PHILADELPHIA – February 18, 2026 – The Middle East Forum’s analyses of Islamism in Texas have sparked wide-ranging political change and amplified media attention on the state over the past year.
In February, the Forum’s most recent publication, a guide to six major Islamist networks operating in Texas, was presented to state legislators and state officials. On February 10, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary cited and read from the report.
A Middle East Forum report published in January, “The Islamist Schools Industry in Texas,” uncovered extremist links of private religious schools operating under the aegis of Islamist networks and eligible for a new Texas state voucher program. Following the report’s publication, several schools were struck from the state’s database of participating schools.
Six major Islamist networks influence more than a quarter of Islamic nonprofit institutions in Texas.
Articles published last year on the range of extremist institutions, many linked to terror-finance operations active statewide, plus an MEF report on the millions of dollars handed out to radical institutions through state agencies, garnered tens of thousands of viral comments on social media. In response, Texas political candidates demanded reform, leading to investigations by state legislators into radical beneficiaries, state criminal inquiries and civil lawsuits focusing on radical Salafi mosques such as the East Plano Islamic Center, and the eventual decision by the governor’s office to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.
MEF researcher Sam Westrop, speaking at an early February event hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said the Muslim Brotherhood is far from the only Islamist network operating in Texas. Beyond it, there are “six major Islamist networks, wielding hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue and influencing over a quarter of the Islamic nonprofit institutions in Texas.”
Highlighting an especially dangerous South Asian Islamist movement, Westrop said “the Deobandis should be a name that everyone in America is familiar with, because we spent 20 years fighting them in Afghanistan. The Taliban is the best expression of Deobandi Islamism. And yet not a single federal policy maker or security service person I’ve spoken with even knows the term ‘Deobandi.’ U.S. policymakers failed to understand the underpinning ideology.”
“Texas does not have to repeat the federal government’s mistakes,” Westrop added. “Across the country, Deobandi charities operate to this day, some in cahoots with the Taliban in Afghanistan. In Texas, Deobandi madrassas down near Houston in Sugar Land, along with seminaries up in Dallas, are training the next generation of Deobandi activists and imams, who are being exported to mosques all over the country. If I had to name one network that I would argue presents the greatest threat to Texas, it is the Deobandis.”
MEF executive director Gregg Roman said that “Texas is a blueprint for the rest of the country. We want to show that when politicians act, radicals can in fact be pushed back. Middle East Forum research has exposed the extent of the problem, and now we are working to provide the solutions.”
“Our greatest hope,” Roman continued, “is that the state of Texas will establish a Commission on Islamism to investigate the networks we have identified, refer groups for criminal prosecution or regulatory scrutiny, strip public subsidy from radical groups, and empower moderate Muslims to fight the Islamists who have imposed their grip over Muslim communities.”
The Middle East Forum, a non-profit organization, promotes American interests in the Middle East and protects Western civilization from Islamism. It does so through a combination of original ideas, focused activism, and funding allies.
For more information, visit www.meforum.org.
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For more information, contact:
Gregg Roman
Roman@MEForum.org
+1 (215) 546 5406
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