Hey, if they want a smaller tent, who am I to stop them?
To some extent, Mohamed Hussein knew he was preparing to enter the lion’s den.
But he made the decision to attend the Republican Party of Texas Convention to confirm for himself that he had a place in the GOP, even as members of the party have railed for months about the urgency of ending Sharia Law and the so-called “Islamification” of Texas.
What he found was a party that didn’t want him. He arrived with hope, but left in tears after being told explicitly that he should leave the country.
Hussein was among four Muslims, who arrived at the convention in earnest — not as protesters, but as delegates or attendees — to participate in the annual meeting of the state’s most hardlined Republicans as they vote on the party’s priorities and hear from GOP leaders. Two prevailing themes from the Houston gathering were party unity and combatting Sharia Law, a movement that veered into outright Islamophobia by members of the convention.
“When they say Sharia-free, that means Muslim-free, no practices of Islam,” Hussein said in an interview with The Texas Tribune. “No one is calling for the state to implement Sharia laws.”
Hussein said he was in disbelief that he was told to convert or leave — for the first time in his life — at a Republican convention with the tagline, “Unity drives victory.”
That slogan, touted by the governor on press releases, placards, lanyards and even the elephant he procured to march through the convention haul, became a rallying cry for the state’s leaders and party nominees heading into November. If fractured, they warned, the party could lose the state to Democrats and their U.S. Senate nominee, Austin state Rep. James Talarico.
But in spite of that warning, members were willing to lose the support of Muslim conservatives.
On Saturday, outgoing GOP chair Abraham George, addressed two Muslim delegates from the stage, who members tried to expel from the convention because of their ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group the GOP and Gov. Greg Abbott have deemed a terrorist threat.
“I would strongly advise you to leave our caucus,” George said. “There is a Democrat convention happening in a couple weeks. Join them.”
[…]
When it comes time to vote in the midterms, Tarek Hussein plans to support his party where he feels it’s deserved.
“I will vote Republican for the good Republican candidate,” he said.
Mohamed Hussein, said the convention left himself asking questions.
“How can I possibly get behind a party that tells me to leave, that says convert or leave?” he asked. “How do they think that is going to be some kind of winning strategy?”
The Abbott campaign declined to comment on Hussein’s incident. It was also silent on George’s direction for the delegates to join the Democrats.
He also is worried the anti-Islamic rhetoric could lead to more violence against Muslims. Last month, two gunmen, 17 and 18, killed three men when they opened fire at a San Diego mosque. San Diego Police, who are being aided by the FBI, are investigating it as a hate crime.
Asked whether he would vote for Talarico, a Presbyterian theologian who frequently discusses his Christian faith on the campaign trail, Hussein said he would vote for the candidate that champions religious liberty and economic prosperity.
“I will vote along those principles, but what I saw at the convention is not conservatism, so I’m going to assess in November and vote along with my values,” he said. “Absolutely, I will be voting for Republicans who denounce this extremism.”
Good luck finding them. I’m sorry this happened to him, no one deserves to be treated the way they all were – read the whole thing, it was ugly – and I hope they figure out what their path is. I have some thoughts if they want to hear them. I don’t know what to expect from the forthcoming TDP Convention, but I do believe the vibes will be far superior.
There’s a recent op-ed in the Chron about the Democrats’ summer of 1978, when similar bad juju led to the election of Republican Bill Clements as Governor, which in turn was a precursor to a bunch of conservative Dems switching parties, and we all know what happened from there. The thesis of the piece is that Republicans are in danger of doing this to themselves now. I don’t think the history lines up that neatly with the current trajectory, but there is something to it. One could argue we’ve been on this path for awhile, with 2024 being a big aberration that seems to have corrected itself. The more the Republicans act like this with each other, the more plausible it seems.
On Saturday, outgoing GOP chair Abraham George, addressed two Muslim delegates from the stage, who members tried to expel from the convention because of their ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group the GOP and Gov. Greg Abbott have deemed a terrorist threat.
“I would strongly advise you to leave our caucus,” George said. “There is a Democrat convention happening in a couple weeks. Join them.”
George, right after being voted out of his leadership position still believes he’s part of the “our” in “our caucus.”
He should pay closer attention to what’s happening with Vivek Ramaswamy before using his voice to other someone for not being sufficiently white and/or Christian.
“Oh, and I agreed with many, many things you said, during [your monologue] — in fact, probably more than most other candidates when you’re running for president, but I still would not have voted for you, because you’re an Indian.
To the Log Cabin Republicans, Muslim Republicans, any Republican who is not straight, white, and Christian: Are those tax cuts really worth this? Tokens get spent.