NOTE: This story originally appeared in Vox Populi.
Dr. Nizam Razack, a Republican congressional candidate, told VoxPopuli he has been the target of death threats because of his Muslim faith.
“It’s crazy. I’ve had people come up to me and threaten me,” Razack said in a phone interview. The Orlando neurosurgeon and law professor is running in the Aug. 18 Republican primary for Florida’s 11th Congressional District.
Razack, who was born in India and moved to the United States in 1967, said the hostility has been unlike anything he has previously experienced in this country. “This is the first time I have faced open bigotry like this in the United States,” he said. “I mean, people say things behind your back and stuff, but it’s the first time that people have been open and so blatant about it. No one is really challenging these people.”
[2026 VOTER’S GUIDE: U.S. House District 11 GOP Primary | U.S. House District 11 Democratic primary]
A report tied to a July 10 incident was filed with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office, though it was fully redacted because a criminal investigation remains underway. Razack told VoxPopuli that OCSO advised him not to knock on doors while campaigning because of safety concerns. He has hired private security to accompany him at campaign events and now avoids answering calls from numbers he does not recognize.
The tensions surfaced publicly earlier this month when members of the Florida Republican Freedom Assembly protested outside a candidates forum in Wildwood where Razack was scheduled to speak. The group describes itself as “a Judeo-Christian grassroots organization committed to restoring the Republican Party to its founding principles.” Protesters carried signs reading No Muslims in Public Office.
Razack said he believes one of his primary opponents, Tim Wilkins, along with Wilkins’ supporters, is “stirring this up” through anti-Muslim rhetoric, memes and videos.
“He thinks [Islam] is an ideology and not a religion so that gives him the right to denigrate my religion as well as my faith,” Razack said.
“Anybody that saw the Facebook posts knows what I’m talking about,” he said.
VoxPopuli was unable to find the posts Razack referred to, but several posts on Wilkins’ Facebook page and a page associated with Gregg A. Jones, a Wilkins supporter who also runs the Summerlake Community Residential Conservative Group in Winter Garden Facebook group, are no longer available.
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Wilkins’ posts, speeches and videos — he mispronounces “Razack” the way President George W. Bush intentionally mispronounced Saddam Hussein — regularly refer to “finding a way to stop the spread of radical Islam.” Wilkins has called Islam a “cancer” and said Razack’s association with the Islamic Center of Orlando is disqualifying for office. He’s even suggested that Razack has tried to conceal he’s Muslim.
“He’s Indian, which implied that he’s Hindu,” Wilkins told VoxPopuli in an interview earlier this month.
In response, Razack said that Wilkins’ “fear-mongering hate speech” should disqualify him from office.
“Someone that wants to be an elected federal leader, a Congressman for District 11, he represents everybody, race, color, religion,” Razack said. “If he wants to be bigoted in his opinions about people’s races and their religion, then he does not qualify to be in office, in my opinion, as a law professor.”
Wilkins did not respond to a Monday email request for comment regarding the death threats that Razack said he’s received. However, in that earlier interview, VoxPopuli asked him whether he was concerned that his statements could be ginning up anti-Muslim sentiment.
“I don’t worry about that,” Wilkins replied. “I’m not concerned with calling attention to the fact that people need to think long and hard about what someone’s intentions are for holding office and say, All right, here’s a very successful guy. Why would he do this and what is his background?” he said. “My background is very transparent.”
Jones, the Wilkins supporter who posts anti-Muslim videos featuring Razack on TikTok and Facebook, often with the headline “Muslim Alert,” told VoxPopuli via Facebook that he was not behind the death threats.
Asked if he was comfortable with the idea that someone may be inspired by his content to take a shot at Razack, Jones said, “I don’t incite any violence.” Then he asked if we were “comfortable with 9/11 and Oct. 7,” referring to the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 people taken hostage.
Razack, who said his senior law students are following this side drama to his campaign with fascination, is appalled that his religion has become an issue in the election.
“My character and my competence are the two issues that the voters should look at in terms of whether they want to vote for me or not. So, what Mr. Wilkins is doing is completely against everything that my parents came here for, everything that I stand for, everything that I teach,” he said.
“Article VI of the Constitution says there’s no religious test for a candidate to run for an office. The fact that I’m a Muslim is no different than if I was a Hindu, Jew, Christian, Buddhist. That makes no difference … People that think like Mr. Wilkins — that only Christians can hold office — that is absolutely absurd if you’ve actually had an education and read what the Constitution says … If Mr. Wilkins would take the several minutes and read the First Amendment and Article VI, then he would understand what his responsibilities as a public servant are to all people, not just himself.”
Elijah Rakha-Sheketoff contributed reporting.
