Considering Relocating out of Texas to Michigan
Hi/Salaam everybody,
Slightly long read ahead.
Muslim of Pakistani descent here and have spent the majority of my life in Texas with a few years in the Midwest already. Texas has thriving Muslim communities across the state, but recent moves by the state government are working on making Texas a more pseudo official Christian state with pushes for Christianity to be emphasized in schools (10 commandments being posted, mandated prayer, curriculum changes white washing history and disparaging other religions other than Christianity and Judaism, etc.), the governor going after Islamic organizations declaring them terrorist organizations, there's always the "radical Islam" boogeyman trope being used in political ads and so on. Texas is at forefront on challenging the federal government on its influence on states.
Due to the overarching control of the Texas GOP, any sort of political challenge is nearly impossible and has been that way my entire life. I've gotten to a point where I am unsure if this will be a safe place to raise my family and I am exhausted of having essentially no political voice and just accepting this rhetoric as the norm since 2001.
I've been looking to go somewhere that has a strong Muslim presence and where politically I have more leverage. I'm mostly looking for either confirmation or push back on my line of thinking and I want to gather how daily life in Dearborn/metro Detroit for a typical Muslim family is and how local/state politics there engage with Muslims/minorities. I understand that Dearborn Muslims are predominantly Arab, but my main focus is on the local environment and the comfort of being Muslim. I do get that now where I live on the day to day, but there's still this looming sense of being a target of state politics.