Shahid Shafi wins back vice-chairman seat

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After a two-hour, closed door discussion on January 10, the Tarrant County Republican party in Texas voted 139-49 in an attempt to oust Shahid Shafi from his vice-chairman seat because of his religion.

The trauma surgeon and city council member was born in India and raised in Pakistan.

He came to the United States to study medicine and became a naturalized citizen in 2009.

Shafi told the Star-Telegram that the campaign to oust him had been hard on him and his family.

Shafi was appointed vice chairman of the Tarrant County GOP in July 2018, but shortly after Dorrie O’Brien and other local Republicans showed concern when they found out that Shafi supports Sharia law, a body of Koran-based guidance that directs Muslims toward living an Islamic life, over the U.S. Constitution and could be involved in terrorist affairs, according to the Daily Beast.

Shafi denied such terrorist accusations in an open letter that he wrote in November stating that he “never had any association” with “any terrorist organization,” and he “fully supports and believes in American Laws for American Courts.”

“As an immigrant to this great country, I am honored and privileged to receive the support of my fellow Republicans. We need to learn to trust each other so we can create a more perfect union every day,” Shafi told reporters after the vote, USA Today reported.