In Texas, Trebor Gordon, a Christian chaplain for the Harris County Republican Party, sought to block the appointment of Sayed Ali from serving as a precinct chair solely based on Ali’s Islamic faith. Gordon proclaimed:
“Islam does not have any basis or any foundation,” the pastor, Trebor Gordon, said. “It is the total opposite of our foundation.”
Over four million people live in Harris county, which also includes the city of Houston, which happens to be home to the biggest concentration of Muslims in the state. And according to the Houston Chronicle, Houston’s Muslim population is also one of the largest in the southern U.S, with more than 1,000 precincts.
Each Houston precinct is represented by a chair whose nominated by a committee and voted on by the party.
The Washington post reports that Ali, who’s been a Republican going back to the Reagan administration, was picked to be one of Houston’s precinct chairs. However Gordon, felt compelled to try and play on his party’s growing anti-Muslim attitude hoping to block Ali’s appointment.
Felicia Winfree Cravens, a precinct chair live-steamed the meeting on Facebook and captured this awkward scene.
“Islam and Christianity do not mix,” Gordon said. “During my prayer, this man did not bow his head. During the pledge of allegiance, he did not utter a word. He didn’t even try to fake it and move his lips.”
“If you believe that a person can practice Islam and agree to the foundational principles of the Republican Party, it’s not right. It’s not true. It can’t happen. There are things on our platform that he and his beliefs are total opposite.”
One man stood up and absolutely schooled Gordon, telling the crowd:
“Our founding document, the Constitution, even back two hundred thirty something years ago; Our founding fathers were establishing the rules by which our country be governed.
They specifically put in there, no religious test. No religious test was good enough for the founding fathers; it’s good enough for me.”
Gordon follows the example of his party’s leader and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, who recommended banning Muslim from visiting or immigrating to the U.S. and wants to surveil Muslim communities like the one in Houston. And former Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson said that no Muslims should be elected to the Oval office.
One precinct chair, Mike Robertson, did question whether or not Islam was a religion, asking, “Has there been any factual information provided that Islam is a religion?”
The committee voted down Gordon’s motion, and Ali was confirmed as a precinct chair.
Meanwhile, Gordon would go back to his fellow bigoted “Christian” trolls and beat his chest about how he stood up against Islam in the name of “the Lord.”
It’s heartening to see that despite what appears to be the hijacking of the Republican party by neo-fascist extremists, there are still a few decent members of the party willing to stand up and speak out against what they know is wrong.
Unfortunately, not enough of them were willing to stop Donald Trump during the primaries, but hopefully, that will change in November.
Featured image Screengrab via YouTube.
