The Islamic Society of Greater Houston has confirmed that it is helping efforts to register 1,000 voters a week at mosques across the Houston area.
Last week, ISGH President Emran Gazi said at a press conference with local imams and community activists that the organization’s voter-registration efforts are intended to energize Muslims who previously had not considered voting important.
“I can guarantee you, if you all go out and vote this time, Muslims’ vote will make a difference in Houston and Harris County,” Gazi said.
The press conference centered on criticism over new Texas social studies standards that were adopted by the Texas State Board of Education on Sept. 4. The standards are scheduled to be implemented in Texas public schools beginning in the coming years.
Under the new standards, students are expected to learn about early Islam in terms of the Prophet Muhammad’s “brutal military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes, the normalization of slavery, and the taking of female captives as harem slaves.”
The standards also address modern Islamic extremism, including the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on American soil. Students are expected to “explain the rise of radical Islam,” including terrorist groups associated with it and the attacks carried out by those groups.
During the press conference, which was not publicly broadcast but was reported by the Houston Chronicle, Daa’iyah Farooq, a retired Houston school counselor, said the new curriculum could cause some children to feel inferior.
“We are not asking the board to hide an uncomfortable history, but to apply the same intellectual standing to everyone,” she said.
Democrat state Rep. Gene Wu also spoke at the press conference, urging people to vote out the state board of education members who approved the new standards.
Wu also criticized Muslim donors who have contributed to Republican candidates, saying they are “donating to our enemies,” according to the Houston Chronicle.
On Sept. 25, the ISGH partnered with Powered by People, a voter-registration and mobilization group founded by former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, for voter-registration events at several ISGH locations in the Houston area. The events are listed as nonpartisan and focus on registering eligible voters and voter mobilization.
Powered by People has a documented history of supporting Democratic political efforts in Texas. The Texas Tribune reported that O’Rourke launched the group in 2019 and that it has supported Texas Democrats in previous political efforts.
The ISGH event listings also ask attendees not to wear shorts, sleeveless T-shirts or string tops. Women are asked to wear a head scarf, which ISGH says it can provide for those who do not have one.
The voter-registration effort comes as the new Texas social studies standards have become a growing point of political debate in Houston and across the state.
Muslim leaders have criticized the standards and encouraged members of their community to become more politically engaged, while Republican supporters of the curriculum have defended the changes as an effort to provide students with a broader understanding of history, including the development of Islam, its historical conflicts and the rise of Islamic extremism.
