At the No Kings demonstration in Washington, D.C., British-born political pundit and Trump critic Medhi Hasan, who is Muslim, asserted that America’s freedom of religion clause, as contemplated in the First Amendment, applies to all religions. Offering an example, Hasan said: “I think if you can play church bells, you can play the call for prayer.” Referring to his and others’ Muslim American status, Hasan added, “We are as American as anyone else.”
[NOTE: The First Amendment contains two provisions concerning religion, the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. As the uscourts.gov explains: “The Establishment clause prohibits the government from establishing a religion. The Free Exercise Clause protects citizens’ right to practice their religion as they please, so long as the practice does not run afoul of a ‘public morals’ or a ‘compelling’ governmental interest.”]
MAGA-aligned Congressman Brendon Gill (R-TX) responded to Hasan’s comment on social media, saying: “We can move here en masse and fundamentally transform the landscape of American public life.” The remark refers to the anti-immigration stance holding that mass immigration is designed to undermine what Gill and others characterize as true American identity, which they see as based in Christianity.
(It’s estimated that less than 1.4% percent of the American population is Muslim, a number that could reach 2% by 2050. Approximately 42% of Muslims in America were born in the U.S. Of the world’s nations, only Vatican City — the world’s smallest country — has no Muslim population.)
When Hasan replied to Gill, “Your wife is an Indian American, the daughter of an Indian immigrant,” Gill replied: “My wife is a Christian and doesn’t want to hear your oppressive Muslim prayer calls, either. If you want to live in a Muslim country, go back to the UK.”
My wife is a Christian and doesn’t want to hear your oppressive Muslim prayer calls, either.
If you want to live in a Muslim country, go back to the UK. https://t.co/LxmBfedAzx
— Congressman Brandon Gill (@RepBrandonGill) October 22, 2025
Note: Gill is married to Danielle D’Souza, daughter of Indian-American right-wing political commentator Dinesh D’Souza, who was born in India to Catholic parents.
Hasan replied: “Multiple sitting GOP members of Congress now sound like Ku Klux Klan wizards. The levels of ignorance, racism, and Christian nationalism are off the charts. Good luck to the poor Muslim Americans who have to live in this guy’s district.”
Gill represents Texas’s 26th congressional district (population 884,703) which includes parts of Denton, Tarrant, and Collin counties. According to 2020 data from the Association of Religion Data Archives, there were an estimated 37,413 Muslims in Collin County, 31,421 in Tarrant County, and 6,868 in Denton County.
Note: On the day Hasan became a naturalized citizen of the United States on October 9, 2020, he wrote: “I’m officially a citizen of the United States and ready to vote, weeks before the most consequential U.S. election of our lifetimes.”