The Republican National Committee is praising its Texas affiliate for beating back a rogue effort to strip a local party official of his leadership post because he is a Muslim.

In July, Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Darl Easton appointed Shahid Shafi, a trauma surgeon, to serve as vice chairman. The move sparked opposition from precinct chairwoman Dorrie O’Brien and a few allies. O'Brien has been urging his removal, making allegations that Shafi has links to Islamic terrorists and is beholden to Sharia law.

The Texas GOP responded with a formal rebuke of O’Brien and fellow agitators, and a reaffirmation of support for Shafi, in a unanimous vote of the executive committee, with one member abstaining. Prominent Texas Republicans also have been condemning the effort to remove Shafi because of his religion.

In response to an inquiry from the Washington Examiner, the RNC said it backed actions taken by the Texas GOP to protect Shafi and condemn the party officials who sought to eject him simply because he is a Muslim.

“We applaud the Texas GOP for the unanimous passage of a resolution affirming the party’s commitment to religious freedom, and for calling out the bigoted effort to remove a county official because of his religion. Religious tests and bigotry have no place in the Republican Party,” RNC spokesman Mike Reed said in a statement.

According to the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, Shafi, an immigrant from Pakistan, became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009 and “immediately became involved in GOP politics.”

Among the Republicans to denounce attacks on Shafi were George P. Bush, Texas Land Commissioner, and Joe Strauss, speaker of the Texas state House. Matt Mackowiak, a Republican operative and chairman of the Travis County GOP, also took the lead in pushing the state GOP to censure the small group targeting Shafi and quash their effort to force him out of of his leadership position.

O’Brien isn’t backing away from her targeting of Shafi.

“He’s a nice guy who helped start a Republican club and has gone to state [conventions], but has never left Islam. If you all were truly the conservatives and Christians you say you are, you’d witness him into the body of Christ,” she said in a recent Facebook post, the American-Statesman reported.