TARRANT COUNTY (WBAP/KLIF) – Some members of a Republican group called ‘Protect Texas’ posted on Facebook, requesting the removal of a Tarrant County Republican Official because of his religion.
Tarrant County Republican Chairman Darl Easton says he appointed Dr. Shahid Shafi as Vice Chair because of his qualities as a leader, he says religion is not a valid test to remove someone from office.
Easton said he received several emails for this request, then the group went public on social media. The post reads “Dr. Shafi is a practicing. Mosque-attending muslim who claims not to follow sharia law or know what it is. As a practicing muslim that is an overt falsehood. Sharia law is anathema to our Constitution because Islam recognizes no other law but shariah.”
Now Tarrant County’s Republican party is fighting back. ” I stood my ground and told them I’m not going to do it,” Easton said. “Our U.S. Constitution and our State Constitution says there will be no religious test to take public office,” he said. Easton believes this request will fail, he said he and the majority of the group supports Shafi. John Janney, Executive Director of a local muslim group, CAIR, thanked Easton for calling the demanded removal “disgusting.” “It’s time for GOP leaders to take their party back from the Islamophobes and racists who are dividing our nation on religious, racial, gender, and ethnic lines,” Janney said.
CAIR-DFW urges community members to report Islamophobic incidents by going to: https://cairdfw.org/report
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