– The Washington Times
A group of House Republicans launched the Shariah-free America caucus on Tuesday as an effort to prevent the spread of radical Islamization within the U.S. criminal justice system and American culture.
Texas Reps. Keith Self and Chip Roy, the caucus leaders, said they wanted to form the caucus after years of Shariah-pushing Muslims have made their way into Texas society and the rest of the country.
“Here’s what’s happening right now. In the Lone Star State, there are multiple Muslim-only housing developments that already exist or in the planning stages, including the Meadows, Epic City right there in my district,” Mr. Self said.
“It’s currently under investigation by the state of Texas. An Islamic imam in Dallas called the police on a fellow Muslim for simply talking to a Christian pastor. An imam in the Houston area was filmed threatening to occupy stores that sold goods that are incompatible with Shariah,” he added.
Shariah is the stringent adherence to Islamic law governing interpersonal conduct and Muslim ritual behavior.
Mr. Self said he is seeing more similar actions in his district every day. One of the more recent examples involved a booth set up at a public high school to distribute Qurans.
“The spread has gotten so serious that on March 3, a proposition to ban Shariah will appear on the Texas primary ballot, and I encourage all Texans to go to and vote for that proposition, because as Texas goes, so goes the nation. And as the nation goes, so goes the world.”
Back in November, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott launched a full investigation into the Islamic Tribunal of Dallas, which was founded in 2014 as a “volunteer mediation service.” By 2024, it was deciding about 300 cases a year in mosque back rooms and law offices.
The panel of three or four male scholars, trained at institutions such as Al-Azhar and Omdurman, openly follows rules in which a woman’s testimony is worth half that of a male in financial and inheritance matters.
Women are reportedly being urged to accept religious divorces that strip them of their mahr (dowry), leaving them financially destitute.
Other Republican lawmakers in the newly launched caucus say they are seeing similar instances in their districts.
Rep. Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma said that Shariah has managed to manifest itself so much in Western Europe that other Muslim leaders refuse to send their children to be educated there.
“Here’s a few things you cannot scoff at. The United Arab Emirates … is no longer funding its students to study in the United Kingdom for fear of them being radicalized by the United Kingdom’s Muslim Brotherhood,” Mr. Brecheen said. “They’re afraid of what’s happened in Europe and the direct adherence to Islam that they’re seeing in Europe.”
He continued, “In that same country, in England, an English detective chief inspector witnessed a young girl in a car subsequently being ordered by a supervisor to drop the matter to avoid antagonizing the local Muslim community … an Austrian court ruled that Shariah law can be used for arbitration in private contracts.”
He noted, “What about the United States? A U.S.-based Muslim cleric teaching ’having sex with a nine-year-old girl’ is not considered sexual harassment and is permissible in Islam.”
Some of the lawmakers have already proposed legislation related to the cause of their caucus, including Rep. Randy Fine of Florida, who introduced a bill to ban Shariah in the U.S. court system.
Other legislation noted is a bill that removes the tax-exempt status from the Council on American Islamic Relations and legislation that pauses the U.S. immigration system, so foreign nationals can be vetted for adherence to Shariah.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
