More than 700 Islamic nonprofit organizations operate across Texas, and at least a third are controlled by seven terror-tied Islamist networks that have accumulated nearly $400 million in assets, according to a report published June 24, 2026 by the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The analysis, conducted by researcher Sam Westrop, maps movements including Taliban-tied Deobandis, anti-Semitic Salafis, and the violent Jamaat-e-Islami, warning that these groups now aim to convert their wealth into political and street-level influence.
Of the 700 Islamic organizations identified in Texas, only 232 have filed tax returns. Yet even this subset reports over $544 million in annual revenue, with Islamist movements controlling almost two-thirds of the annually reported assets. The report also reveals $250 million in grants flowing between national Islamic organizations and Texas beneficiaries over the past decade, spread across 9,000 transactions. Since 2009, nearly a quarter billion dollars in planned or completed mosque building projects have been registered with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, including a recent $30 million plan by the Nueces Mosque—led by imams from the radical Deobandi sect—to build a 75,000 square-foot complex with residential towers. The report notes that many groups exploit IRS exemptions for churches to avoid filing, making the true scale of revenue "significantly more than we know."
According to Westrop, Texas Islamist movements are now pursuing an aggressive political strategy. The report highlights a recent Houston event organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations where Tom Facchine, an official at the North Texas-based Yaqeen Institute, urged Muslims to build "autonomous financial power" and establish Islamic gun clubs and security firms, stating "This is Texas, right? … we better be strapped." Facchine also called for Muslims to "exploit any possible situation" by registering Republican to primary candidates like Ted Cruz, encouraging support for what he described as anti-Zionist figures on the political right. The report quotes Facchine telling the audience that "we will continue to be second-class citizens as Muslims in this country until we remove the influence of Zionism."
The shift marks a concerning evolution in Islamist strategy, the report warns. Westrop explains that radical leaders like Facchine and the Yaqeen Institute are "rising stars and unifiers" within North American Islamism, offering "serious, funded and unchallenged leadership" while reformists remain marginalized on the sidelines. The report describes how wealthy institutions like the Qalam Institute—which recently moved into a nine-acre campus—train hundreds of new imams annually who go on to serve communities nationwide. One of its founders, Hussain Kamani, has declared Western society "filth" and justified sex slavery, according to the report. The combination of hundreds of millions in nonprofit infrastructure, armed supporters, and commitment to "street thuggery, political manipulations, malign influence campaigns and a theocratic commitment to the segregation of Texas cities" represents a serious threat to the state.
Westrop concludes that Texas Islamist movements are now positioned to leverage their wealth for political manipulation and community control, with leaders openly calling for Muslims to assert rights "by any means necessary" and to use financial power—including the significant remittances Texas Muslims send overseas—as leverage. The report's bottom line: impoverished reformists stand powerless while radicals with deep pockets and aggressive agendas go unchallenged across the state.