Protecting Texans from Sharia Law: One Constitution, One Standard
By Senator Bob Hall, Senate District 2, Texas
Hi friends,
Perhaps you’ve ben reading or hearing about Sharia law, particularly in Texas.
America has a Constitution, and laws. Texas has a Constitution, and laws.
No other law applies to Texas or America.
Texas is big in the news currently, but the Sharia law issue is nationwide. I encourage you to be informed and engaged. YOU HAVE POWER.
The below is from Senator Bob Hall, Senate District 2, Texas.
https://mailchi.mp/senatorbobhall/protecting-texans-from-sharia-law
For too long, Texans have watched from the sidelines while radical ideologues have pushed narratives and influences that run counter to our state and federal Constitutions. History reminds us that Sharia law is not a neutral set of “religious guidelines” but a legal system that, at its core, conflicts with the fundamental liberties guaranteed to every Texan under the United States and Texas Constitutions.
For instance, organizations such as the Fiqh Council of North America[1] operates for the explicit purpose of applying Sharia law and principles in the United States, issuing guidance on contracts, financial transactions, and community conduct. While the council’s rulings are currently considered opinions rather than binding law, they demonstrate the growing Sharia functions as an active quasi-legal framework embedded in American cultural and civic life.
Attempts to create communities where Sharia law circumvents or usurps state and federal law only pave the way for what Europe is currently experiencing. In the United Kingdom, Sharia councils[2] operate as quasi-legal arbitration bodies handling divorce, inheritance, and custody matters.
Tightly knit Sharia-following communities want to function as closed systems, where social pressure, cultural expectations, and Sharia authority converge to limit genuine choice, particularly for women. In these cult-like environments, women are discouraged from seeking civil courts, warned against outside authorities, and told that compliance with male-dominated rulings is their only morally acceptable option. While participation is often described as “voluntary,” the heightened cultural pressures can make refusal costly, isolating, and even violent, creating a dynamic where consent is constrained, and impartiality within the community’s laws is undermined.
Sharia councils have sustained criticism for issuing decisions that reflect deeply unequal treatment between men and women. Investigations by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and reports by the U.K. Parliament have documented cases where women seeking divorce or custody through Sharia councils were pressured to accept terms far less favorable than those they would receive under civil law. One BBC investigation[3] found that women were advised to return to husbands who had abused them, because the council prioritized reconciliation over safety; another parliamentary report[4],[5],[6] stated that some councils’ rulings on inheritance were “discriminatory” toward women compared to British civil legal standards.
A 2018 Home Office review[7] found that almost all Sharia councils participants were women, with over 90 percent seeking specifically a Sharia divorce. In most cases, a substantial number of women were unable to obtain a civil divorce because their “Sharia” marriage had never been registered[8] under English law, leaving them without legal recourse in the civil legal system.
Europe’s experience demonstrates that parallel legal systems, once allowed, can become entrenched and undermine established law.
In the United States, Sharia-informed arbitration has been used in family disputes. Some choose to incorporate Sharia-informed principles, which refer to the integration of Sharia law concepts into family arbitrations (e.g., marriage rituals, mandatory marriage gifts (mahr gifts), and divorce practices), even though U.S. civil law already governs these legal recognitions. Cultural practices such as these reflect how Sharia doctrines impose and infringe upon our constitutionally established system of governance.
In Irving, Texas, Manara Academy[9], a public charter school supported by the Qatar Foundation International[10] (QFI), has incorporated classroom materials depicting maps of the “Arab world” that omit Israel entirely and replace it with “Palestine.” These materials, highlighted by QFI as part of an “Arab Culture Arts Program,” obviously are intended to indoctrinate and not educate students.
Similarly, in 2016, the Austin Independent School District accepted a $100,000 grant from QFI to fund an Arabic cultural program[11], covering teacher salaries, curriculum development, and instructional materials. Foreign-linked funding that influences public school curricula should concern every Texan who values transparency, neutrality, and local control in education.
This concern was compounded when Austin’s City Council openly defied a state directive[12] by proclaiming January 22 as “Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Austin Day” and establishing a permanent “Muslim Heritage Month” in January. Standing alongside Mayor Watson, council members elevated an organization that the Governor designated as a foreign terrorist organization in November 2025, disregarding both state leadership and widespread public concern about tyrannical Sharia encroachment in Texas.
State leaders have already taken action to stop similar trajectories, with action from the Governor[13] and Attorney General[14] to preserve Texas sovereignty and public safety. In the 89th session, I voted for and we passed House Bill 4211[15], which was signed into law and specifically addresses schemes governed by codes foreign to our Constitution, like the discriminatory compound East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC)[16]. HB 4211 protects Texans from entities that would use “religion” as a cover to evade equal protection and civil rights.
Recently, I had the honor of attending the Save Texas from Radical Islam dinner in Dallas, a historic gathering held at a pivotal moment for our state and nation. Texans and Americans from across the country assembled with a shared commitment to preserving our Judeo-Christian heritage, defending the United States and Texas Constitutions, and safeguarding the freedoms that make Texas and America exceptional.
During the program, historian and author Bill Federer provided critical historical context, explaining how Islam evolved from a religion into a political system. When a system and doctrine are imposed over constitutional law as a form of its own civil law, a form of tyranny is created. Federer said that in Sharia law, a culture of death is the only outcome of this tyranny.
Texans do not have to wait for the Legislature to make permanent statutory changes; they have power at the ballot box. In the March 3, 2026, Republican Primary Election, Texas Republican voters will see party ballot proposition[17] number 10, which supports prohibiting Sharia law from having any foothold in Texas. These propositions are not laws; they are directives from the grassroots to elected officials about what Texans want their leaders to advocate for when crafting legislation. Election dates are firm: early voting begins February 17, 2026, and Election Day is March 3, 2026. Mark your calendar, study the propositions[18], and cast your vote. This will send a clear message to Texas leadership and the country.
Leading the Charge
I also urge you to contact your state senator and state representative[19] and let them know you support strong statutory language to prohibit enforcement or recognition of any foreign law in Texas courts and contracts.
I have already heard from many of you, and I am not sitting on my hands. I am requesting a legislative interim charge to officially study foreign legal systems and their potential to undermine United States and Texas constitutional governance. This study would bring law enforcement leaders, constitutional scholars, judges, and citizen stakeholders together to determine whether current statutory protections are sufficient and to craft proposals for statutory and constitutional language that leave no ambiguity: Texas law is supreme in Texas courts, and no foreign code or doctrine has any place in our justice system.
Let’s be clear: The state of Texas only recognizes state and federal law, and no foreign code holds sway over our state judicial system. That protection did not happen by accident; it was deliberate, and Texans should be alarmed when foreign entities, like Sharia doctrine, seek to erode and circumvent our constitutional order.
We are fighting at multiple levels, ballot measures, interim charges, and statutory reform, because public safety, the rule of law, and the constitutional integrity of our liberties are non-negotiable.
Texans deserve lawmaking that defends our sovereignty from any ideology that seeks to place another authority above the Constitution of the United States and the Texas Constitution. Together, we can protect Texas and our Constitutional liberties from foreign tyrannical occupation in America.
[1] https://fiqhcouncil.org/about/
[2] https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CDP-2019-0102/CDP-2019-0102.pdf
[3] youtube.com/watch?v=t_zi-Ww7JUs
[4] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a750e8040f0b6397f35d531/6.4152_HO_CPFG_Report_into_Sharia_Law_in_the_UK_WEB.pdf
and
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a750e8040f0b6397f35d531/6.4152_HO_CPFG_Report_into_Sharia_Law_in_the_UK_WEB.pdf
[5] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/independent-review-into-sharia-law-launched
and
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a750e8040f0b6397f35d531/6.4152_HO_CPFG_Report_into_Sharia_Law_in_the_UK_WEB.pdf
[6] https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/68996/pdf/
[7] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a750e8040f0b6397f35d531/6.4152_HO_CPFG_Report_into_Sharia_Law_in_the_UK_WEB.pdf
[8] https://theconversation.com/a-push-to-reform-islamic-divorce-could-make-sharia-councils-redundant-in-britain-68023
[9] https://www.manaraacademy.org/page/the-story-of-manara-academy
[10] https://www.qfi.org/about/
[11] https://www.austinisd.org/announcements/2016/05/10/aisd-launches-arabic-korean-and-vietnamese-language-programs-2016-17
[12] https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-designates-muslim-brotherhood-cair-as-foreign-terrorist-organizations
[13] https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-signs-law-banning-sharia-compounds-in-texas
[14] https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-east-plano-islamic-center-stop-its-illegal-land-development-scheme
[15] https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=89R&Bill=HB4211
[16] https://gov.texas.gov/news/post/governor-abbott-signs-law-banning-sharia-compounds-in-texas
[17] https://texasgop.org/2026-republican-primary-information/
[18] https://texasgop.org/2026-republican-primary-information/
[19] Who Represents Me? (find your elected officials): https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home
As always, do your own research and make up your own mind.
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