Earlier this month, a group from the Florida Republican Freedom Assembly, “a Judeo-Christian grassroots organization committed to restoring the Republican Party to its founding principles,” protested outside a candidates forum in Wildwood where Razack was speaking. They held signs saying No Muslims in Public Office.

Razack said he believes one of his opponents, Tim Wilkins, and his supporters, are “stirring this up” with 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.

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.