A ban on the sale of halal foods. Hijabs forbidden in public schools. Required school lessons on the “violence and political domination of Islam.”
Some Texas Republicans have offered an early blueprint of a legislative agenda targeting the hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the state with new laws that would make practicing their faith essentially impossible.
A report earlier this year by the nonprofit Center for the Study of Organized Hate traced the current wave of Islaomophobia to Abbott, who retweeted a post by an anti-Muslim influencer last February that called the EPIC City development a “Sharia city.” Its report analyzed more than 1,000 social media posts and bills introduced in Congress.
EPIC City, which is now called The Meadow, is a Muslim-centric development planned across 400 acres in Collin and Hunt counties, about 40 minutes northeast of downtown Dallas. The development, which has faced a slew of legal challenges, is expected to feature more than 1,000 homes, a K-12 faith-based school, a mosque, elderly and assisted living, apartments, retail shops and a community college and sports fields.
After Abbott’s post, anti-Islamic rhetoric from influencers and lawmakers saturated social media, the center found. Many framed Muslims through the lens of terrorism and national security, calling for their deportation or denaturalization. Others used dehumanizing language, labeling Islam as a “cancer” or “plague.”