cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/26899243

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.”

  • bagsy@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    This has to be fake, there is no way an adult human being can be this stupid. The picture show 5 of them, are 5 people really this stupid?

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Gotta have a pretty smooth brain to not recognize a political party as racist when they’ve been brazenly racist for decades.

    • PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      Conservative muslims in America do love to participate in the culture war bullshit which attracts them to lemming voting for Republicans.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    15 hours ago

    I searched up one of the delegates and uh: https://threepennypress.org/features/2021/01/13/teacher-shares-her-immigration-story-to-america/

    Halabi remembers a time when she stopped at a red light in traffic. Her kids were toddlers at the time, and she was dropping them off at school when she saw a car beside her with a large white man sticking his middle finger at her. The man unleashed a racist tirade to her car window, cursing her prophet and bellowing, “Go back to your country!” To her horror, the man exited his car and began to charge at her vehicle. Luckily, there were no cars parked behind her, so Halabi reversed and sped to her kids’ school, taking another route instead. Halabi told the school about her recent scare and the faculty there notified the authorities. She caught a glimpse of the man’s license plate, but she knew a report of a verbal attack wouldn’t do much justice. Halabi was just grateful she and her kids were not physically harmed.

    “Unfortunately there are a lot of haters and you cannot do anything about it,” Halabi said. “Some people like to take their rights into their own hands and I don’t suggest that because it’s fast. It’s still in my memory, I will never forget how he terrorized me but it’s a good thing nothing worse happened.”

    bruh

    EDIT:

    In the days before the convention, Muhtaseb, along with Tarek Hussein, who founded the Houston CAIR branch, were gaining attention as other delegates began realizing they had connections to CAIR.

    I’ve forgotten but I’m like 90% sure CAIR was the scam DC org pretending to represent all the Islamic/Mulsim orgs in the USA, especially during the election cycle.

  • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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    23 hours ago

    Jews at nazi rally told to leave Nazi party, and nazi Germany

    Teresa’s? And? Was anyone surprised? I mean, Nazi’s go Nazi and Nazi’s do nazi shit. I’m not surprised, I’m not even outraged anymore because it’s like being surprised that snakes do snake shit like biting you and injecting venom. It’s a “doh” thing

    But Muslims at a GOP convention, that IS interesting, that does make you wonder

  • eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 days ago

    She wept into her husband’s chest.

    Halabi, a teacher, declined to say how she would vote in November, but said that she is a Republican and always votes.

    This is why they get treated that way, because they’re going to show up and vote for them anyway.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      It’s pathetic really. These people hate their existence and yet they continue to carry water for them. Useful idiot isn’t a strong enough descriptor.

  • ramenshaman@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Imagine being as delusional as someone who was Muslim and felt welcome in the GOP in 2026. Trump literally tried to create a “Muslim ban”. Were you not paying attention?

  • MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com
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    2 days ago

    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.”

    Their idea of unity is not coming together despite differences, it’s an eradication of differences. They aren’t even hiding it. I have no idea why they are surprised.

  • WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today
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    2 days ago

    But the group of Republican wannabe Muslims still won’t face their cognitive dissonance. I mean… There’s a reason they wanted to join the Republicans, after all…

  • inari@piefed.zip
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    2 days ago

    The Republicans would get a lot more votes if they weren’t so racist. A lot of conservative racial minorities end up voting Democrat as a result.

    • zebidiah@lemmy.ca
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      24 hours ago

      Jeb understood this… He married a Latina and learned fluent Spanish. But the racism is a key pillar of the gop, and they don’t care if you hate minorities too if you’re a minority yourself.

    • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I don’t think they care, it’s been well proven now that 50%+1 is enough for them to do all the damage they please, and fixing it essentially requires a supermajority.

    • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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      1 day ago

      apparently they still do get alot votes with thier racism, despite the people voting them in is end of the targeted racism. i think they would lose votes without the culture wars and bigotry, because they be another dem party without the fascism.