[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 108 (Monday, June 29, 2026)]
[House]
[Pages H4266-H4267]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   STOPPING SHARIA INFLUENCE IN TEXAS

  (Mr. Self of Texas was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. SELF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address a growing threat to 
the rule of law in my State of Texas.
  The rise of sharia, the law of Islam, has reached a tipping point in 
the Lone Star State, especially in north Texas, which I represent. 
Opaque sharia-compliant actions are advancing across our State and our 
Nation. We must be clear that America recognizes only one legal system: 
the Constitution and laws of the United States.
  I commend Texas Governor Greg Abbott for his strong leadership in 
recently confronting this challenge. His actions regarding the proposed 
Texas American Muslim University and the planned Muslim-only event at a 
taxpayer-funded water park demonstrate the continuing vigilance 
required to protect our uniform system of justice.
  Last year, nearly 95 percent of Texas voters supported Proposition 10 
to ban sharia. That was not a symbolic gesture. It was an overwhelming 
mandate. Texans declared decisively that no foreign legal framework 
shall influence, operate alongside, or supplant our State's judicial 
system. They expect their elected representatives to honor that vote.

  Recent events in the United Kingdom offer a stark and tragic warning. 
A new independent report on grooming gangs has exposed decades of 
systematic child sexual exploitation, predominantly of young, White, 
British girls by groups of Pakistani Muslim men, with authorities 
repeatedly failing to act out of fear of being labeled racist.
  Thousands upon thousands of victims were betrayed by the very 
institutions meant to protect them. We must not allow such horrors to 
take root here in America.
  While Congress is acting--my bill, H.R. 6230, the Tehran Incitement 
to Violence Act, passed the House and is now pending in the Senate--
Federal efforts alone are not enough. The primary responsibility for 
protecting our legal system from parallel frameworks rests on the 
shoulders of an informed citizenry, along with those of State and local 
leaders. Texans are leading the way, and others are beginning to 
follow.
  In Kaufman County, Texas, Federal, State, and local officials worked 
in unison to stop a sharia city project backed by a Dubai-based 
development company.
  Several of my constituents confronted the Wiley School Board after 
one of their high school principals granted a group called Why Islam 
access to the campus to hand out Korans.
  One of my constituents, Jessica Hulcy, grabbed her walker, got a ride 
to Josephine City Hall, and stood in front of a crowded room to share 
her concerns about the proposed East Plano Islamic Center.
  Across the Red River, citizens in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, 
successfully put a stop to a sharia enclave after imploring their local 
leaders to just say no.
  Even across the pond, citizens in the U.K. are beginning to push back 
against the cultural shift wreaking havoc in their community because of 
sharia's influence.
  In America, belief is protected. Conduct under the law is not. Let me 
be clear: Sharia is a political-legal ideology, not a religion. 
Therefore, it should not fall under the First Amendment protection for 
faith and worship. The First Amendment safeguards an individual's right 
to believe and practice their religion, but it has never granted 
immunity to political systems, especially those that claim authority 
above the Constitution, which sharia does.
  When presented as a governing framework that dictates civil law, 
family law, criminal penalties, and public policy, sharia functions as 
an ideological legal code rather than a religious belief.
  Under this view, the Constitution must remain the supreme law of the 
land. No ideological system, particularly sharia, religious in origin 
or otherwise, can override the liberties, equal protections, and 
democratic processes guaranteed to every American.
  I thank the Texas Public Policy Foundation and the Texas legislators 
advancing commonsense measures, such as House Bill 495, which prohibits 
public institutions from accepting funds from foreign adversaries.
  I also encourage States to expand tools for local officials, 
including county commissioners, in order to safeguard our laws.

                              {time}  1215

  Thomas Jefferson declared: ``I have sworn upon the altar of God 
eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.'' 
This eternal hostility must extend to any religious or foreign legal 
code, particularly sharia, that seeks to supplant American liberty and 
self-government.

[[Page H4267]]

  As Sir Winston Churchill warned: Sometimes it is not enough that we 
do our best; we must do what is required.

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