T.R. Radjabov Aspires To Become First Muslim Ga. Legislator

If Radjabov wins the seat, he would be the first Muslim-American in the Georgia General Assembly.

Alabama Roots

A short, black beard frames Radjabov’s pale, white face. He’s Muslim, but he’s comfortable quoting from the Bible.

He was born in the former Soviet Union, but in 1992, a civil war broke out in what is now modern-day Tajikistan.

“Every time we saw something bad happening on our streets, my mother or my father would say, ‘Did you see that T.R.?’ I said ‘Yeah.’ ‘When you grow up, make sure you change the world for the better.’ They kept instilling that in me,” Radjabov said as he sat with his hands crossed on the table in his campaign office next to his home.

In 1999, at the age of 15, his parents arranged for him to fly to Alabama.

“As the war continued, they knew there wouldn’t be any opportunities for me in Tajikistan growing up,” he said.

He arrived in Pell City, Alabama with just $200 and a student visa. He graduated from Victory Christian School in 2001 and then Jacksonville State University in 2006 with a bachelor’s in nursing.  

Career Changes

Radjabov aspired to medical school but it was too expensive, so he became a nurse. But it wasn’t quite what he promised his family.

“I was changing the world on a small scale, but I wasn’t really satisfied; I wanted to do something bigger,” Radjabov said. “I couldn’t depend on a clock-in, clock-out type of routine in my life. I couldn’t depend on somebody writing my check. I just couldn’t do that. If you want to change the world, it’s a full-time job.”

Radjabov said that’s when he decided to become a business owner, opening three health care businesses: a home health care company, a durable medical equipment company and a sleep lab. In total, the companies employ about 100 people and he was able to retire from the businesses.

But still, he said, he didn’t feel like he was helping others quickly enough.

“That deep passion in me of growing up and changing the world for the better, still is very strong within me,” Radjabov said. “It’s one thing to want to do something. It’s another thing to actually do something about it. So I want to get into politics so I can have a massive positive impact in people’s lives.”

Knocking On Doors

Radjabov said he spends about four hours each night knocking on doors in State House District 108, where he’s running for state representative. The district covers the city of Lilburn and surrounding area in Gwinnett County and leans Republican; 60 percent voted for presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012.

On the ground, it’s clear the demographics are changing quickly. For the first time this summer, minorities accounted for half of Gwinnett County’s total voting population.

The first address on a voter registration list belongs to a 61-year-old white, Republican woman.

But the voter list is wrong and a Hispanic family lives there now. This happens at nearly every house he visits.

A white family has moved out and an Asian, black or Hispanic family has moved in.

Party Lines

An Alabama drawl sprinkles Radjabov’s Russian accent. It’s especially strong when’s talking to voters.

Charlie Johnson is one of just two white Gwinnett County residents he encounters knocking on doors on a recent evening. 

Johnson said he plans to vote for Donald Trump for president. He supports the Republican Party’s platform.

“I don’t want to be regulated to death and I don’t need government to do my business. I just need my government really just to enable me to do what I do as an entrepreneur,” Johnson said.

They bond over a discussion on businesses taxes. Radjabov isn’t sure if he’s got his vote, but they part ways after a bear hug.

Radjabov is running as a Democrat, but he could easily be a Republican. In fact, he knocked on doors in Miami for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul in 2012. He sees politics as the way to impact the world in a big way, but he finds it silly sometimes.

“The Democratic Party with the Republican Party, they cannot just talk for some reason,” Radjabov said. “I cannot understand that. Because in business, we just don’t have that mentality. In business, we’re about our bottom line. But in politics, it’s not about what we want to achieve for the people, it’s about what we want to achieve for the party. And how do we preserve the party’s – whatever – I don’t know what it is.”

Diverse Candidates

Farooq Mughal is a public policy advisor and managing partner of MS Global Partners. He arrived in Georgia from Karachi, Pakistan in 1996 to study at Mercer University.

“Sept. 11 changed a lot of things for a lot of American Muslims,” Mughal said. “It made me stay so that I could maybe make a difference and educate our population in Georgia about different cultures and religions.”

In 2002, Mughal was recruited by Gwinnett County government officials to work as a legal aide and offer training to police officers. He went on to work as a political advisor to more than 20 campaigns in the state, including in Gwinnett.

“Gwinnett is going to be the hub where more candidates – different ethnicities, backgrounds, different faiths – are running for not only for state House or state Senate but local city council and county commissions,” Mughal said.

Currently, Republican state House Rep. B.J. Pak represents the district as the first Korean-American to hold state office and only Asian-American in the state legislature.

Brenda Lopez, the first Latina; Pedro Marin, the first Latino; and Pak are from Gwinnett County. If elected, Radjabov would be the first Muslim in the state Legislature.

Religious Beliefs

“I don’t like to mix religion with politics and politics with religion. This is very dangerous,” Radjabov said. “Because when people start using religion, religious beliefs for their political motivations, then we have things like ISIS, KKK and the rest of the crazy people around the world.”

But Radjabov is not immune to anti-Muslim rhetoric and has taken hits on his Facebook page, though it doesn’t faze him.

He said he doesn’t mention his faith unless people ask.

“Part of the reason you don’t see on my website or anything like that about Muslim, Muslim, Muslim, because I’m not running to be an imam,” Radjabov said. “I’m not running to be a religious scholar or anything like that. I’m running to be a politician. To be a public servant. It doesn’t mean Muslim servant or a Christian servant. It means public servant. So therefore, my religion is just something personal. It’s my thing between me and my God. It has nothing to do with politics.”

Campaign Issues

He might be a newbie, but if there’s one thing, he’s realistic.

“Everybody’s telling me that you can’t do much the first year,” he said, “especially when you’re a Democrat. Because the House and the Senate are both controlled by supermajority Republicans.”

So for now, his top campaign issue is making Georgia’s Open Records laws more transparent, requiring politicians to disclose when they meet with lobbyists.

The other big issue for him is deprivatizing private probation companies. A state audit found little oversight of these companies, large fines and unnecessary arrests.

“So they’re taking the poorest of the poor people for misdemeanors. For doing something that’s very small,” Radjabov said, “like forgetting to put a renewal sticker on your tag or speeding. It’s not a big deal, they haven’t killed anybody, but these people are very poor so they can’t pay their ticket and they end up in jail. Which is costing us, the taxpayers, thousands of dollars.”

Clay Cox

His opponent is former Republican state House Rep. Clay Cox. He’s CEO of a private probation company called Professional Probation Services.

Cox is running to get his old seat back, which he left empty in 2010 to run unsuccessfully for Congress.

Five Alabama residents – including a woman who spent a month in jail while she was pregnant – filed a federal class-action lawsuit against his company earlier this year. They allege they were illegally sent to jail because they couldn’t pay their fines.

Cox did not respond to requests for comment. The first issue listed on a recent flyer for his campaign is eliminating the state income tax.

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