TEXAS – An anti-Sharia law movement is being led by Texas Republicans, including Texas’ governor and members of Congress.
Gov. Greg Abbott this week issued three directives targeting Islamic groups, first designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on Islamic American Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations.
On the same day, he issued his second directive, calling for the investigation of the Islamic Tribunal in north Texas. U.S. Rep. Keith Self, a Republican representing the district where the tribunal is located, called for Sharia law to be banned in the U.S.
“Sharia is the law of Islam,” Self said in a fiery speech on the House Floor. “Sharia is dangerous. Western values form the basis for the Founding of America, namely that rights come from our Creator; ours is a Christian-based culture. Sharia, on the other hand, is a culture of violence and domination, totally anathema to the concept of individual freedom.
“The United States Constitution and Sharia are fundamentally at odds with one another. The Constitution begins with ‘We the People,’ Sharia states, ‘Allah has said.’ Followers of Sharia believe Muhammad received a divine legal code that stands supreme over all man-made laws.
“While Western civilization has evolved, Islam has not. Islam is stuck in the 8th century, and if they succeed at imposing their beliefs on us, we will be dragged back into the ‘Dark Age.’”
Self also pointed to Sharia legal “punishments viewed as normative,” including stoning to death adulterers, public beatings of women, amputating hands of thieves, and executing Christians and Jews “in accordance with the Quran.”
The tribunal in north Texas’ constitution states, “Stoning adulterers, cutting of the hands, polyandry and the like (all can be traced in the relevant literature and can be explained in their Islamic legal mentality and rational context in fairness and justice), are mainly a part of Islamic Criminal Law.”
Last month, Self, joined Republican U.S. Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Randy Fine of Florida and Tim Burchett of Tennessee in introducing the Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act.
“America is facing an existential threat – the spread of Sharia Law,” Roy said. “From Texas to every state in the union, instances of Sharia Law adherents have threatened the American way of life, seeking to replace our legal system and Constitution with an incompatible ideology that diminishes the rights of women, children, and individuals of different faiths.”
Roy, who has authored numerous border security measures, said, “America’s immigration system must be fortified to counter the importation of Sharia adherents – the preservation of our constitutional republic and its people depend on it.”
The two-page bill would direct the U.S, attorney general and secretaries of the departments of Homeland Security and State to prevent foreign nationals who observe Sharia from entering the U.S. or from remaining in the country. Any foreign national who provides false statements about their adherence to Sharia Law would have their immigration benefits, visa or admittance to the country revoked and be considered inadmissible or deportable and removed from the U.S., according to the bill language.
The bill also includes a clause that states, once signed into law, the provisions are “nonreviewable” and final, and “shall not be subject to review by any court.”
This provision was included to prevent “activist courts and judges from upending a final decision from agencies that find Sharia adherents removable from the U.S.,” said Roy, who is running for Texas attorney general and has made banning Sharia law a part of his platform.
Prior to all of their actions, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, filed a bill multiple times over the past 10 years to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987 to ban all Muslim Brotherhood members from the U.S., The Center Square reported.
“The Muslim Brotherhood is a terrorist organization,” Cruz maintains. Its members are “committed to the overthrow and destruction of America and other non-Islamist governments across the world, and pose an acute threat to American national security interests,” he said when introducing the bill again in July. “American allies in the Middle East and Europe have already labeled the Brotherhood a terrorist organization, and the United States should do the same, and do so expeditiously.”
The bill would make Muslim Brotherhood members ineligible for visas or admittance to the U.S., revoke visas of all non-U.S. citizens who are confirmed Muslim Brotherhood members and require their deportation. It also would require the secretary of State to impose sanctions on all groups directly or indirectly controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, including Hamas.
