Tarrant County GOP’s vice-chairman survives recall vote over his religion

T Span ^ | JANUARY 11, 2019 | ALEX SAMUELS

[Popman]

Dr. Shahid Shafi enters a Tarrant County Republican Party executive committee meeting at Faith Creek Church in Richland Hills on Thursday before a failed attempt to oust him from his vice-chairmanship because he’s Muslim. Leslie Boorhem-Stephenson for The Texas Tribune Shahid Shafi will retain his role as vice-chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party despite a push from a small faction of precinct chairs to remove him from his post because he’s Muslim.

Shafi, a trauma surgeon and Southlake City Council member, came to the U.S. in 1990 and became a naturalized citizen in 2009. The attacks on his religion, however, came shortly after Tarrant County GOP Chair Darl Easton appointed him to a leadership role within the county party in July.

Those who were in favor of Shafi’s removal said he’s unequipped to be vice-chairman because he doesn’t represent all Tarrant County Republicans due to his religion. They’ve also said Islamic ideologies run counter to the U.S. Constitution — an assertion many Texas GOP officials have called bigoted and Shafi himself has vehemently denied.

Dorrie O’Brien, one of the precinct chairs leading the charge against Shafi, previously said her support for ousting him stems not from his religion, but whether he supports Islam or is connected “to Islamic terror groups,” the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The failed attempt to oust Shafi by a small local faction drew national attention as well as condemnation from some of the state’s top Republicans. In a statement Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott said “the promise of freedom of religion is guaranteed by the First Amendment in the Constitution; and Article 1, Section 4 of the Texas Constitution states that no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust in this state.”

“Religious freedom is at the core of who we are as a nation and state, and attacks on Dr. Shafi because of his faith are contrary to this guiding principle,” the governor concluded.

Easton, one of Shafi’s defenders, told The Texas Tribune earlier this week that the movement to remove Shafi was “about religious prejudice.” He was not immediately available for additional comment Thursday.

Former Tarrant County precinct chair Sara Legvold said she was concerned that Shafi could be connected to the Muslim brotherhood — yet offered no evidence other than the fact that he’s a Muslim. Legvold did not vote on the motion to recall Shafi, but sat outside Thursday’s closed-door meeting wearing a burqa to “represent the Islamization of our county, our state and our country.”

“You already see it in the workplace where Muslims demand they’re able to wear their hijab and demand they get a prayer room,” she said. “When was the last time a Christian was allowed to have a separate place to say their prayers?”

Legvold also said that Shafi’s opponents had been vilified.

“They’ve said nothing but horrible things about us — that we’re bigots and Islamophobes and white supremacists — when we’re just patriots who care for our country,” she said.

Though the movement to reconsider Shafi’s appointment was afoot well ahead of last year’s midterm elections, Thursday’s vote comes just months after Tarrant County — considered the most conservative urban county in the country — narrowly flipped in favor of Texas Democrats’ star senatorial candidate, Beto O’Rourke. In Tarrant County and the surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth region, several Texas Senate and House seats went to Democrats, including the district previously held by conservative state Sen. Konni Burton of Colleyville.

Tripp Bryant, a State Republican Executive Committee representative from Senate District 22 that includes part of Tarrant, said it was “appalling” members of the Tarrant County party were being divisive over someone’s religion months after Republicans in the area made nail-biters of races that had once been safe wins. He noted that Republicans U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and U.S. Rep. Ron Wright lost in the county.

“In my personal opinion, they need to pull their heads out of their fourth point of contact and they need to focus on winning elections and stop pointing the finger at Muslims,” Bryant said.

Another precinct chair called Thursday’s motion “bullshit.”

“I’m a Jewish precinct chair,” John Seidenstein said, “does this mean I’m next?”

[dfwgator]

“There are still elements of the Zorastic religion to which they belonged surviving in Persian culture.” — IIRC that was Freddy Mercury’s religion.

So they condone faggotry?

[Terry Mross]

We’ll, well, well. The woman was told by ICE her studies visa would end 3 months shy of her 6 year study so she asked me to write a letter on her behalf, (I had written a letter to the White House praising her and the staff and the hospital that had caused them to receive letters of appreciation for their work) Her high priced Philadelphia PA lawyers told her there was no hope. I told her “They’re not God. I’m a Christian. You pray to your God and I’ll pray to mine.” I wrote a letter to the White House. She got a 6 month extension.

I went to Little Rock last Monday to thank her for coming up with the procedure that saved my life AND my kidney. She thanked me for helping her get her visa extended.

As she was leaving to go perform the procedure on another veteran I told her “It wasn’t me. It was the prayers.”

She stopped, looked back and said “Your prayers were more powerful.” Obviously the Lord wanted me, and her, to ignore the Koran and treat me as she would treat a Muslim. And obviously the Lord didn’t think I was “a fool” for letting her treat me.

And numerous veterans are now getting stents placed in their arteries without their kidneys being danaged. And her cardiologist supervisor told a colleague at Columbia University Medical Center and the procedure is now being done there.

The doctors and nurses told me they didn’t think I was going to live last June.

My Muslim Angel of Mercy told me “You led the way.” So by allowing her to treat me veterans are being given a second chance without having to be on kidney dialysis. Plus, a testimony to a Muslim about the power of prayer to Jesus.