“Allahu Akbar” was the chant that filled the streets of Dearborn in August as Muslims gathered to protest the Christian march led by Jake Lang. Viral videos captured the scene: violent clashes, police cars, blaring sirens, and open celebrations of Dearborn as a conquered Islamic city. Texans need to look past the chaos in the streets to what happened inside a city council meeting that same week. That meeting revealed a deeper and more troubling reality.
A Detroit pastor named Lorenzo Sewell stood to speak.
“You are not up under American law! You are up under Sharia law! That is the reason why you have made no arrest!…This is a city that is no longer up under American laws we are up under Sharia law! And we will not have it anymore, enough is enough!”
Pastor Sewell did not soften his words. He named the problem plainly: Dearborn’s leadership had been usurped by Islamists. He then pointed to each member of the city council and asked, one by one:
“Will YOU denounce Sharia law?!”
“Will YOU denounce Sharia law?!”
He was met with silence. The silence itself was the answer. Not one member was willing to reject Sharia law, because their ideology treats Islamic law as superior to American law. Pastor Sewell exposed the truth. The lack of arrests and the tolerance of Islamic riots were not accidents. City leadership treated Islamic law as the highest authority—above the Constitution, above the safety of ordinary Americans, and above the Christians caught in the upheaval.
City government should not be a political afterthought. It can either enforce American law or enable its erosion. Dearborn shows what happens when a city is captured by those who will not defend the laws of this nation.
“But that’s Dearborn. That could never happen in Texas,” some will say. The assumption is that stopping this outcome requires only voting against Muslim candidates for local office. That assumption is wrong. Just weeks earlier, a different failure unfolded in McKinney, Texas.
Last summer, the McKinney City Council took final action on a proposed mosque inside city limits. A public hearing gave residents the chance to speak. Concerns were raised about traffic, construction, and the organizational affiliations of the leading imam. One theme appeared again and again: the political ideology of Sharia cannot be reconciled with American law.
Congressman Keith Self and State Representative Keresa Richardson testified to the dangers of political Islam. So did ordinary residents who had lived it. An Iranian-born man who identified as a Sharia-law survivor told the council of the horrors he experienced and observed when Islamic law was allowed to take root. Other former Muslims and residents who had seen Sharia firsthand delivered the same clear message:
“Sharia law, and the teaching of Sharia law, is not compatible with American law.”
Despite the compelling and harrowing testimony, the McKinney City Council voted 7-0 to approve the mosque. Residents were ignored. Concerns were set aside.
Look at the McKinney council and you will not find a body controlled by Islamists. You will find something quieter and, in its own way, just as dangerous: a council defined by ignorance, apathy, and indifference to the people and values it is supposed to represent.
That indifference stands in sharp contrast to the deliberate strategy articulated by Muslim leaders who understand exactly what is at stake. While local officials treat these issues as routine zoning matters or refuse to engage them at all, prominent Muslim figures have been clear that participation in American democracy is not a neutral exercise. East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC) resident scholar Yasir Qadhi put it this way:
“I used to say democracy is Haram. Now I say participation in democracy is our Jihad. We’re gonna fight not through the bullets but through the ballots. It is our physical Jihad duty to fight the entire earth.”
Whether through street-level pressure or through the steady capture of local offices, the goal is the same. City government is the first line of defense. It either enforces the law or becomes the enabler of its violation. The old idea that city council positions are nonpartisan and somehow outside ordinary politics is false. These offices decide whether American law is protected or diluted.
The way to protect your city is clear. Vote. Vote for conservative patriots all the way down the ballot. Politics does not begin and end in Washington or Austin. It begins in your city. Your city council matters, and it is time to vote as if you understand that.
As Election Day approaches, remember that every office on the ballot carries real consequences. When you cast your vote, think of these two cities. One was overtaken by radical ideology. The other was overtaken by simple apathy. Both can do lasting harm to a community.
The fight is now. Every office matters. Your city does not need more silence or more indifference. It needs men and women willing to stand, to vote, and to defend the inheritance entrusted to us.
