Study traces anti-Muslim campaign to Greg Abbott

The current surge in anti-Muslim hatred from elected Republicans can be traced to a social media post by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott early last year, according to a new study by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate.

Since then, Republican officials have collectively published more than 1,100 Islamophobic posts on official media accounts, the nonprofit think tank reported in “Manufacturing the Muslim Threat: Inside the GOP’s Anti-Muslim Social Media and Legislative Campaign.”

“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’” and falsely recast domestic terror attacks as Muslim-led, the report says.

And it all began with Abbott’s Feb. 24, 2025, post on X.

Abbott labeled a Muslim-led housing development north of Dallas as an example of the “Sharia cities” banned under state law, then linked to the feed of an anti-Muslim activist who had spent weeks “alerting” and “warning” Texans about the project known as EPIC City. EPIC is an acronym for East Plano Islamic Center.

The post generated 3.6 million views, 57,000 likes and a wave of right-wing social media influencers who began posting about “Sharia Law,” “Sharia takeover” and “creeping Sharia,” according to the 39-page report.

A month later, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation into the EPIC project and Abbot posted about a state securities board investigation as an effort to prevent “Sharia Law.” Roughly two weeks later, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn asked the Department of Justice to investigate the development for “religious discrimination” and “Sharia Law.”

Keith Self

“In early May, the DOJ launched its own investigation, which triggered a further surge in anti-Muslim posts by multiple members of Congress,” the report explains.

One of those was U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, who posted about the so-called Sharia conspiracy, proclaiming “there is NO place for Sharia law in America.” Self later joined fellow Texan and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy in launching the Sharia-Free America Caucus in December, which included 62 House members as of early April 2026.

From February 2025 to March 26, 46 Republicans in elected office published 1,111 bigoted and conspiracy-theory posts about Muslim Americans, with monthly volume up 1,450% over the period of the study.

The study found five members of Congress published 73% of all posts, including Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., who led the way with 29% of the total.

Randy Fine

Conspiracy theories about Muslims appeared in nearly half of all posts, including Great Replacement references to invasions and conquests.

The report explains: “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.’”

Meanwhile, eight Sharia-related bills co-sponsored by 48 Republicans have been introduced across the House and Senate. “In total, 89 Republican elected officials participated in at least one track of the campaign: social media, legislation, or (Sharia-Free) caucus membership.”

But among all the findings, the volume and escalation of anti-Muslim posts was the most significant, the study found.

“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%.”

Chip Roy

At the same time, the number of Republican lawmakers involved grew from 13 to 43, showing how anti-Muslim bigotry and fearmongering began with a small group of influencers and moved into a broad coalition.

In addition to Fine, the leading actors in the anti-Muslim campaign are Self and Roy, both of Texas, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

Geographically, elected officials from Texas and Florida led the way, with eight from Texas publishing 442 posts (40%), and Gov. Ron DeSantis and three others from Florida accounting for 348 posts (31%).

“Together, elected officials from these two states account for 71% of all anti-Muslim posts. Alabama (Sen. Tuberville), South Carolina (Rep. Mace), and Tennessee (Rep. Andy Ogles) account for most of the remainder,” according to the analysis.

Texas (November) and Florida (December) also stood out because the governors of both states declared the Council on American-Islamic relations, a civil rights organization, to be a terrorist organization.

“Sen. Tommy Tuberville began an anti-Muslim and anti-Islam campaign that same month (December) 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.’”

The core ideas of the rhetoric revolves around the claim Muslims want to replace the U.S. Constitution with Sharia Law. This conspiracy theory appeared in 528 posts, and “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,” the report says.

The narrative, which can be traced back to the post 9-11 era, is effective because it frightens many Americans, the report says. “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.”