Order Robert Spencer’s new book, ‘The Tragedy of Islam: Failure and Excuses’: HERE.

Texas is home to some serious anti-Sharia initiatives, and the establishment media is fighting back with everything it’s got, misrepresenting Sharia as private religious law that harms no one, and smearing opponents of Sharia as “far-right” mouth-breathers who are bent on opposing Sharia not out of any real principle, but because they hate “brown people,” and are unjustly suspicious of anything that ain’t Christian, ‘specially some furrin’ law that folks that don’t even talk like us is bringin’ here in the dark of night.

And so now the Texas Tribune has brought us the sad story of Mohamed Hussein, the poor guy, who (at least to hear the Tribune tell it) reached out in friendship to Texas Republicans and got a full dose of their “hatred,” “bigotry,” and “Islamophobia.” Mohamed Hussein left his encounter with the Texas GOP in tears, and the Texas Tribune hopes that you’ll be weeping, too, once you hear of just how mean and racist these “far-right” gargoyles really are.

Hussein, we’re told, “knew he was preparing to enter the lion’s den.” But he summoned up his courage and “made the decision to attend the Republican Party of Texas Convention to confirm for himself that he had a place in the GOP, even as members of the party have railed for months about the urgency of ending Sharia Law and the so-called ‘Islamification’ of Texas.” See? All Mo wanted to do was belong. He just wanted to fit in. He only wanted to be one of the guys. And what happened to him was just… cruel.

“What he found,” the Tribune tells us, “was a party that didn’t want him. He arrived with hope but left in tears after being told explicitly that he should leave the country.” Now, you’d think by this point that Hussein encountered a bunch of cross-burning Klansman, and that’s exactly what the Texas Tribune wants you to think, but reality, as is always the case, is a bit more complicated.

The Tribune notes that “two prevailing themes from the Houston gathering were party unity and combatting Sharia Law, a movement that veered into outright Islamophobia by members of the convention.” Hussein himself insists that “when they say Sharia-free, that means Muslim-free, no practices of Islam. No one is calling for the state to implement Sharia laws.”

Well, that’s true. But neither Hussein nor the Tribune bother to note the plans of Muslims in Texas to establish residential areas such as EPIC City that have received a good deal of attention, and that would be 100% Muslim or close to it. Sharia, or as much as the residents could get away with, would likely prevail there.

Nor do Hussein or the Tribune mention the elements of Sharia that are incompatible with U.S. law: the death penalty for criticizing Islam; polygamy; child marriage; female genital mutilation, the recommendation to “beat” women “from whom you fear disobedience” (Qur’an 4:34); and much more. It’s far easier to despise people who oppose Sharia when you think Sharia is harmless than when you know what it’s really all about.

The Tribune likewise notes disapprovingly that “members tried to expel” two Muslims “from the convention because of their ties to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group the GOP and Gov. Greg Abbott have deemed a terrorist threat.” The Tribune doesn’t provide, unsurprisingly, any reason for why Abbott thinks that. Nor does it tell its hapless readers about CAIR’s ties to Hamas. Here again, it’s easier to portray your enemies as bigots when you conceal what exactly they’re upset about, and try to give them impression that they just don’t like people who are different.

At the convention, Hussein declared that “attendees have heard lies about Sharia throughout the convention. He was practicing Sharia at that very moment.” He took issue with the claim that Sharia allows for lying to unbelievers, saying: “When they tell you that we’re compelled to lie, they are putting your Texan neighbors in an impossible position where nothing that we can say or do can absolve us from the crimes that they are accusing us of. That is not just, the Bible commands you to be just, and that is not American.”

Eloquent. But accurate? No. The Qur’an and Islamic tradition do allow for lying to unbelievers. One companion of Muhammad explained: “We smile in the faces of some people, but behind their backs we curse them.” The Texas GOP didn’t make that up, and neither did I. But Mohamed Hussein and the Texas Tribune neglect to mention it. Now, why is that?

The Trib explains: “Sharia are the lessons of the Prophet Muhammad, interpreted as the framework, or laws, for how Muslims should live their lives which call for fasting, daily prayer, modest dressing and charity.” Not a word about the death penalty for leaving Islam. Or the rules for the institutionalized subjugation of Jews and Christians in an Islamic society. Or the call to kill, crucify, or amputate the hand and foot on opposite sides of someone who “makes war against Allah and his messenger” (Qur’an 5:33).

Overwhelmed when Dr. Rick Scarborough, who was leading a panel discussion, asked him to leave after defending Sharia, “Hussein, sobbing, turned from Scarborough, retreating to some chairs to cry alone.”

Oh, the poor delicate flower. But even Mohamed Hussein’s tears, and the Texas Tribune’s deceptions, can’t wash away the reality of Sharia.