the development, again invoking the threat of “Sharia”⁸ and declaring that “all entities in Texas must follow state law, not Sharia law.” On April 11, Texas Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) wrote to the Department of Justice seeking a federal investigation into EPIC over allegations of “religious discrimination” and “Sharia law.”⁹

In early May, the DOJ launched its own investigation,¹⁰ which triggered a further surge in anti-Muslim posts by multiple members of Congress. Rep. Keith Self (R-TX) posted for the first time about the alleged Sharia conspiracy, declaring that “there is NO place for Sharia law in America.” Self would later join fellow Texas representative Chip Roy to launch the Sharia-Free America Caucus¹¹ on December 18, 2025, which rapidly expanded to 62 members by early April 2026.

Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) also began posting prolifically about Muslims in May 2025, particularly after two Israeli embassy staffers were killed in Washington, D.C., on May 21. Posting on his social media accounts that same night, Fine wrote, “Muslim terror has come to our Nation’s Capital tonight, “¹² and declared that “these demons must be put down by any means necessary,” although the suspect, Elias Rodriguez (who has since been charged for the killings), is not Muslim and has no Muslim background.

In June 2025, a series of events was met with accelerated anti-Muslim rhetoric. Using a homemade flamethrower and Molotov cocktails, Mohamed Sabry Soliman attacked a group of Jewish demonstrators in Boulder, Colorado, who were seeking the release of Israeli hostages in Gaza. He wounded at least 29 people and killed an 82-year-old woman.¹³ Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) blamed the Biden administration’s immigration policies for the attack, writing that “uncontrolled mass migration is suicidal.”¹⁴ Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) similarly claimed that “it is impossible to know how many Radical Islamic terrorists are residing in America after four years of Biden’s open borders.”¹⁵

A couple of days later, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) delivered a speech in Congress, which he then posted to his social media accounts, claiming a “massive Muslim takeover of the United Kingdom” and expressing “strong concerns about Sharia Law” being “forced on the American people.”¹⁶ Soon thereafter, he appeared on Fox News repeating the conspiracy theory while referring to the EPIC City development, stating that the “possibility of Sharia law being put in place is inconsistent with Western civilization.”¹⁷

On June 10, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) introduced the “Muslim Brotherhood Is a Terrorist Organization Act of 2025”¹⁸ in the House, writing in her announcement that “Sharia Law can NEVER come before the U.S. Constitution.”¹⁹ As of April 2026, the bill has one co-sponsor. 

The New York City mayoral primary in June 2025 similarly unleashed a wave of Islamophobic posts targeting candidate Zohran Mamdani. On June 19, Rep. Fine wrote that “Zohran Mamdani would do to New York City what Khomeini and Khamenei did to Tehran. We cannot let radical Muslims turn America into a Shiite caliphate.”²⁰ Two days later, he posted that “New Yorkers must not elect this proud Muslim terrorist as their next mayor.”²¹ Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) also launched Islamophobic attacks that same month, first targeting Mamdani²² personally, and later Muslim Americans in general.²³

“New York City has been occupied by muslim invaders. DEPORTATIONS NOW,” Ogles wrote on X, quoting a post in which the Muslim call to prayer can be heard in a New York neighborhood. 

Legislative action intensified throughout the autumn of 2025. On September 19, Rep. Randy Fine introduced the “No Shari’a Act”²⁴alongside Rep. Keith Self, with co-sponsorship from Rep. Chip Roy and Rep. Brandon Gill, with the aim “to prohibit the application of Shari’a in the United States where such application would violate constitutional rights, and for other purposes.” Rep. Gill promoted the legislation by claiming that “Sharia Law is utterly barbaric and has no place in America whatsoever.”²⁵ As of April 2026, the bill has 30 co-sponsors. 

On September 26, Rep. Roy shared a video originally posted by an Italy-based far-right X account, Radio Genoa, showing Muslims praying on streets in New York during protests about Gaza, adding the warning: “New York City first. Your community next.”²⁶

On October 3, Rep. Fine posted that “fear of Islam is rational” and “Islamophobia is a lie,”²⁷ a statement he has repeated multiple times and which soon became a talking point in far-right online ecosystems denying that Islamophobia constitutes hatred or bigotry. 

Then, on October 8, Rep. Roy introduced the “Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act,”²⁸ a bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to “prohibit the entry of aliens who adhere to Sharia law.” As of April 2026, the bill has 26 co-sponsors. 

The same week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis posted that “Sharia law has no place in the USA and is incompatible with the Constitution,”²⁹ and in December issued an executive order designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)—the United States’ largest Muslim civil liberties organization—a “foreign terrorist organization.” A similar executive order was issued by Governor Abbott the previous month.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville began an anti-Muslim and anti-Islam campaign that same month with a speech on the U.S. Senate floor, followed by clips of the speech posted on his social media account.  “Radical Islam has DESTROYED Europe. If we don’t call out this extreme ideology, America will be next. I REFUSE to sit idly by and let that happen. BAN SHARIA LAW,” Tuberville wrote.³⁰ On October 15, 2025, Tuberville introduced the “Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act”³¹ in the Senate, a modified version of the act introduced in the House by Rep. Chip Roy.³² While the House bill focuses on amending the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit the entry of individuals who may practice Sharia law, the Senate version focuses on those who advocate Sharia law to face “inadmissibility and deportability.” As of April 2026, the bill has no co-sponsors. 

Anti-Sharia rhetoric continued to escalate through the winter. On November 19, Governor Abbott of Texas posted on X a letter in which he directed the state’s attorney general and two Texas district attorneys to investigate an “Islamic Tribunal” operating in Texas for illegally displacing Texas courts. (The Tribunal has explained that “our work is spiritual, pastoral, and non-legal. We do not act as a court, and we do not issue any rulings that have legal effect.”³³) And the day after Abbott publicized his letter, Rep. Roy introduced in Congress the “PAUSE Act of 2025,”³⁴ which would bar any person from receiving lawful immigration status if they are deemed (the bill doesn’t specify by whom) an “Islamist” or “an observer of Sharia law.” As of April 2026, the bill has 13 co-sponsors.

There is no evidence that Muslims seek to impose Sharia on anyone in the United States, especially non-Muslims, and in any case, “Sharia law” as used in these bills is largely a misnomer.³⁵ Sharia isn’t a single codified legal system that could replace American law. It is a broad set of religious and ethical principles derived from the Quran and the Hadith (the records of the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings, deeds, and sayings), which govern personal conduct, prayer, dietary practices, family matters, and charitable obligations. In this sense, it is analogous to halakha, the body of religious law followed by Orthodox Jews, or canon law as observed by Catholics.  These bills are framed as banning a foreign legal system, but in practice, they target the religious practices of Muslim Americans, which is used as a means for scaremongering. They also provide for banning or deporting people, not banning “law.”

The anti-Muslim rhetoric intensified with dehumanizing narratives. On December 16, Rep. Ogles posted that “Muslims + gun control = dead civilians.”³⁶

On December 18, the Sharia Free America Caucus was formally launched.³⁷ On February 5, 2026, Reps. Self and Roy declared Texas as “Ground Zero” in the fight against Sharia,³⁸ insinuating a repeat of the 9/11 tragedy. On February 15, Rep. Fine posted, “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.”³⁹ This was apparently in response to a remark by Nerdeen Kiswani, a New York-based pro-Palestinian activist who had said, “Finally, NYC is coming to Islam. Dogs definitely have a place in society, just not as indoor pets.”⁴⁰ Kiswani later clarified that she meant it as a joke and was annoyed at dog owners who didn’t clean up after their pets when walking them. Fine’s post drew widespread condemnation and calls for his resignation by Democratic colleagues. 

That same week, Fine introduced the “Protecting Puppies from Sharia Act” in the House.⁴¹ The bill would prohibit the provision of federal funds to states and local governments that prevent residents from owning dogs. No state or local government in America has banned dog ownership, and no elected official has proposed doing so. A nonbinding “sense of Congress” section declares that “Sharia law is a foreign concept that is against the pursuit of happiness” and that “it is a right of all Americans to own a dog.” 

The bill is incoherent as legislation but effective as provocation as it reduces Islam to a caricature about dogs, manufactures a threat that does not exist, and uses the machinery of Congress to legitimize anti-Muslim bigotry as pet advocacy. Preposterous though it is, the bill has 13 co-sponsors as of April 2026. 

On February 12, 2026, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the “Defeat Sharia Law in America Act,”⁴² which seeks to amend Section 201(a) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to specify “that provides goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, or accommodations by implementing Sharia law shall be considered to be discriminating or segregating on the ground of religion under this subsection.” As of April 2026, the bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville.

On March 19, Rep. Barry Moore [R-AL] introduced a similar version of the bill in the House.⁴³As of April 2026, the bill has 3 co-sponsors.

The analysis of sponsorship and co-sponsorship patterns across all six House bills mentioned above reveals a tightly coordinated network of lawmakers who repeatedly sign on to each other’s legislation.

Forty-eight Republican lawmakers have sponsored or co-sponsored at least one of the six bills. Rep. Keith Self is the only lawmaker to appear on all six bills, co-sponsoring every one without sponsoring any himself. Rep. Fine and Rep. Roy each sponsor two bills and co-sponsor two of the other’s, forming a reciprocal authorship pair. Rep. Gill co-sponsored four bills. Together, these four lawmakers—Self, Fine, Roy, and Gill—constitute the core of this legislative apparatus in the House.

FIGURE 1. CO-SPONSORSHIP NETWORK ACROSS SIX SHARIA-RELATED BILLS IN THE HOUSE

A second tier of six lawmakers appears on four bills each: Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Rep. Sheri Biggs (R-SC), and Rep. Diana Harshbarger (R-TN). Four more appear on three bills: Rep. Barry Moore (R-AL) (who sponsors the newest bill, the Defeat Sharia Law in America Act), Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), and Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ). Thirteen lawmakers appear on two bills, including Rep. Nancy Mace, who sponsors the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, and Rep. Andy Ogles. The remaining twenty-four lawmakers appear on only one bill each, mostly as co-sponsors of the No Sharia Act or the Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act, the two bills with the largest co-sponsor lists (29 and 26, respectively).

In the Senate, Sen. Tuberville introduced a companion bill with no co-sponsors, while Sen. Cornyn introduced a second with Tuberville as the sole co-sponsor. 

Anti-Muslim bigotry by elected officials is hardly new in American politics. A wave of anti-Sharia bills swept through state legislatures starting in 2010. That, and the calls for a “Muslim ban” during the 2016 presidential campaign, together with surveillance programs targeting Muslim communities in the years following 9/11, are all earlier instances of institutionalized anti-Muslim efforts by government actors. What distinguishes the current surge is the speed and scale at which it has escalated, the number of elected officials participating simultaneously, the degree of coordination through formal congressional infrastructure such as the Sharia-Free America Caucus, and the weaponization of social media in amplifying hate and bigotry.

A campaign that had begun with a single gubernatorial repost of a far-right activist account in February 2025 grew within a year into a coordinated institutional movement involving many Republican elected officials, a formal congressional caucus, multiple pieces of proposed legislation, and over a thousand social media posts collectively reaching tens of millions of Americans.

Methodology

For this study, we identified Republican elected officials who, since January 2025, have posted content on their official social media accounts that references Islam, Muslims, or Sharia in a domestic American context in a negative, hostile, or conspiratorial manner. This process yielded 46 federal elected officials and state executives, including members of the US House of Representatives and Senate, governors, and a state attorney general. Officials who did not post about Muslims or Islam in a domestic context, or whose posts were limited to foreign policy matters, were not included.

We collected all posts from these officials’ accounts between January 2025 and March 2026 that were identified through keyword searches related to “Islam,” “Islamic takeover,” “Islamification,” “mosques,” “Muslims,” “Muslim takeover,” “Sharia,” and associated terms. From the total posts collected, 1,111 were directed at Muslim Americans in a domestic context. Posts focused exclusively on foreign events, such as conflicts in Nigeria, Iran, Israel/Gaza, or elsewhere, with no domestic framing targeting Muslims, were excluded from analysis.

A combined quantitative and qualitative analysis helped to situate the scale, patterns, and dominant narratives emerging from these posts. Quantitative metrics explore the volume, key actors, and geographic distribution of this specific anti-Muslim campaign that emerged in early 2025. 

Qualitative analysis was conducted using keyword-based thematic coding. Each post was coded according to predefined categories, including references to Sharia, the construction of a terrorism threat, and dehumanizing metaphors, using a curated list of keywords and phrases. Posts could be coded into multiple categories where applicable. A further close reading of posts was employed to analyze rhetorical strategies. From these, examples were selected to represent the range of authors and to illustrate distinctive patterns within each strategy.

Data Analysis

This section presents a quantitative analysis of 1,111 social media posts by 46 Republican elected officials, published between February 24, 2025, and March 31, 2026, on X, Facebook, and Instagram. Where identical content was posted across multiple platforms, it was counted as a single post. The dataset includes bigoted posts targeting Muslims or Islam, or promoting anti-Muslim conspiracy narratives in a domestic American context. 

Volume and Escalation

The most significant finding is the speed and scale of escalation in posting behavior. What began as a single post by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in February 2025 grew into a torrent of more than 260 posts per month by March 2026, involving dozens of elected officials from multiple states.

The monthly average rose from almost 11 posts in the early period (February to June 2025) to nearly 177 posts in the late period (December 2025 to March 2026)—an increase of approximately 1,450 percent. Simultaneously, the number of participating lawmakers grew from 13 to 43, indicating that the rhetoric spread from a small vanguard to a broad coalition. February 2026 saw 195 posts, and March 2026 exceeded 260, representing the highest-intensity period in the dataset. 

FIGURE 2. MONTHLY VOLUME OF POSTS PROMOTING ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY BY ELECTED OFFICIALS

Key Actors

The dataset is heavily concentrated among five elected officials who together account for 813 posts, or 73% of all content with anti-Muslim bigotry.

FIGURE 3. TOP 10 ELECTED OFFICIALS BY VOLUME OF POSTS PROMOTING ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY

Rep. Randy Fine alone produced nearly a third (29 percent) of all anti-Muslim posts, averaging more than one per day during his most active months. He was followed by Rep. Keith Self, who accounted for 17 percent of the posts, Rep. Chip Roy at 14 percent, Sen. Tommy Tuberville at 7 percent, and Rep. Andy Ogles at 5 percent. This concentration suggests a small core of lawmakers driving the narrative, with an expanding periphery amplifying it to a broader network.

Geographic Concentration

Texas and Florida elected officials dominate the dataset. Texas-based elected officials (eight members, including the Governor and Attorney General) produced 442 posts (40 percent), while Florida-based elected officials (four members, including the Governor) produced 348 posts (31 percent). Together, elected officials from these two states account for 71 percent of all anti-Muslim posts. Alabama (Sen. Tuberville), South Carolina (Rep. Mace), and Tennessee (Rep. Ogles) account for most of the remainder.

Texas ranks fifth among US states in Muslim population share, and the EPIC City controversy has given the state national visibility as a flashpoint for anti-Muslim discourse. Texas is an electorally purple state where immigration is a potent mobilizing issue, and the state’s elected officials who target Muslim American communities in their posts are appealing to nativist sentiment within their constituencies through anti-Muslim fearmongering.⁴⁴

Florida presents an interesting case since, unlike Texas, it has a relatively small Muslim American population. The state’s politics have been shifting rightward under Governor Ron DeSantis and the broader MAGA coalition, and Florida often serves as a laboratory for testing the most extreme ideas within the GOP and passing hardline legislation on cultural and social issues.⁴⁵ Florida elected officials are prominent in our dataset because they push the limit on outrage and sensationalism to create a groundswell of support for anti-Muslim policies. 

FIGURE 4. GEOGRAPHIC CONCENTRATION OF POSTS PROMOTING ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY BY ELECTED OFFICIALS’ HOME STATE

Named Cities

While the top figures in our dataset are based in Texas, Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee, they often post about other states and cities, describing them as “conquered” or “invaded” because Muslims live there. A few cities mentioned are noteworthy. New York City leads with 66 mentions (driven largely by the Mamdani mayoral campaign), followed by Dearborn, Michigan (15), and Dallas, Texas (11, linked to the EPIC City development controversy). Minneapolis (6), with a high Somali population, and Houston (4) are also targeted by these elected officials. Such cities with visible Muslim American populations are described as “conquered” or “invaded.” Such anti-Muslim discourse has long promoted narratives of urban degeneracy due to high levels of immigration, with cities such as Dearborn and Minneapolis heralded as Islamic “no-go zones.”⁴⁶

FIGURE 5. U.S. CITIES MOST FREQUENTLY TARGETED IN POSTS PROMOTING ANTI-MUSLIM BIGOTRY

Architecture of Anti-Muslim Bigotry

This section examines the prominent narratives and patterns within our dataset of Republican elected officials’ posts. We analyzed the content of all 1,111 posts for the presence of key themes, rhetorical frames, and coordinated patterns of organized hate. Given that these anti-Muslim posts frequently layer multiple arguments within a single message, posts were coded across all applicable categories rather than assigned to a single one, revealing the multi-pronged nature of hate.

The specific narratives deployed in these posts are bound by a strategic (digital) architecture. Their patterns function as components of what Cherian George terms “hate spin,”⁴⁷ a technique in which demonization and fabricated victimhood operate in tandem. In this hate campaign, elected officials dehumanize Muslims as barbarians, terrorists, and invaders while simultaneously positioning themselves and broader American society as the aggrieved party whose civilization, laws, and way of life are under assault, thereby legitimizing and rationalizing bigotry. Several posts by these elected officials constitute explicit endorsement of, or incitement to, violence against Muslims, including calls for mass deportation, denaturalization, and the elimination of Muslim presence from American life. Language that, when issued by state actors, amounts to the advocacy of ethnic cleansing through policy.

The Sharia conspiracy theory is the clearest expression of this dual strategy: it vilifies Islamic religious practice as a threat to constitutional order, while manufacturing a crisis of offense in which elected officials perform alarm and indignation over a legal scenario that has no basis in reality. Each thematic category examined below should be understood as one facet of an integrated campaign designed to reduce a diverse religious community into a threatening caricature, construct a Muslim bogeyman, fuel hatred, and convert manufactured fear into legislative and political capital.

To further understand the impact of this fear, we rely on the work of the Dangerous Speech Project (DSP)⁴⁸ to analyze whether the posts included for analysis might inspire violence against Muslims. This framework constitutes the following:

First, the DSP points out that threat-construction is typical of dangerous speech, since instilling fear of another group of people can make violence seem not only acceptable but necessary.

Indeed, most of the posts in our dataset assert that Muslims pose a serious threat to other Americans, for example, because Muslims ostensibly intend to replace U.S. law and courts with “Sharia.” The language of invasion and conquest echoes white supremacist narratives, especially the Great Replacement theory, in which liberal elites are said to be deliberately working to replace white populations with non-white immigrants, especially Muslims. Comments on the posts in our dataset indicate that readers are afraid. “We are being invaded, and it’s terrifying,” wrote one. Several posted an image of hundreds of Muslims praying together, framed with the words, “They are not here to assimilate. They are here to dominate.”

The DSP uses an analytical framework for estimating how dangerous (i.e., likely to inspire violence) speech is, in the context in which it was made or disseminated. The framework considers five elements: the content of the speech itself, the speaker, the audience, the medium through which the speech was spread, and the social and historical context. 

In this case, as noted above, the content is frightening and inflammatory. The speakers—prominent elected officials — are influential. Their supporters (their principal audiences) have already been primed with years of xenophobic, Islamophobic rhetoric and are susceptible to such messages. The medium through which the messages were disseminated is official social media accounts, which lend credibility and importance to the content. Finally, the social and historical context includes episodes of violence, each of which has been used to assign collective blame to all Muslims, sustaining a climate in which audiences are primed to accept dangerous speech. In sum, many of the posts tick every box in the dangerous speech analytical framework.

Sharia Frame

“Sharia” is the single most prevalent term in the dataset, appearing in 528 posts (48 percent). It functions as the dehumanization campaign’s master frame, tying together legislative proposals, deportation demands, and civilizational fear. 

We traced the Sharia frame directly to the EPIC community development controversy in Dallas, which Governor Abbott amplified on February 24, 2025. From that origin point, “Sharia” became the primary linguistic vehicle through which the entire campaign operates. Rep. Keith Self is the most prolific promoter of the Sharia scare, constituting 176 of his 191 posts (or 92 percent) to Sharia. In December 2025, Self, along with Rep Chip Roy, formed the Sharia-Free America Caucus.

Religious freedom is guaranteed by the free exercise clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The government is prohibited from enforcing any religious law, Sharia or otherwise, by the Establishment Clause in the same amendment. 

Nonetheless, the Sharia conspiracy narrative—that Muslims are trying to take over the United States through exploiting the legal system—frightens many Americans. It can be traced back to the post-9/11 era and the War on Terror, when anti-Muslim hostility was on the rise. The current wave of anti-Sharia legislative initiatives is one more surge in a long history of manufactured anti-Sharia hysteria in the United States. The number of lawmakers pushing the conspiracy theory was once marginal, but membership in the Sharia-Free America Caucus has doubled in size since its launch in December 2025. This type of coordinated effort provides institutional legitimacy to conspiratorial claims.

Terrorism and Security

Nearly a third of all posts (322 posts) frame Muslims through the lens of terrorism, jihad, and national security. These posts weaponize real incidents of violence, for example, the Boulder, Colorado attack and the Austin, Texas shooting, exploiting them to characterize Muslims and Islam more broadly as violent threats. 

Domestic terror attacks function in this dataset as ammunition to be deployed against Muslim Americans as a group, thereby labeling all Muslim Americans as radical, fanatic, and violent. Often, these posts highlight the alleged incompatibility of Islam with American values and culture, invoking a clash of civilizations narrative to justify stringent and, at times, pre-emptive action against Muslim “enemies” in the name of national security. 

Legislative and Institutional Framing

This category consists of 231 posts that embed anti-Muslim rhetoric within legislative action, congressional hearings, formal investigations, or caucus activity, and includes announcements of bills, references to the Sharia-Free America Caucus, state-level investigations into Muslim community projects, and calls for federal agencies to designate Muslim organizations as terrorist entities.

The prevalence of this category is significant. It demonstrates that the hate campaign is not confined to inflammatory social media rhetoric, but is being systematically woven into the institutional machinery of governance. Posts in this category serve as a bridge between online rhetoric and real-world policy, giving conspiracy theories a veneer of legitimacy that social media posts alone cannot provide.

Immigration

These 116 posts link anti-Muslim rhetoric to immigration policy, framing Muslim immigration as an invasion or infiltration that poses a direct threat to the American way of life. The language includes terms such as “illegal aliens,” “mass migration,” “conquer,” and “invaders.” 

In posts referring to terror attacks involving Muslims, the incidents are consistently attributed to immigration systems that allowed Muslims into the country. These framings are woven into the proclaimed necessity to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and increase the Department of Homeland Security’s budget, personnel, and resources. 

Calls for Denaturalization and Deportation

Lastly, 64 posts contain explicit demands for the denaturalization, deportation, or expulsion of Muslims. These range from demands for mass deportation to ending “mass naturalization fraud” in the immigration system. The language in these posts often does not distinguish between citizens and non-citizens, or between extremist individuals and ordinary Muslim Americans.

Layered Narratives of Hate

The language and framing used in many lawmakers’ posts draw upon well-established patterns of racism, dehumanization, othering, securitization, and population replacement conspiracy theories. Often, two or more of these narratives appear simultaneously. A single post can securitize Islam while deploying Great Replacement theory language within a civilizational clash frame. This layering gives hate its cumulative power, as each pattern reinforces the others, constructing a worldview in which Muslims are simultaneously subhuman, disloyal, conquering, and existentially dangerous.

One in five posts (215 posts, or 19 percent) invoke the clash of civilizations frame, projecting a conflict of “Western civilization” versus Islam, invoking “Judeo-Christian” values against Islamic ones, or declaring Islam “incompatible” with the West. Rep. Chip Roy, Rep. Keith Self, and Rep. Randy Fine have repeatedly referenced defending “Western civilization” from Islam.

Meanwhile, 137 posts (12 percent) frame Islam and Muslims through a securitization lens, labeling them as existential security threats. The formation of a congressional caucus, the introduction of multiple bills targeting Islamic religious practices, and the calls for federal investigations into mosques, Muslim candidates, and Muslim elected officials are all consistent with this pattern.

The language of “invasion,” “conquest,” “takeover,” and “Islamification” appears in 130 posts (12 percent), closely mirroring the vocabulary of the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, which frames Muslims as replacing the white majority population and culture while engaging in a deliberate civilizational conquest of the US. 

Within this discourse, warnings are issued about the “Islamification of Texas,” alongside claims that “if we don’t stop them, they will conquer our country.” 

Cities such as Dearborn, Michigan, which has a significant Arab-majority population, and New York City, which has the highest Muslim population as well as a Muslim mayor, are frequently portrayed as having been “conquered” or “occupied by Muslim invaders.”

63 posts (6 percent) employ othering and dehumanizing language through metaphors of disease and evil, including terms such as “plague,” “virus,” “cancer,” “demons,” and “death cult.” 

Sen. Tuberville has repeatedly characterized Islam as a “death cult” and a “cancer,” while Rep. Fine has described Muslims as “demons.” Such prevalent language among elected officials significantly amplifies its normalizing effect, contributing to reduced empathy toward the targeted group and justified discriminatory and violent action against them.

A smaller subset of 37 posts frames Muslim Americans as an enemy force that has already penetrated the national body, invoking the concept of a fifth column: a disloyal minority working from within to undermine the nation. 

Prominent Muslim American politicians such as NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) are included in such references to the enemy within, thus undermining their credibility and authority as elected officials, and by extension, sowing distrust in political institutions.

Although our analysis mainly focuses on the domestic American context, a recurring pattern across multiple posts is the depiction of Europe and the UK as a warning sign of what awaits America if it fails to act on the threat of Islam and Muslims. 68 posts reference Europe and the United Kingdom, particularly cities like London and Paris, to argue that these countries have already been “destroyed” or “conquered” by Islam through mass immigration and the spread of Sharia law, serving as a wake-up call that the U.S. should act before it’s too late.

Positioning the example of Europe serves multiple functions. It provides seemingly “real” evidence for claims that might otherwise seem speculative, allowing elected officials to point to other scenarios as a red flag warning. It creates a sense of urgency by suggesting that the process is already advanced and the window for action is closing. And it frames any call for moderation or tolerance as naive, since the European nations that supposedly took that path are now presented as having paid the price.

American and conservative far-right actors have long promoted narratives signaling the decline of Europe – constructed as a singular, monolithic “civilization” – since politicizing the refugee crisis of 2015⁴⁹. Far-right transatlantic discourse hyperfixates on fearmongering about Muslim immigrants and Islam. Countries within Europe are simultaneously framed as a “dystopian utopia”: a nationalist role model but also a warning example.

Several posts further use the European example to attack domestic political opponents, arguing that Democrats who resist anti-Muslim legislation are leading America down the same path. Rep. Chip Roy tells audiences that “Europe has fallen” and that America’s immigration system “must be fortified” to prevent the same outcome. 

Other smaller recurring patterns include nativism, in which Muslim presence is treated as inherently foreign regardless of citizenship, with assertions that Muslims are “unable to assimilate” and demands that they “go back.” 

Collective guilt framing attributes the actions of a few to the entire faith community, most explicitly through Rep. Fine’s repeated insistence that “mainstream Muslims” pose the real threat.⁵⁰ And finally, several posts deploy the language of moral panic while others draw on Orientalist tropes, depicting Muslim societies as backward through references to pedophilia, child marriage, and the oppression of women.

Sharia Free America Caucus

The Sharia-Free America Caucus was launched on December 18, 2025, by Reps. Keith Self and Chip Roy. By early April 2026, its membership had grown to 62 Republicans in the House of Representatives. The caucus provides the institutional infrastructure that connects the social media activity to the legislative agenda, serving as the organizational hub through which anti-Muslim rhetoric is translated into coordinated congressional action.

Not all caucus members participate equally. Of the 62 members, 22 are active across all three tracks of the hate campaign documented in this report: posting anti-Muslim content on social media, co-sponsoring anti-Sharia legislation, and joining the caucus. This group includes the most prolific actors in the dataset – Reps. Self, Fine, Roy, Gill, Ogles, and Crane – who collectively drive the campaign’s volume and intensity. 

An additional 12 caucus members post anti-Muslim content on social media, but have not co-sponsored any of the eight bills, while 8 others have co-sponsored legislation, but do not appear in our social media dataset. Twenty caucus members have done neither: they lent their names to the caucus, but have not posted anti-Muslim content in the domestic American context captured in this study, nor signed on to any of the eight bills.

The caucus thus functions as a concentric structure. At its core is a group of roughly two dozen members who are active on every front. Around them sits a middle ring of members who participate in one additional track beyond caucus membership. And at the periphery are 20 members whose involvement is limited to joining the caucus. Even this peripheral participation is significant. By lending their names to a caucus explicitly organized around the conspiracy theory that Sharia poses a threat to America, these members provide a broader base of apparent congressional support for the campaign’s central conspiracy theory, inflating the appearance of consensus beyond the small group that actually drives it.

When combined with lawmakers who post anti-Muslim content or co-sponsor anti-Sharia bills, but have not joined the caucus, the total number of Republican members of Congress involved in at least one track of this campaign reaches 86.

Conclusion

The findings of this report document a sustained, escalating, and coordinated campaign of hate and bigotry against Muslim Americans by Republican elected officials, amplified through social media. What began with a single gubernatorial repost in February 2025 has grown, within thirteen months, into an operation involving 89 Republican elected officials, including 86 members of Congress across three reinforcing tracks: 1,111 social media posts by 46 elected officials, eight pieces of legislation across both chambers of Congress, and a formal congressional caucus with 62 members. This represents an unprecedented level of coordinated anti-Muslim bigotry by elected officials in the U.S. 

A 1,450 percent increase in monthly posting volume from February 2025 to March 2026, and a growing list of participating lawmakers and other elected officials, indicate that organized anti-Muslim hostility is intensifying, with the trajectory pointing toward further escalation with no sign of slowing as the country approaches the midterm elections.

The campaign functions as hate spin and dangerous speech simultaneously. Elected officials demonize Muslims as barbarians, demons, and invaders while casting themselves as defenders of a civilization under siege, manufacturing the fear that justifies the policy response. The posts analyzed satisfy all five criteria of the Dangerous Speech Project’s framework: inflammatory content, influential speakers, primed audiences, an institutionally credible medium, and a historical context shaped by the collective memory of terrorist attacks. It is speech that places Muslim Americans in danger.

This campaign has not been contained online, but has traversed into the institutional machinery of governance. The Sharia-Free America Caucus and multiple anti-Muslim legislative proposals demonstrate that this bigotry is attempting to be codified into legislation, executive action in some states, and congressional infrastructure. The recurring framing of “mainstream Muslims” as the source of danger by Rep. Fine goes further still, placing the entire Muslim American community under suspicion and providing a rationale for the collective targeting of a religious minority.

Rep. Fine has repeatedly asserted that “Islamophobia is a lie” and that “fear of Islam is rational.” The denial of the very existence of anti-Muslim prejudice seeks to strip Muslim Americans of the language to describe their own targeting. It is meant to justify bigotry by rationalizing it as common sense and positions any pushback against anti-Muslim bigotry as an attempt to silence legitimate criticism.

These findings describe the construction of a comprehensive framework of hostility toward Muslim Americans by people sworn to uphold the Constitution and serve all their constituents. With the midterm elections looming, such anti-Muslim hostility is taking root in both GOP strongholds and battleground swing states, indicating that a major political party is excluding Muslim Americans from political representation as well as increasing the political and physical vulnerability of these communities. 

The anti-Muslim bigotry of these elected officials is helping build a narrative that positions Muslim Americans, their communities, their religious practices, and their elected representatives as an enemy within that must be expelled from the American social fabric and public life. This pattern is especially concerning precisely because it is often the precursor to ethnic violence campaigns against rhetorically targeted groups. 

Endnotes

1. “What Is Dangerous Speech?,” Dangerous Speech Project, https://www.dangerousspeech.org/.
2. Greg Abbott [@GregAbbott_TX], “To be clear, Sharia law is not allowed in Texas. Nor are Sharia cities. Nor are “no go zones“ which this project seems to imply. Bottom line. The project as proposed in the video is not allowed in Texas.,” Tweet, X, February 24, 2025,https://x.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1894053102430405050.
3. Hatewatch Staff, “Unmasked Anti-Muslim Troll Amy Mekelburg Connected to Chris Gaubatz,” Southern Poverty Law Center, June 12, 2018,https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/unmasked-anti-muslim-troll-amy-mekelburg-connected-chris-gaubatz/.
4. Amy Mek [@AmyMek], “WARNING: The Imam Building a Sharia City in Texas Says America Should Embrace Islamic Law Radical Imam Yasir Qadhi isn’t hiding it—he wants Sharia for America. And while he preaches this, he’s actively building a 1,000+ home Islamic stronghold outside Dallas. At the https://t.co/4eDEGdy662,” Tweet, X, February 20, 2025, https://x.com/AmyMek/status/1892702450391646572.
5. Amy Mek [@AmyMek], “A 402-Acre Sharia City is Being Built in Texas—And YOU Are Helping Fund It! https://archive.ph/o9XOD
6. Amy Mek [@AmyMek], “Warning Texas! Radical Imam Yasir Qadhi: Muslims Should NEVER Marry Non-Muslims 🔴 This is one of the men leading the 402-acre Sharia City project in Texas. 🔴 This is the man who sits on the Fiqh Council of North America, pushing for the expansion of Sharia in the U.S. 🔴 https://t.co/qYLEYdLL2c,” Tweet, X, February 24, 2025,https://x.com/AmyMek/status/1894133052382871647.
7. Attorney General Ken Paxton [@KenPaxtonTX], “BREAKING: Today, I took action as part of my ongoing investigation into a real estate development tied to East Plano Islamic Center. Under my watch, there will be zero tolerance for any person or entity that breaks Texas law. https://t.co/PZeUf4BFlp,” Tweet, X, March 25, 2025, https://x.com/KenPaxtonTX/status/1904602019861848243.
8. Greg Abbott [@GregAbbott_TX], “The group behind the proposed EPIC compound may be misleading investors. Defrauding Texans will not be tolerated. The Texas State Securities Board is conducting a thorough investigation to ensure Texans are protected. All entities in Texas must follow state law, not Sharia law. https://t.co/jHZ1Ncl7cP,” Tweet, X, March 27, 2025,https://x.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1905301262884630579.
9. “Cornyn Calls on DOJ to Investigate EPIC City Following Accusations of Religious Discrimination, Sharia Law,” Senator Cornyn, April 14, 2025, https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/cornyn-calls-on-doj-to-investigate-epic-city-following-accusations-of-religious-discrimination-sharia-law/.
10. “Cornyn Announces DOJ Investigation into EPIC City,” Senator Cornyn, May 9, 2025, https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/cornyn-announces-doj-investigation-into-epic-city/.
11. “Reps. Roy, Self Launch Sharia Free America Caucus,” Representative Chip Roy, December 18, 2025, http://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/reps-roy-self-launch-sharia-free-america-caucus.
12. Congressman Randy Fine [@RepFine], “Muslim terror has come to our Nation’s Capital tonight. Two Jews were assassinated by a gunman sporting a terror rag and yelling ‘Free Palestine.’ It is high time for us to acknowledge there is nothing peaceful about this movement and that these demons must be put down by,” Tweet, X, May 22, 2025, https://x.com/RepFine/status/1925395896939766227.
13. Callum Sutherland, “What We Know About the Boulder, Colorado Attack,” U.S., TIME, June 2, 2025, https://time.com/7290355/boulder-colorado-attack-what-we-know/.
14. Congressman Brandon Gill [@RepBrandonGill], “Biden allowed Islamic terrorist Mohamad Soliman into the country under a B1/B2 visa program He overstayed his visa so Biden awarded him with a work permit He then overstayed his work permit, before brutally attacking American Jews Uncontrolled mass migration is suicidal,” Tweet, X, June 2, 2025,https://x.com/RepBrandonGill/status/1929362371648090463.
15. Lauren Boebert [@laurenboebert], “It is impossible to know how many Radical Islamic terrorists are residing in America after four years of Biden’s open borders. What happened in Boulder yesterday is horrific and only underscores the need for MASS DEPORTATIONS of EVERY CRIMINAL ILLEGAL in our nation!,” Tweet, X, June 2, 2025, https://x.com/laurenboebert/status/1929597208535486892.
16. Rep. Chip Roy Press Office [@RepChipRoy], “Rep. Roy: ‘Is anybody paying attention to what’s happening in London?! You’ve got a massive Muslim takeover of the United Kingdom going on right before our eyes… I’ve got some strong concerns about Sharia Law and whether that will be forced on the American people.’ https://t.co/SfBVfl838Y,” Tweet, X, June 4, 2025,https://x.com/RepChipRoy/status/1930375278959964558.
17. Rep. Chip Roy Press Office [@RepChipRoy], “Rep. Roy: “We have a situation where Islam and importantly the Sharia law that certain places like that city in Dallas, near Plano, that has the possibility of Sharia law being put in place is inconsistent with Western civilization. We can’t have that. And I’m not going to be https://t.co/MIZ2THoJlL,” Tweet, X, June 6, 2025,https://x.com/RepChipRoy/status/1931021720581705841.
18. Muslim Brotherhood Is a Terrorist Organization Act of 2025, 2025 (H.R.3883),https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3883/text.  
19. Nancy Mace [@NancyMace], “The Muslim Brotherhood MUST be declared a t*rrorist organization and Sharia Law can NEVER come before the US Constitution. Our Muslim Brotherhood Is a Terrorist Organization Act defends this country and puts America first.Act will protect us.,” Tweet, X, June 10, 2025, https://x.com/NancyMace/status/1932545558868013324.
20. Congressman Randy Fine [@RepFine], “Zohran Mamdani would do to New York City what Khomeini and Khamenei did to Tehran. We cannot let radical Muslims turn America into a Shiite caliphate.,” Tweet, X, June 19, 2025, https://x.com/RepFine/status/1935834929243603020.
21. Congressman Randy Fine [@RepFine], “New Yorkers must not elect this proud Muslim terrorist as their next mayor. Vote away (or in this case, do not rank him!) https://nypost.com/2025/06/21/us-news/socialist-nyc-mayoral-candidate-zohran-mamdani-once-rapped-about-his-love-for-hamas-teror-funding-group-holy-land-five/,” Tweet, X, June 21, 2025, https://x.com/RepFine/status/1936468443416416642.
22. Rep. Andy Ogles [@RepOgles], “Socialism = bad Islamist terrorists = bad Third world customs = bad Western civilization is just that—civilized. If you love communist socialism or are a Islamist terrorist sympathizer, you should probably go back to the Third World because that’s the only place your values,” Tweet, X, June 30, 2025, https://x.com/RepOgles/status/1939682135796830389.
23. Rep. Andy Ogles [@RepOgles], “Islam is and has always been the enemy of Western society. Just days after I held this live stream an Afghani attacked our troops on US soil. Muslim migrants destroyed Europe and they are destroying our communities. https://t.co/6zWNypMNc9,” Tweet, X, December 2, 2025, https://x.com/RepOgles/status/1995907341217079705.
24. No Shari’a Act, 2025(H.R.5512),https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5512/text.
25. Congressman Brandon Gill [@RepBrandonGill], “Sharia Law is utterly barbaric and has no place in America whatsoever. Proud to cosponsor this legislation.,” Tweet, X, September 25, 2025, https://x.com/RepBrandonGill/status/1971032230941294659.
26. Rep. Chip Roy Press Office [@RepChipRoy], “New York City first. Your community next. The advancement of Sharia law and Islamists in the United States must be stopped.,” Tweet, X, September 26, 2025, https://x.com/RepChipRoy/status/1971565809060270122.
27. Congressman Randy Fine [@RepFine], “Fear of Islam is rational. Islamophobia is a lie.,” Tweet, X, October 3, 2025,https://x.com/RepFine/status/1973910097295503600.
28. Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act, 2025 (H.R.5722),https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5722/text. 
29. Ron DeSantis [@RonDeSantis], “Sharia law has no place in the USA and is incompatible with the Constitution.,” Tweet, X, October 9, 2025,https://x.com/RonDeSantis/status/1976335298784362788.
30. Coach Tommy Tuberville [@SenTuberville], “Radical Islam has DESTROYED Europe. If we don’t call out this extreme ideology, America will be next. I REFUSE to sit idly by and let that happen. BAN SHARIA LAW. https://t.co/6gWXa4HSsY,” Tweet, X, October 11, 2025,https://x.com/SenTuberville/status/1977041066772578337.
31. Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act, 2025 (S.3009), https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/3009/text?s=2&r=8&hl=sharia.
32. Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act, 2025 (H.R.5722),https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5722/text. 
33. “Islamic Tribunal”, https://www.islamictribunal.org/.
34. PAUSE Act of 2025, 2025 (H.R.6225), https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6225/text?s=2&r=5&hl=sharia. 
35. Swathi Shanmugasundaram, “Anti-Sharia Law Bills in the United States,” Southern Poverty Law Center, February 5, 2018,https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/anti-sharia-law-bills-united-states/.
36. Rep. Andy Ogles [@RepOgles], “Muslims + gun control = dead civilians.,” Tweet, X, December 16, 2025,https://x.com/RepOgles/status/2000962615137443879.
37. “Congressman Self and Congressman Roy’s Sharia Free America Caucus Surges in Congress, Adding Twenty-Four Members in Under One Month | Representative Keith Self,” Congressman Keith Self, January 15, 2026, http://keithself.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-self-and-congressman-roys-sharia-free-america-caucus-surges.
38. Rep. Keith Self [@RepKeithSelf], “🗞️@RepKeithSelf & @RepChipRoy Call Texas ‘Ground Zero’ in Fight Against Sharia https://t.co/oXV5N1pmP5,” Tweet, X, February 5, 2026, https://x.com/RepKeithSelf/status/2019417391638212767.
39. Congressman Randy Fine [@RepFine], “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.,” Tweet, X, February 15, 2026, https://x.com/RepFine/status/2023161539897720931.
40. Nerdeen Kiswani [@NerdeenKiswani], “Finally, NYC is coming to Islam. Dogs definitely have a place in society, just not as indoor pets. Like we’ve said all along, they are unclean.,” Tweet, X, February 12, 2026, https://x.com/NerdeenKiswani/status/2022091365182845006.
41. Protecting Puppies from Sharia Act, 2026 (H.R.7611), https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/7611/text.
42. Defeat Sharia Law in America Act, 2026 (S.3887), https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/3887/text.
43. Defeat Sharia Law in America Act, 2026 (H.R.8017), https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8017.
44. J. David Goodman, “Without a Border ‘Invasion,’ Texas G.O.P. Turns to an Old Enemy, Islam,” U.S., The New York Times, February 10, 2026,https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/10/us/politics/texas-muslims-republicans.html.
45. Max Greenwood, “How Florida Became a Conservative Bastion,” The Hill, May 15, 2023, https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3998391-how-florida-became-a-conservative-bastion/.
46. Neal Rubin, “It’s Time to Leave Dearborn Alone,” Detroit Free Press, November 26, 2025, https://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/neal-rubin/2025/11/26/its-time-for-anti-islam-agitators-to-leave-dearborn-alone/87449435007/.
47. Cherian George, Hate Spin: The Manufacture of Religious Offense and Its Threat to Democracy (MIT Press, 2016).
48. “Dangerous Speech Project”, https://www.dangerousspeech.org/.
49. Mathilda Åkerlund, “The Sweden Paradox: US Far-Right Fantasies of a Dystopian Utopia,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 49, no. 19 (2023): 4789–808, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2023.2208293.
50. Congressman Randy Fine [@RepFine], “We either wake up or Mainstream Muslims will conquer the West for good. The choice is ours America.,” Tweet, X, December 16, 2025, https://x.com/RepFine/status/2001044670810390866.