Updated September 12, 2026 at 2:00 AM MST
Within hours of securing the Democratic Senate nomination in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed was called a "terrorist" by one of his potential future colleagues, Sen. Tommy Tuberville.
"Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed is a RADICAL ISLAMIST who will do everything he can to destroy America," the Alabama Republican posted.
Tuberville's post wasn't out of character, given his past rhetoric. It also fit squarely within a constellation of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab messaging that's been cultivated by the political right with growing intensity over the past two years.
"We're far beyond the 2016 presidential campaign where the use of explicit racism in political rhetoric was shocking," said Nazita Lajevardi, professor of political science at the University of Michigan. "We are now in a world where this type of rhetoric is so commonplace that it really should shock the conscience – but it doesn't."
Ads around the country for state and federal campaigns have featured themes on combating "Radical Islam" and "Sharia law," and insisting that "Islamic movements have taken a foothold." Muslims make up a little over one percent of the U.S. population.
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate, a nonpartisan think tank, says anti-Muslim hate skyrocketed with El-Sayed's primary win.
"The bigotry and hate we're seeing right now being spewed online by politicians and influencers is something of staggering proportions," said Raqib Naik, CSOH's executive director.
In a recent analysis, CSOH found that between February 2025 and March 2026, 46 GOP elected officials published over 1,100 posts targeting Muslim Americans with bigotry and conspiracy theories.
While anti-Muslim attitudes have ebbed and flowed in the last 25 years, Naik said social media has drastically shifted the landscape.
"When you create and push these fear mongering claims, it generates clicks, likes, shares and followers, which does translate into publicity, revenue donations and greater influence."
Of particular concern, he said, is language that has moved beyond tropes of "Muslims as a security threat" and towards a "civilizational threat."
"One of the most important shifts we've seen is that this is no longer confined to 'radical Islam' or terrorism," he said. "We're seeing members of Congress label all Muslims as a threat."
He points to an August post from Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., that read: "Every single Muslim holding public office in America is a trojan horse, and a threat to both national security and our republic."
President Trump himself has mused about Democrats electing "jihadists."
But it's not just nationally recognized Republicans trafficking in these tropes. Bo French, a Republican nominee for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission, talked about an "Islamic invasion" last year.
"In Texas, we have over 300 mosques," he said. "And of course, they do what they always do, they move into a neighborhood, they take over the neighborhood, then they start getting people on city councils and stuff like that."
Naik said these narratives have roots in "the great replacement," a conspiracy theory that white populations in Western countries are being replaced by nonwhite populations to achieve a political agenda. It has been linked to deadly attacks, including in San Diego, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and El Paso.
"This kind of rhetoric puts a target on the backs of all Muslims," Naik said. "Right now what we're seeing is literally an open season on Muslims."
A foothold in Texas
Naik said the victories of Muslim politicians like Zohran Mamdani in New York City and El-Sayed play a role in appearing to validate the conspiracy theory peddled by various GOP lawmakers.
"It allows political opponents to present Muslim candidates as evidence of infiltration or a tool of Islamification, which is also used to implicate Democrats as part of a broader campaign to impose Islam on Americans," Naik said.
But he cautions it's too simplistic to attribute the campaign against American Muslims solely to these two electoral victories.
He said a new wave of bigotry began in earnest in early 2025, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott shared a post from a prominent anti-Muslim activist about a development project for a Muslim community outside of Dallas — the East Plano Islamic Center — implying it was a "Sharia city" beholden to Sharia law.
Sharia refers to a broad set of Islamic religious and ethical principles that guide Muslims in daily life — including prayer and personal conduct. It isn't something that is imposed on others nor can it usurp the U.S. Constitution or American legal system, as some GOP figures allege.
Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, now the state's GOP nominee for Senate, continued to focus on the development project, which would come to be marked by a series of investigations and lawsuits. In the interim, Texas remained at the forefront of pushing an anti-Muslim legislative agenda. A resolution called "Don't Sharia My Texas," adopted this summer in the Republican Party of Texas platform, calls on state lawmakers to formally ask the federal government to deport or denaturalize advocates of "Sharia law," among other things.
Just last month, Abbott threatened to withhold funding from major airports, claiming washing stations used by Muslims would unfairly favor one religion over another.
Naik said the animus in Texas has acted as a nexus, signaling to other GOP politicians that this is a motivating issue for the base.
"It's something that's being driven and is rooted in a political agenda," said Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute. "It's rooted in a desire for a viral moment online. It's rooted in a desire to fundraise for their campaigns."
She added warnings of "Islamification" are increasingly paired with the idea of impending communism or socialism.
"To me, it is yet another example of how there's a focus group that sat down somewhere, and they're like, 'let's talk about socialism, let's talk about communism. And then we can do the holy grail of bringing in Islam to it. And boy, is that going to play well,'" Berry said. "I find that really disappointing, really intellectually dishonest, and certainly immoral because you're not thinking about what happens to a young Muslim girl in school or young Muslim boy in college. There's a direct harm to all of this in terms of its impact on people."
Following Mamdani's win, Republicans in the House of Representatives launched the Sharia-Free America caucus, which now has over 65 members. One member, Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, came under fire for saying Muslims don't belong in American society.
In response, House Speaker Mike Johnson pointed to "Sharia law" as the animating issue and said "it is not about people as Muslims."
"What does he do instead of condemning it, as he should have? [Johnson] basically said, 'well, we're not talking about Muslims, we're talking about political Islam,'" said Berry.
But Berry said even in the span of a few months, the tone has shifted.
"There has been this progression from using key terms that make it sound like — 'I'm not a bigot. I'm just trying to be rational about what we're facing,' to now — 'let's call it what it is: Muslims don't belong in this country,'" she said.
She compared the current moment to one 25 years ago, when then-President George W. Bush visited an Islamic Center after the 9/11 attacks.
"[He] said, do not scapegoat an entire community," Berry remembered. "You had the president of the United States say, don't do this to fellow Americans. And I genuinely believe that saved lives. I genuinely believe that was something that was important to set a tone at the highest office, that we won't engage in this kind of bigotry. Contrast that with what you have today, and elected officials with millions of dollars in operational budgets ... and the president of the United States have decided they can use their bully pulpit to sow fear."
Is the messaging politically effective?
Lajevardi, of the University of Michigan, said the anti-Muslim rhetoric may indeed energize segments of the GOP base, but could potentially backfire in places like Michigan, where GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers is also trying to appeal to Democrats and independents.
"People who may be disaffected voters and may not share identities of the targets of these attacks — they still might be repulsed or feel quite negative about this type of rhetoric," Lajevardi said.
Lajevardi added the tenor of the rhetoric from Republicans against Muslims and Arab Americans is politically shortsighted, pointing to the inroads the Trump campaign made with those communities in 2024.
"There was a sizable number of Muslims and Arab Americans who did, in fact, find some of the arguments by the Trump campaign really persuasive, and that's because there were direct appeals being made to these communities," Lajevardi said.
Vinny Minchillo, a Republican consultant, agreed it's possible the broad anti-Muslim messaging could erode some of the progress GOP candidates have been making with Muslim and Arab American communities.
"I think there was a world where Republicans felt like they were getting their fair share of Muslim support and getting their fair share of Muslim votes — I'm not sure that continues," said Minchillo, who previously worked on President Bush's 2004 reelection, Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign, and Trump's 2024 campaign.
Still, he said the issue and its messaging can be highly mobilizing for some Republican voters.
"I always think in advertising, there's only two things for sale, and that's hope and fear," Minchillo said. "And in this case, it's fear. I think people don't like change, people don't like things that are different to them."
He added: "Let's be honest, if you look at any poll anywhere in the country, people's number one concern is the economy and inflation. So for those of us on the Republican side, gee, if we can have a problem to talk about that's not economy and inflation, we're excited to put that in the message set."
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