Tyler Hicks

In the bitter and expensive US Senate runoff between John Cornyn, the incumbent, and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, the state’s Muslim community has been a frequent target for campaign ads and legal challenges.

Both candidates have tried to portray the other as either too soft on the supposed threat of Islam or insufficiently aggressive toward Muslim institutions.

“Every time it’s an election year, this is one of the favorite cards that the GOP plays to get votes,” said Shehla Faizi, a Texas Muslim running for state comptroller as a member of the Green party. “We have a boogeyman, the boogeyman are Muslims, and we’re going to use that to make people afraid and force them to vote for us.”

Yet the many experts and advocates interviewed for this story all agreed that the frequency and vitriol of this year’s anti-Islam attacks seems to have reached a fever pitch – an observation backed up by data.

Specifically, Paxton and Paxton-allied groups ran ads accusing Cornyn of supporting “Muslim mass immigration” and having “a special place in his heart for radical Islam”. Cornyn, meanwhile, has responded by emphasizing his record “fighting radical Islamic extremism” and drafting a bill aimed at “[stopping] the spread of Sharia Law in the U.S.”

Even though the Senate campaign will come to an end with the 26 May election, Texas Muslims say Republican politicians are fanning the flames of anti-Muslim bigotry that’s already been at the center of many racist incidents in Texas.