Shahid Shafi, a surgeon and immigrant from Pakistan, sailed into his role as vice chairman of the Tarrant County Republican Party in July, with a sole dissenting vote.
Since then, Texas Republicans have tried to smother the brush fire lit by Dorrie O’Brien, who cast the single vote against Shafi. On Thursday, the executive committee of the county Republican Party was expected to vote on whether Shafi could keep his new job.
O’Brien, who began to agitate for Shafi’s removal soon after he assumed his role, is one of the 269 Republican representatives eligible to vote. Each one represents a voting precinct in the county. O’Brien has spent the past several months persuading a few more precinct chairs to oppose Shafi.
“We don’t think he’s suitable as a practicing Muslim to be vice chair because he’d be the representative for ALL Republicans in Tarrant County, and not ALL Republicans in Tarrant County think Islam is safe or acceptable in the U.S., in Tarrant County, and in the TCGOP,” O’Brien wrote on Facebook.
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But this latest controversy has brought out the biggest Republican luminaries in the state, and they offered resolute support for Shafi, who became a citizen in 2009 and who has served as a city council member in Southlake, Texas, since 2014.
“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,” Gov. Rick Abbott said this week in a statement.
Shafi, 53, reached by phone Thursday, said he would not comment until after the vote.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.