Sharia Free America caucus created in US Congress

A poster against Sharia law in America. Photo: aljazeera

In the USA, a group of Republicans announced the creation of a new faction in the House of Representatives — “Sharia Free America,” whose stated goal is to combat the growing influence of Muslim laws in the country. This is reported by religionnews.

The faction leaders claim that the increasing number of mosques and the activity of Muslim communities causes concern and requires legislative measures.

The caucus is led by Republican U.S. Reps. Chip Roy and Keith Self of Texas. It includes 36 representatives from 18 states. At hearings of the House Judiciary Subcommittee, they stated that Sharia contradicts the U.S. Constitution.

“Some of you might think of Shariah as a 2010s buzzword. That is wrong,” Roy, the subcommittee chair, said in his opening statement. “Over the last few years, efforts to impose Shariah on American communities have taken off, and nowhere more than in my home state of Texas.”

In particular, the No Shari’a Act was introduced, prohibiting American courts from enforcing judgments based on Islamic law or other foreign legal systems that violate the Constitution.

House Representative from Illinois Mary Miller previously stated that she joined the caucus to “firmly oppose this radical ideology that seeks to eradicate the constitutional principles and Christian values on which our country was founded.”

Similar initiatives are appearing at the state level in parallel. In Oklahoma, a bill was introduced for a state constitutional amendment banning Sharia and any foreign legal codes. A similar measure was already adopted in 2010 but was blocked by a federal court as violating religious freedom law.

Democrats subjected the initiative to harsh criticism. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Pennsylvania Democrat who is not a member of the caucus, said the hearing was meant to stoke suspicion of American Muslims and “a cynical political ploy driven by the Texas Republican primary.”

As the UOJ wrote, the new mayor of New York took the oath on the Quran.

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