Cruz’s witness list includes representatives of organizations known for promoting anti-Muslim narratives
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today applauded Democratic Senators Sheldon Whitehouse, Richard Blumenthal, Mazie Hirono, Alex Padilla, and Peter Welch for boycotting Wednesday’s anti-Muslim Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing.
CAIR is calling on all U.S. Senators to categorically reject this persistent and manufactured anti-Muslim fearmongering.
Some Republicans have increasingly sought to smear American Muslims as potential threats simply for exercising their First Amendment right to worship as they choose. The latest in this relentless campaign is a hearing called by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).
The hearing was originally scheduled for May 20, 2026, but was postponed following the May 18, 2026, anti-Muslim terrorist attacked outside the Islamic Center of San Diego, where a gunman opened fire, murdering a security guard and two other men before taking his own life. Authorities are investigating the attack as a hate crime.
Senator Cruz Invites Anti-Muslim Hearing Witnesses
Cruz has invited witnesses from two organizations known for promoting anti-Muslim narratives: the George Washington University Program on Extremism, which lost two prominent scholars who severed ties with the program over its targeting of Muslims, and the Center for Security Policy, founded by Frank Gaffney, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has described as “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes.“
In a statement, CAIR Director of Government Affairs Robert S. McCaw said:
“Less than three months after our community suffered a devastating hate-fueled terrorist attack carried out by white supremacists who parroted the well-worn anti-Muslim conspiracy theories promoted by Senator Cruz, Cruz and his Republican colleagues are moving forward with a hearing that risks legitimizing the very tropes that helped inspire that violence. The prior postponement of the hearing was an implicit admission that such anti-Muslim rhetoric is having a real impact on real American Muslims.”
“By inviting witnesses affiliated with the George Washington University Program on Extremism and the Center for Security Policy, Senator Cruz has further exposed this hearing for what it is: an exercise in manufacturing suspicion of American Muslims rather than addressing any genuine threat. Politicians cannot spend years depicting Muslim communities as hidden enemies and then act surprised when that rhetoric contributes to a climate of hostility and violence.
“At a time when CAIR is recording record-high reports of anti-Muslim discrimination and hate incidents, this hearing is not only irresponsible, it is dangerous. American Muslims are a community of constituents to be represented, not a people to be exploited. We thank Committee Democrats for recognizing this for what it is: rampant, weaponized Islamophobia at the expense of our safety and our constitutional rights.”
This hearing, which appears to be outside the subcommittee’s jurisdiction, comes mere months after Texas GOP strategist Vinny Minchillo described anti-Muslim messaging as “solid gold” with voters. Texas Republicans have repeatedly weaponized Islamophobia, fearmongering and scapegoating Muslim Americans for political gain:
- Governor Greg Abbott made unfounded accusations in an effort to designate CAIR a terrorist organization.
- Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton spent months attacking a Dallas-area mosque housing project. Cornyn successfully lobbied the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the project, and the investigation later closed without finding wrongdoing.
- Aaron Reitz, current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas and former candidate for Texas Attorney General, mocked “squish Republicans” whose respect for the First Amendment kept them from harassing that housing project.
- Representatives Chip Roy (R-TX-21) and Keith Self (R-TX-03) founded the “Sharia Free America Caucus” and promoted comments by Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who Islamophobically and incorrectly stated that “Islam isn’t a religion, it’s a death cult.” A total of 119 House Democrats denounced the caucus as reflecting “longstanding Islamophobic narratives and anti-Muslim sentiment rather than any demonstrated policy need.”
- Representative Chip Roy vowed in anti-Constitutional pledge to “tweak the Texas Constitution” to “protect Texas from being Islamafied.“
- Representative Brandon Gill (R-TX-26) posted on social media: “No more Muslims immigrating to America.“
The consequences of anti-Muslim rhetoric are not theoretical. In addition to recording 8,683 discrimination complaints nationwide in 2025, the highest single-year total in CAIR’s history, the organization recently documented 17 incidents targeting mosques and Islamic institutions in May, June and July 2026 alone, a 183 percent increase over the same period last year. Those incidents included a terroristic attack on a mosque, threats of violence, arson, intimidation, and other acts targeting Muslims because of their faith.
The sharp increase came in the months following the deadly attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, further demonstrating how Islamophobic rhetoric can contribute to a climate of hostility and violence directed at American Muslim communities.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, [email protected]; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, [email protected]; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, [email protected]