‘Same hate and vitriol.’ Treatment of Muslim principal compared to segregation
A mix of educators, interfaith leaders and community activists gathered Thursday to protest the reassignment of a newly appointed Fort Worth Independent School district principal who is Muslim.
Shayma Alzubi was announced as the principal of Western Hills High School last week, but the school district reassigned her days later after online backlash over her old social media posts about the Black Lives Matter Movement and Sharia law and Pro-Palestine pictures she posted.
A news conference was held at the Islamic Unity Center, 1205 Country Club Lane, in east Fort Worth, on Thursday morning. Nearly a dozen speakers criticized FWISD over its handling of the matter.
The DFW chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the online backlash was an “anti-Muslim witch hunt” toward Alzubi, who was shown on FWISD’s Facebook announcement in a hijab, an Islamic headscarf.
Mustafaa Carroll, CAIR-DFW executive director, said he has been a civil rights activist since the 1960s and described the use of bigoted conspiratorial smears toward an entire religion or racial group as a threat. He said the situation represents a clear parallel to the past and reflects another phase of segregation.
“I’ve seen all this before, the same language, the same lame excuses, the same hate and vitriol, and the same responses given by government institutions to exclude qualified, upstanding teachers like Ms. Shayma Alzubi,” Carroll said. “Therefore it is incumbent upon us to all call for the immediate reinstatement of Ms. Shayma Alzubi to the position of principal of Western Hills High School.”
Carroll says CAIR is talking with its legal team about possible legal action to have Alzubi reinstated.
Carroll noted that CAIR received 8,683 anti-Muslim bias complaints nationwide in 2025, the highest single-year total since the organization recorded since its first civil rights report, covering 1996.
According to a statement from FWISD, “After review, it was determined that [Alzubi’s social media] posts may not align with the district’s social media policy and expectations for staff. Therefore, the candidate will be reassigned pending the outcome of an investigation.”
The statement said the district was complying with a state law that prohibits teachers from discussing widely debated topics with a political bias, and that the administration ensures all issues of public policy or social affairs be explored objectively and in a manner free from political bias.
“If Fort Worth ISD has a social media policy, then they need to go ahead and produce it,” Noor Wadi, a lawyer who does not represent Alzubi and who moderated the news conference, said. “It has not been provided in writing. I don’t think a single one of our teachers here has seen that. So, if it exists, let’s go ahead and see it, and let’s go ahead and have them point to where specifically she has violated that policy, which again they’re not going to be able to do.”
Following the initial announcement of Alzubi as principal of Western Hills, Tarrant County conservative activist Carlos Turcios posted on X screenshots of Alzubi’s previous social media posts. One post explained the meaning of Sharia Law and said it was a moral and religious framework for Muslims. In another post from 2021, Alzubi shared a graphic calling for the Fort Worth school district to vote for a mask mandate.
Alzubi learned of her reassignment through Facebook posts this week, according to Wadi. When Alzubi went to FWISD for answers, the school district at first told her there was nothing to worry about, but later that evening the district sent her a written notice of an investigation, Wadi said.
Wadi said Alzubi was not present at the news conference out of concern for her safety in the wake of death threats she has received and a mosque shooting in San Diego mosque last week.
According to the Fort Worth school district website, Alzubi previously served as an assistant principal for ninth grade at Southwest High School. Prior to that, she was an assistant principal at Arlington Heights High School. As of around 4:00 pm Thursday, Alzubi’s profile on the website had been deleted.
Muhammad Abdullah, associate imam at Masjid al Islam in Dallas, held the Quran as he explained that Sharia law is a moral and religious framework in Islam. It is a voluntary, not a compulsory, decision to follow it, and those who do must still must follow the rule of the land, Abdullah said.
“We’re not claiming to replace the Constitution with Sharia law, that’s illegal in Islam as well,” Abdullah said. “We live in a pluralistic society with Christians and Jews and Hindus and atheists and Muslims, we all have the freedom to practice our religion.”
Maven Navarro contributed to the story.
