‘It really did take me back to after 9/11’: How Islamophobia roiled a Texas election

FRISCO, Texas (RNS) — When Aneela Charania approached Frisco’s city council office on May 20, she said she immediately felt fear creep in. Charania , who is Muslim, had come to a public comment meeting about construction projects for a mosque and two Hindu temples.

In the parking lot, Charania , who wears a hijab, texted a neighbor to ask if she could be escorted from her car to the room, as she feared being targeted.

At the meeting, she says she sat through anti-Muslim, anti-Hindu and anti-immigrant comments as speakers debated whether her community belonged in the city at all.

“It really did take me back to after 9/11, to be honest,” said Charania , who moved to the Dallas suburb in February. “I’ve never experienced that level of hatred towards our community.”

The city council meeting was one of many that turned into a public referendum on Frisco’s diverse communities amid a mayoral runoff election pitting Mark Hill, a Republican business attorney, against fellow Republican Rod Vilhauer, a retired construction business owner. Vilhauer campaigned on anti-Muslim, anti-South Asian immigrant rhetoric, while Hill promised to “unite our city and build a future rooted in…