Trebor Gordon is chaplain of the Republican Party in Harris County, Texas. That’s Houston and its surroundings. With 4 million residents, it’s the third most populous county in the nation. One of those residents is Syed Ali. He’s a Muslim Republican who has supported the party since the Reagan years. On Monday, he was on the roster to be confirmed as one of the county party’s 1,000-plus precinct chairs.
But Gordon, who is also a part-time pastor at a local church, stood to introduce a motion to keep Ali’s appointment from happening:
“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,” Gordon said at the meeting, where attendees said nearly 200 people were present. “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.”
He got a second for his motion and some spoken support. The debate was brief, with one precinct chair asking whether Islam is actually a religion, a remark that elicited groans from many in the audience. Another person noted that the party’s rules forbids discrimination on the basis of religion. And another chairman, Mike Robertson, spoke in Ali’s favor, noting that the nation’s founding fathers expressly forbade religious tests for public office. “This is a political party, not a religious institution,” he said, adding in a comment directly to Ali that he was sorry the motion had been brought up. “It hurts my heart to see this happening.”
After the voice vote came, party chairman Paul Simpson ruled that the nays had won, and Ali was confirmed as precinct chair along with more than a dozen others.
Now don’t start expecting this to become a regular thing with me, but count this as pro-Republican hurrah for the majority in that room. If only they could make opposing bigotry in all its forms standard GOP practice instead of an occasional aberration.