A bid to oust a Republican Party leader in Texas because he is a Muslim has failed after it was put to a vote of the executive committee. Committee members voted 139-49 on Thursday night to retain Shahid Shafi, a trauma surgeon, as the vice chairman of the local branch of the Republican Party.

"Religious liberty won tonight," The Dallas Morning News quoted Tarrant County GOP chairman Darl Easton as saying in statement. "And while that makes a great day for the Republican Party of Tarrant County, that victory also serves notice that we have much work to do unifying our party," Easton said.

After Easton named Shafi as a vice chairman of the county party leadership in July, a campaign began to oust him because of his Muslim beliefs.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019