Texas public universities and high schools are receiving substantial ideological and financial influence from Muslim nonprofits, according to a new report from the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The report from TPPF’s Sam Westrop claims that “public institutions, by accepting donations or legitimizing radicals as public partners, not only risk the radicalization and miseducation of students, but also sanitize extremists and shift the politics of Muslim communities in favor of Islamist control.”
Westrop lays out the web of interconnected Muslim groups that includes student associations, nonprofits, and terror groups.
The Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA) describes itself as “dedicated to promoting halal through certification, education, and the creation and support of institutions.” The term halal refers to food suitable for consumption by Muslims.
IFANCA has donated millions to Texas A&M University, a partnership that “appears benign, with the funds serving to ‘establish a program in food diversity’ and ‘prepare the next generation of globally aware food scientists,’” according to Westrop.
However, IFANCA is a significant funder of America’s leading Islamist organizations. Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), a movement spanning multiple countries, is one of IFANCA’s principal beneficiaries, listed in the group of organizations that receive millions from the nonprofit.
Prominent in India and within the South Asian diaspora, JI played a significant, violent role in the Bangladesh-Pakistan War of 1971. JI’s student wing has notably been labeled by some as the world’s third-most violent non-state armed group, while the U.S. government has labeled a JI affiliate head as a “global terrorist.” The group gained notoriety in 2018 over its calls for the murder of Asia Bibi, a Christian woman who was convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan.
Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD), a Michigan-based group that lists one of its core values as “equity, justice, honesty, and transparency” and received $500,000 from IFANCA in 2024, is listed as the “overseas aid arm of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the U.S. branch of the South Asian Islamist movement Jamaat-e-Islami.”
In 2019, HHRD sponsored the Lone Star Council (LSC), “a collection of Muslim Student Associations at public and private colleges across Texas,” a group which has organized fundraising operations for Hamas-linked organizations. LSC lists more than 20 locations across Texas on its map.
In addition to HHRD, IFANCA has given grants to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an organization designated as a foreign terrorist organization by Gov. Greg Abbott, and to the Institute of Islamic Education, which some note has a “general pattern of social isolation from the broader American society” that is the “norm.”
Other Texas public universities have similar problems, according to Westrop.
The University of Texas at Dallas has received at least $35,000 from the Mirza Family Foundation and the Altalib Family Foundation, both described by Westrop as members of the Safa network.
The Safa network has been accused of involvement in terror finance activities by the U.S. government. The network’s flagship institution, the International Institute of Islamic Thought, is heavily involved with the Muslim Brotherhood, another Abbott-designated foreign terrorist organization.
The University of Houston has received more than $700,000 from the Meah Family Foundation, which itself has given donations to the Chinese-linked far-left nonprofit Code Pink, as well as to “radical Islamic Society of Greater Houston [and] the U.S. branch of the terror-tied Islamic Relief franchise.”
Westrop also mentions the role of Islamic organizations in high schools in his report.
Earlier this year, WhyIslam, an ICNA group dedicated to teaching about Islam, established an operation at Wylie East High School where it handed out Qurans, pamphlets on “Understanding Shariah,” and hijabs.
In August, Humble Independent School District drew criticism for organizing a field trip to Centro Islamico, a mosque connected to a leading Salafi seminary whose officials have called for the killing of homosexuals and described Jews and unbelievers as “filth,” according to Westrop.
“Clearly, a broad array of radical nonprofits belonging to dangerous Islamist networks is imposing ideological and financial influence over Muslim and non-Muslim students, as well as an oblivious faculty, at public institutions across Texas,” Westrop wrote.
Westrop warned that public education institutions will be a “key battleground” in Texas’ fight to eliminate “malign foreign influence” and “radical nonprofit infrastructure.”
The next regular session of the Texas Legislature begins January 12, 2027.
Westrop’s report comes as conservative think tank Our Republic recently published a poll indicating that more than 40 percent of America’s youngest voters view Sharia positively.
The University of Houston, TAMU, UTD, IFANCA, and HHRD have not yet responded to requests for comment on Westrop’s report.
