by MerryLynn Gerstenschlager, former VP of Texas Eagle Forum, is Eagle Forum’s National Security Issues Chairman. In 2024, she was a Presidential Elector pledged to Donald J. Trump. MerryLynn lives in Texas, where she has served as Precinct Chair and Election Judge since 2004. She and her late husband, Val, raised a son and daughter, both now married, and are blessed with five grandchildren.
The current turmoil that Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim and self-professing Democratic Socialist, might very well become the next mayor of New York City reminds me of the 1966 movie, The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming! This was during the Cold War when United States aircraft carriers patrolled the Atlantic Sea Coast looking for Russian submarines.
The movie was a spoof about a Russian submarine that ran aground off the coast of Nantucket Island. The captain sent some sailors ashore to get help. Word spread very quickly, and, like the party game of Telephone, the story changed from person to person as panicked people said, “The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!!!”
Mamdani’s win in the N.Y.C. Democratic primary came just about the same time that people down in Josephine, Texas were testifying before their Commissioners Court against a proposed 402-acre Muslim compound called EPIC City.
Alarmed Collin County citizens testified that a Muslim-only community violates the 1968 Fair Housing Act which prohibits discrimination based on religion. Others pointed out how Europe is being overtaken by Muslims who demand the implementation of Sharia (Islamic) law. Some emphasized how Islamic values clash with the U.S. Constitution. EPIC City officials pushed back, claiming that all religions are welcome to live in EPIC City.
Various promotional videos of EPIC City included a mock-up of a mosque, Islamic K-12 school, junior college, recreational facilities, and various housing options including senior living, townhomes, and 1,000 homes. Music in one video includes the sound of the Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer. One man in Islamic garb declared, “[EPIC City] will be the epicenter of Islam in America.”
Public outcry spawned involvement by Governor Greg Abbott, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and Senator John Cornyn, who all initiated investigations of the EPIC City endeavor. Note that the Department of Justice recently closed their investigation, called by Senator John Cornyn, after having found no violations against Christians and Jews by EPIC City’s developers. The project is still on hold due to other pending investigations.
At the same time, the Texas legislature was in session. Among the 9,014 bills filed were more than a dozen Islam-specific bills filed by the two Pakistani Muslim state representatives, Salman Bhojani and Suleman Lalani, who had both placed their hands on the Qur’an when they took their oath of office in 2023 and 2025.
Representative Lalani had authored several bills including HB 625 and HB 667 which would have required a halal food option in public schools if a parent or student requested them. HCR 18 would have designated the month of May as Muslim Heritage Month for the next ten years. HCR 85 would have designated March 15 as the Day to Combat Islamophobia for the next 10 years.
A Day to Combat Islamophobia comes straight out of the United Nations, where the 60-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation sponsored a resolution in 2022 to designate March 15th as The Day to Combat Islamophobia. Rep. Bhojani even referenced from the floor of the Texas house the U.N.’s resolution to Combat Islamophobia.
While HCR 18 establishing May as Muslim Heritage Month for ten years in Texas failed, Muslims in Florida celebrated the passage of a similar bill in May.
The Council on American Islamic Relations, issued a press release celebrating the Florida Legislature’s designation of May 2025 as Florida Muslim-American Heritage Month.
Meanwhile, the Detroit News ran a series of articles about Hamtramck, Michigan, where the city council, including the mayor, is composed entirely of Muslims. Hamtramck had been predominantly Polish for generations until Middle Easterners started trickling in from war-torn countries such as Bosnia and Albania. The flags of many Islamic nations are now flown above this tiny city whose motto is “The World in Two Square Miles.” Back in January 2023, the City Council voted to allow residential slaughter of animals such as sheep and goats for religious purposes, but thankfully, that has since been reversed. The Adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, can be heard in the city streets of Hamtramck.
Up in Minnesota, Democrats picked a Muslim migrant socialist as their candidate for Minneapolis mayor. Omar Fateh is the son of Somali immigrants and was the first Muslim Somali-American elected to the Minnesota Senate. One news source reported that Fateh identifies as a democratic socialist, wants to “combat police violence,” and increase the supply of affordable housing. Many are comparing him to Zohran Mamdani.
On July 15, Texas Senator Ted Cruz introduced S.2293 — The Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act of 2025. Note that this is a revised version of his previous attempts in 2015, 2017, and 2020 to pass such a bill. Also note that Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates already designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. In April, Jordan banned the Muslim Brotherhood from the country.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s plan to take over America is laid out in a document entered as evidence in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation trial in Richardson, Texas in which five Muslims were sent to prison for sending $12.4 Million to Hamas. This document titled “An Explanatory Memorandum” includes these words: “The process of settlement is a ‘Civilization-Jihadist Process’ with all the word means. The Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion [Islam] is made victorious over all other religions.”
You can download a copy of this document at the The Investigative Project on Terrorism website, a goldmine of well-documented information about Islam.
Over in the U.S. House of Representatives, Florida Republican congressman Randy Fine introduced H.R. 4097 to designate CAIR as a terrorist organization. Under “Findings,” the bill reads:
“(3) The Federal Bureau of Investigation has suspended all formal contacts with CAIR due to evidence demonstrating a relationship between CAIR and Hamas, designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States Department of State…”
“(7) In the Federal criminal prosecutions of persons involved with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, the largest successful prosecution of terrorism financing in our country’s history, CAIR was identified as an associate of the Muslim Brotherhood and was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial.”
Perhaps these two new bills in Congress are a result of Americans shouting, “The Muslims are coming — the Muslims are coming!” Certainly, the EPIC City proposal opened a lot of eyes.
The leadership of the Republican Party of Texas recently passed a resolution denouncing CAIR.
Truth be told, the Muslims are already here. Americans are just finally taking notice.
No one knows exactly how many Muslims are actually in the United States. The U.S. Census prohibits asking direct questions about faith. Some estimate as many as 4.5 million Muslims.
News reports reflect that Muslims will be the second-largest religious group in the United States by 2040. This is based on high fertility rates and immigration. On May 23, 2025, The World Population Review reported that the five highest Muslim populations are found in:
| New York: | 724,475 |
| California: | 504,056 |
| Illinois: | 473,792 |
| New Jersey: | 321,652 |
| Texas: | 313,652 |
Last February, CBS News reported that each year, tens of thousands of inmates convert to Islam while incarcerated. It is the fastest-growing religion in U.S. prisons.
As of June 28, 2025, there were 308 mosques in Texas, 36 of which are owned by North American Islamic Trust. NAIT is the bank of the Muslim Brotherhood. NAIT was established for the Muslim Student Association, the first Islamic association in the U.S., and was founded by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1963. There are over 700 MSA chapters on college and high school campuses in the U.S. and Canada.
We must remember that ALL Muslims believe that there is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger/prophet. Muslims are commanded to pattern their life after Mohammed, considered to be the perfect example of a human being.
We must remember that Islam is not a religion, but a complete way of life. We must separate the religious doctrine of Islam from the political doctrine of Islam. Islam is dualistic with one set of rules for Muslims and one set of rules for a non-believer known as a Kafir, “the worst of all creatures.” (Q. 98:6).
We must abandon the emotional aspect of Islam, such as one’s friendly Muslim neighbor or colleague at work. We must be focused on the political aspect of Islam: what Mohammed and the Qur’an command Muslims to do to the Kafir. Learn more about political Islam at The Center for the Study of Political Islam website.
Finally, we must not let words such as Islamophobia silence us. Let us, instead, remember the words of Ronald Reagan who once said that “Evil is powerless for the unafraid.”
