Sharia-Free America Hearing marked by attacks on Muslim advocacy groups

WASHINGTON, May 14 (UPI) -- Muslim civil rights groups denounced the second "Sharia-Free America" hearing this week after a group of House Republicans attempted to highlight the threat of Sharia law to the U.S. Constitution and institutions, especially in Texas.

"What brought us out is the absurdity of a Sharia hearing in Congress when there's actually no real threat of Sharia law or imposition of Sharia law in the U.S.," Haris Tarin, vice president of policy and programming at the Muslim Public Affairs Council, told Medill News Service after the hearing.

"It's a farce. It's a fear tactic. And unfortunately, it impacts real American Muslims," Tarin said after the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government session on Wednesday.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who founded the 63-member "Sharia-Free America" Caucus in December with Keith Self, R-Texas, has held two hearings. In February, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization, designated the caucus an anti-Muslim hate group.

"We don't take a designation of a congressional caucus as an anti-Muslim hate group lightly," Robert McCaw, the council's national government affairs director said.

"The anti-Muslim caucus, led by [nearly] 70 members of Congress, has one singular goal -- to ensure that Muslims do not have a place in American society and that their rights are stripped."

McCaw sat in the front row of the packed gallery that included members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslims Public Affairs Council. Both groups denounced the hearings as Islamophobic, emphasizing that the U.S. Constitution protects all religions.

Roy argued that Sharia law contradicts U.S. federal law and should therefore be banned. In November, he introduced legislation that would deny entry and immigration benefits to foreign nationals who adhere to Sharia law. The bill has yet to advance out of the subcommittee.

"The radicals pushing political Islam do not want to co-exist with America's culture or political order; they want to replace it," Roy said. "The principles of Sharia law undermine the cherished freedoms that countless Americans have suffered and even died for since our nation's founding."

But Democrats were quick to push back against Roy and the caucus' claims. The subcommittee's top Democrat, Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., argued that the hearings were meant to serve as a distraction from "a failing economy and rising gas prices" as the November midterms approach.

"It's a threat based not on reality, but invented, with manufactured alarm," she said. "Like belief systems that guide adherence of other faiths, including Christianity or Judaism, Sharia is about individual, personal, religious observance, not about shaping America's national laws."

The hearing's witnesses included Amy Mekelburg, founder and editor-in-chief of the RAIR Foundation, which describes itself as dedicated to reclaiming the country from those "waging war on our nation - on our Constitution, our borders and our Judeo-Christian values," according to the group's website.

RAIR stands for rise, align, ignite, reclaim and says it is a "grassroots activist and investigative journalism organization>"

Mekelburg criticized the Council on American-Islamic Relations and other Muslim civil rights groups, claiming they have ties to terrorist organizations. In November, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designated the Council on Islamic-American Relations a foreign terrorist organization.

"When we object, they scream Islamophobia. Their Super PAC floods our elections; mosques run voter drives," Mekelburg said in her opening statement. "Our nation's leaders are failing children. Members of Congress, the American people are awake. Washington is not."

The Democrats' only witness was executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Amanda Tyler, who leads the faith-based organization in defending religious freedoms. At one point, Rep. Robert Onder Jr., R-Mo., questioned Tyler about whether Islamic law would allow honor killings, child marriage and female circumcision.

"Those are against criminal law in the United States," Tyler responded, arguing that a separate anti-Sharia statute is unnecessary and violates the First Amendment. "You're not allowed to act on those beliefs because it would be against criminal law."

Another member of the Free-Sharia America Caucus, Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas, asserted, "When we begin importing belief systems and cultural values that are fundamentally incompatible that build this nation. We should not be surprised when the social fabric begins to fray."

House Republicans on the subcommittee maintained Texas is under siege by Sharia law, citing plans for the East Plano Islamic Center, a 402-acre residential and community project in the northeast part of the state. All four witnesses Wednesday were Texas residents.

After the session, Scanlon said she believes these hearings are meant to boost support among the right ahead of November's midterms.

"We think that the first hearing, and this hearing, and a bunch of other hearings that have been in between have had much more to do with Texas politics, including the fact that the chair is running for attorney general," Scanlon said afterward.

"If they see that it's not politically useful [after the midterms], then they probably will back off."

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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 12:52 PM.