U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas warned that the Sharia system of law derived from Islam is everything that the U.S. has fought against for over 250 years.
During a Tuesday hearing before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government, Roy emphasized Sharia’s incompatibility with state and federal laws.
“Sharia encourages violence, silences dissent, rejects religious freedom, and subjugates women and children,” said Roy. “Let’s be clear, this is not about having the freedom of worshiping a religion of one’s choosing, such as Islam, but forcing a foreign legal code that is incompatible with our laws and legal system that provides unwanted consequences to the American people.”
Roy discussed the growing population of Muslims in the U.S., specifically highlighting the growth seen in Texas and proposed Islamic enclaves like The Meadow, formerly called EPIC City.
The Democrats on the committee argued that any proposed legislation intended to keep the Islamification of the country in check is a violation of the First Amendment, specifically the Free Exercise Clause.
Members of the subcommittee questioned several witnesses on the subject of Sharia.
Stephen Gelé, chairman of the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, has researched the interaction of foreign law, specifically Sharia, with U.S. law for the past 17 years. He testified that Sharia-based rules, as applied by some countries, are increasingly entering U.S. courts through the recognition of foreign judgments, even though such rulings would be considered violations of a person’s constitutional rights if made by a U.S. court.
Robert Spencer, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, informed members that although groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have downplayed Sharia as a personal religious practice, they omit that it is “inherently supremacist, expansionist, and violent.”
Krista Schild, the Texas director for the RAIR Foundation, noted that Islamic expansion and enforcement of Sharia is already taking place in Texas.
“We’re here today to bring you legislative evidence, and have submitted that to prove to you that wherever Islam grows, freedom dies,” said Schild.
U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill of Flower Mound shared results from polling conducted in 2024 revealing that 33 percent of the Muslim population in the U.S. would support Islam being made the national religion, 73 percent would support Eid-al Fitr being made a public holiday, and 39 percent would support the implementation of Sharia.
Gill questioned Spencer on the compatibility of Islam in the U.S. and the ultimate goal of political Islam.
“Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam, said Islam must dominate and not be dominated and in every Sharia state that is in on Earth today and has ever been on Earth,” replied Spencer. “Non-Muslims have not had equality of rights with Muslims in the society.”
“The idea is to enforce a subservient position for [non-Muslims], so that they know the pain in this world as well as the next, of having rejected Muhammad, which the Quran says that they will suffer.”
Last week, Roy, alongside several other U.S. representatives from Texas, held a press conference announcing the formation of the “Sharia-Free America Caucus” where members laid out their case against Sharia, saying that it is “a culture of violence and domination, incompatible with the U.S. Constitution and American values.”
