- Republicans organise hearings they cast as being opposed to sharia.
- Muslim groups say such hearings cast Muslims as outsiders.
- Democrats say such hearings are a distraction used by Republicans.
WASHINGTON: Muslim American groups said congressional hearings that Republican lawmakers cast as aimed at making the US “sharia-free” are being weaponised against Muslim minorities in the United States by stoking fear against them.
Republicans, who hold a majority in both chambers of Congress, titled a Wednesday hearing by a House Judiciary Subcommittee as “Sharia-Free America: Why Political Islam and Sharia Law are Incompatible with the US Constitution.” A similar hearing was also held in February.
“The radicals pushing political Islam do not want to coexist with America’s culture and political order. They want to replace it,” Republican US Representative Chip Roy said in the hearing.
Critics have said such hearings single out Muslims for ridicule, revive tropes and conspiracy theories against them, and are unnecessary because American laws prevail on US soil.
There is no evidence that any mainstream US Muslim group has advocated for imposing sharia on the United States.
The US Council of Muslim Organisations, which represents over 50 Muslim groups, condemned what it called the “weaponisation of government against American Muslims” and said the hearings engaged in “the politics of fear.”
“Anti-Sharia hearings are not about protecting the Constitution. They are about demonising Islam and portraying Muslim Americans as perpetual outsiders,” the Council on American Islamic Relations’ Maryland director, Zainab Chaudry, said.
Democratic US Representative Jamie Raskin, a ranking member of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, said the hearings were a distraction and attacked religious liberty.
US rights advocates have over the years noted rising Islamophobia, attributing it to the September 11, 2001 attacks; and more recently to anti-immigration policies, white supremacy and the fallout of Israel’s war in Gaza.
CAIR says it recorded 8,683 anti-Muslim and anti-Arab complaints in the US in 2025, the highest since it began publishing data in 1996.
A study in April by the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate think tank says anti-Muslim bigotry by Republican elected officials has surged since early 2025, citing over 1,100 online posts by Republican members of Congress and governors.
Republican governors in Florida and Texas have cast CAIR, which has opposed Republican President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration and pro-Palestinian protests, as a “terrorist” group. CAIR and other civil rights groups have denounced the claims.
2026-05-15 04:27:00
