Austin shooting sparks warnings about radical Islam in Texas as officials sound alarm

Shooting in Austin, Texas Over the weekend that left three innocent people dead and is being investigated as a terrorism-related incident, there has been renewed focus on the potential spread of radical Islam in the United States, particularly in deep red Texas, where concerns about Islamic fanaticism are at their peak.

The deceased shooting suspect, identified as Ndiaja Diagne, was a 53-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Senegal and lived in Pflugerville, Texas, after entering the country in 2000.

Diani was wearing a T-shirt that said “King of God” and another shirt underneath that depicted the Iranian flag. The FBI said the shooting, which came shortly after the US and Israeli attack on Iran, was a “possible act of terrorism.”

The possibility that Diagne was motivated by religious ideology, supported by A CBS News report His social media presence has sparked widespread concern about the rise of radical Islam in Texas along with growing scrutiny of possible Iranian sleeper cells operating in the United States in response to recent US military strikes on Iran.

Police said 53-year-old Ndiaja Diagne shot and killed three people and wounded 14 others at a bar in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images and obtained by Fox News)

“Texas is currently under siege by Islamists who want to reshape our state and America as a whole,” Republican Congressman Chip Roy, a candidate for state attorney general, told Fox News Digital.

“The tragic shooting that occurred over the weekend at my home in Austin, Texas is another example of why we need to pause immigration until the system is fixed. We need to stop bringing people into our country who want to kill us.”

Social media has been filled with examples in recent days of accounts expressing concern about potential extremism in mosques across Texas.

“330 mosques in Texas…an average of two new mosques a month,” conservative influencer End Wokeness calculates Published on X.

“These mosques “It’s showing up everywhere. There’s no doubt in my mind that there’s extremism happening in these mosques. There should be,” a former Austin police officer told Fox News Digital.

While it is unclear what, if any, mosque in Texas Diagne attended, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) has released dozens of sermons and lectures from Texas and published a book. Compilation video of extremist imams in Texas from 2018-2025.

The compiled video shows imams from cities across Texas praising Khamenei, leading chants of “Down with Israel,” saying “Muslims will kill Jews,” promoting “jihad,” and highlighting what the MEMRI Institute describes as examples of extremist ideology.

Texas Democratic Senate candidates are deflecting fears of Islamic terrorism in the wake of the deadly Austin attack

Police said that Ndiaja Diagne (53 years old) shot three people dead and injured 14 others. He was wearing a shirt with the Iranian flag on it. (Obtained by Fox News)

“There is a significant amount of troubling activity on the part of several influence groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood, pro-Hamas and Shiite organizations, that are publicly expressing support for Iran and pledging loyalty to Khamenei,” MEMRI Executive Director Stephen Stalinsky told Fox News Digital.

Last year, MEMRI Highlight The Islamic Center of Pflugerville, led by Mufti Omar Farooq Saleem, hosted a children’s story night where he told attendees that Israel “is the illegal state of the Jews.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Islamic Center of Pflugerville for comment.

Shams al-Din Jabbar, the Muslim man A white truck was hit He attacked a crowd full of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans last year and opened fire on police officers, killing 14 people and wounding more than 30. He was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas.

Jabbar was living in Houston before committing the crime, in a mobile home about a seven-minute walk from Bilal Mosque and Dar Al-Arqam Islamic School. Shortly after the attack on that mosque Send the worshipers a message To direct FBI inquiries to a special interest group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and to avoid speaking to the media.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Bilal Mosque for comment.

About 30 miles south of the Masjid Bilal mosque, the Islamic Learning Center of Houston caught the attention of the MEMRI Institute, which I posted a video It shows children pledging allegiance to Khamenei in 2022, alongside a 2019 video of young children pledging allegiance to the now-dead leader.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Islamic Education Center of Houston for comment.

Similar loyalty to Iran’s fundamentalist regime and hardline Shiite ideologues can be found across the country and Fox News Digital investigates. Published earlier this week He analyzed hours and dozens of sermons and found that the principles shaping Tehran’s worldview, from the clerics to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, are also being preached on American soil by Iranian propaganda agents.

“What we are seeing is years of deliberate investment by the Islamic Republic within the United States,” Andrew Galilei, policy director at the National Union for Democracy in Iran, told Fox News Digital.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott calls for CAIR to be stripped of its non-profit status

An exterior view of Shams Al-Din Jabbar’s home in Houston, Texas, Thursday, January 2, 2024, shortly after he plowed his car into crowds of New Year’s Eve revelers on Bourbon Street on Wednesday. (Derek Schock for Fox News Digital)

He added: “This is happening on American soil, and it is just another way in which the regime poses a direct threat to the United States, this time not with missiles but through infiltration.”

Texas has been in the news in recent years as some residents rejected a proposed 400-acre community known as “EPIC City” that critics say markets itself as a Muslim-only community. Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Recently filed a lawsuit The developers of that project, alleging that the defendants raised tens of millions of dollars while violating securities laws, misleading investors about the nature and location of the project, and misrepresenting how the funds were used.

Concerns are growing about potential sleeper cells linked to Iran, as the Department of Homeland Security remains without funding and Tehran and its proxies threaten retaliation for US-Israeli strikes that US officials say killed nearly 50 senior Iranian leaders.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott He told Fox Business Sleeper cell threats need to be taken seriously after the Austin attack.

He added: “There are other details that will be revealed about the shooter and his ties to terrorism that will clarify this [that] “This was a lone activity where the shooter intended to cause chaos here in Texas, and here in the United States, because of his ties and sympathies with Iran,” Abbott said.

“Texas will never tolerate ideologies that support terrorism or seek to impose Sharia law,” Abbott’s office told Fox News Digital in a statement, and said the state has “strengthened” its GPD counterterrorism task forces and is “working with federal partners to disrupt and eliminate any potential threat.”

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem He told Fox News Digital She said on Monday that she was “coordinating directly with our federal intelligence and law enforcement partners as we continue to closely monitor and thwart any potential threats to the homeland,” when asked about any growing threat from sleeper cells in the United States.

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The Texas flag flies above the track before the Sprint Race before the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas on October 18, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Brian Lennon – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reported last year that more than 1,500 Iranian nationals who illegally entered the United States at the southern border were arrested during the Biden administration, and nearly 50% of them were released into the country. At least that, the outlet previously reported Dozens of individuals Listed on terrorist watch lists, she entered the United States through the southern border.

“The shooter in Austin was an Islamic terrorist and should not have been allowed into our country,” Republican Rep. Brandon Gill told Fox News Digital when asked about concerns about the spread of radical Islam in Texas.

“This was an utterly tragic and preventable act of evil, and the people who call Texas home are suffering because of it. My constituents are pleading with elected leaders to stop the Islamization of North Texas. How many Americans have to get God is great before we realize that Islam is a problem?”

Asra Nomani, Yasmine Baher and Charles Kretz of Fox News Digital contributed to this report

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