In the modern media landscape, hate speech often appears decentralized, a sprawling web of anonymous internet trolls and fringe forums. However, a ground-breaking investigative report published by the Centre for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), titled “Manufacturing the Muslim Threat in America,” challenges this assumption. Released on the 21st of April, 2026, the comprehensive report meticulously maps how a highly coordinated anti-Muslim campaign was engineered, sustained, and institutionalised over a thirteen-month period. Far from being a bottom-up phenomenon, the report demonstrates that this recent wave of Islamophobia was actively built from the top down by elite political actors, utilizing official social media channels, federal legislation, and new congressional structures to target Muslim Americans.
Between February 2025 and March 2026, a network of elected Republican officials, including members of Congress and state governors, executed a multi-layered campaign that effectively weaponized anti-Muslim bigotry. CSOH’s findings reveal the staggering scale of this operation: 1,111 bigoted social media posts, eight anti-Sharia bills introduced in Congress, and the rapid formation of a 62-member congressional caucus. By analysing this data, the report illustrates how political elites successfully manufactured a national security “threat” out of thin air, placing a religious minority in direct cultural and physical peril.
The Genesis: From Fringe Conspiracy to Executive Action
According to the CSOH report, the entire thirteen-month apparatus can be traced back to a single digital flashpoint. On the 24th of , 2025, Texas Governor Greg Abbott shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) from a well-known anti-Muslim internet provocateur, Amy Mek. The original post targeted a proposed Muslim-led housing development near Dallas, associated with the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC). Mek claimed that the development was an attempt to establish an autonomous, insular “Sharia city” within Texas.
What should have been dismissed as an unfounded internet conspiracy theory was instead instantly legitimised by executive authorities. Two days later, Governor Abbott escalated the situation by publicly announcing an official investigation by the Texas State Securities Board into the housing development. In his announcement, Abbott explicitly invoked the threat of “Sharia”, declaring that “all entities in Texas must follow state law, not Sharia law.”
This executive validation acted as a green light for other political actors. By April 2025, Texas Senator John Cornyn had written to federal departments demanding scrutiny, and Texas Representative Keith Self joined the fray, posting that there was “NO place for Sharia law in America.” What began as a localised zoning and housing proposal was rapidly transformed into a state-vetted narrative of an existential cultural invasion.
Digital Weaponization: The Scale of the Rhetoric
The most visible vehicle for this campaign was social media. CSOH tracked the official accounts of Republican elected officials, documenting 1,111 posts targeting Muslim Americans during the study window. The volume of these posts did not remain static; rather, it increased by an astonishing 1,450 percent over the thirteen months, indicating a deliberate, escalating strategy to keep anti-Muslim sentiment alive and at the forefront of political discourse.
The report highlights that this digital campaign was highly concentrated. While 46 different elected officials participated, just five members of Congress were responsible for an overwhelming 73 percent of all the recorded posts. This concentration points to a dedicated vanguard driving the rhetoric, which was subsequently echoed and amplified by the broader party ecosystem.
The substance of these posts reveals deeply alarming trends. CSOH categorized the narratives into distinct, layered categories of hate:
- The “Invasion” and “Great Replacement” Narratives: Lawmakers repeatedly used terms like “invasion”, “conquest”, and “Islamification.” This language deliberately mirrors the white supremacist “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, framing American Muslims not as citizens, but as a hostile population engaged in a deliberate civilisational conquest to replace American values.
- Terrorism and National Security: Almost 30% of all tracked posts explicitly framed ordinary Muslim Americans through the lens of terrorism, implying inherent subversion or dual loyalty.
- Deportation and Denaturalization: 64 posts explicitly called for the deportation or denaturalization of Muslims, directly challenging their legal right to American citizenship.
- Dehumanization: 63 posts utilised explicitly dehumanising language. Elected officials referred to Islam and its adherents using terms like “demons”, “death cult”, “cancer”, and “a plague.”
The danger of this rhetoric is amplified when mapped against election cycles. For instance, the report notes that during the New York City mayoral primary in June 2025, candidate Zohran Mamdani became the target of intense Islamophobic attacks. One representative went so far as to post that Mamdani “would do to New York City what Khomeini and Khamenei (Former Iranian supreme leaders) did to Tehran.”
Institutionalising Hate: Legislation and the “Sharia-Free America Caucus”
The CSOH report emphasizes that the campaign did not stop at online rhetoric; it successfully transitioned into tangible legislative action. Between June 2025 and March 2026, Republican lawmakers introduced eight distinct bills referencing “Sharia” across both chambers of Congress. Sponsored or co-sponsored by 48 lawmakers, these bills were driven by a tightly coordinated core group of four members of Congress.
The culmination of this institutionalisation occurred on the 18th of December 2025, when Texas Representatives Keith Self and Chip Roy officially launched the Sharia-Free America Caucus. Designed to combat an entirely fabricated legal threat, the caucus served to legitimise Islamophobia under the guise of congressional oversight. By early April 2026, the caucus had grown to 62 members, embedding anti-Muslim conspiracy theories directly into the infrastructure of the U.S. House of Representatives. In total, CSOH identified 89 elected officials who participated in at least one track of the campaign, whether through social media, legislative sponsorship, or caucus membership.
The Real-World Danger: A Call to Action
The Centre for the Study of Organized Hate concludes its report with a stark warning about the real-world consequences of this political manoeuvring. To evaluate the severity of the rhetoric, CSOH applied the framework established by the Dangerous Speech Project.
“Dangerous speech is defined as language that increases the likelihood that its audience will commit or condone violence against another group.”
DEFINITION OF “DANGEROUS SPEECH” as defined by the dangerous speech project
The report concludes that the posts published by these elected officials satisfy all five criteria of dangerous speech. By utilizing dehumanising metaphors (like “cancer” or “plague”), framing Muslims as an existential threat (via the “invasion” narrative), and operating with the immense social authority of their office, these politicians have effectively lowered the social barriers against violence. When a governor or a member of Congress validates a conspiracy theory, it provides a powerful imprimatur of legitimacy that can inspire extremist violence on the ground.
By exposing the mechanics of this thirteen-month campaign, “Manufacturing the Muslim Threat in America” serves as an urgent wake-up call. It demonstrates that modern Islamophobia is not merely an uncontrolled public prejudice, but a calculated, top-down political strategy engineered for electoral mobilisation and institutional leverage, one that leaves the civil liberties and safety of Muslim Americans hanging in the balance.
To read the full report by CSOH: click here
[Image Credit: Daily Sabah]
