According to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Islamist ideology poses a fundamental threat to American freedom.
At the Senate’s worldwide threats hearing, Gabbard, who moved to Texas in 2024, warned that Islamist movements are a central long‑term danger and that groups inspired by Sharia‑based ideology threaten Western civilization from within and from without.
Gabbard testified that, “the spread of Islamist ideology, in some cases led by individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, poses a fundamental threat to freedom and the foundational principles that underpin Western civilization.”
These remarks closely mirror commonly cited concerns by Texas Republicans, who have long held that Muslim civic engagement is a precursor to a parallel Islamic legal system incompatible with constitutional governance at the state and national levels.
Activists and lawmakers contend that a rising Muslim population, combined with federal border and refugee policies, is reshaping Texas’s identity, describing Islam not as one faith among many but as a rival political and legal project.
Gov. Greg Abbott has labeled groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as terrorist organizations, while Attorney General Ken Paxton has worked to block a planned Muslim-exclusive development in North Texas.
Earlier this month, State Rep. Brent Money (R-Greenville) and several other Republican lawmakers launched the Sharia Free Texas Caucus, which contends Sharia is incompatible with the constitutional protections afforded to U.S. citizens.
According to Money, the stated inspiration for his caucus was the launching of a similar caucus by Texas Congressmen, including candidate for Attorney General Chip Roy, in December of last year.
Proposition 10, which asked GOP primary voters in March whether Texas should prohibit Sharia law, passed with roughly 95 percent support statewide.
