- Republicans hold hearings they view as opposing sharia law.
- Muslim groups say such hearings turn Muslims into outsiders.
- Democrats believe these hearings are a diversion used by Republicans.
WASHINGTON: American Muslim groups say congressional hearings, touted by Republican lawmakers as aimed at freeing the United States from Sharia law, are being used as a weapon against Muslim minorities in the United States by stoking fear against them.
Republicans, who hold majorities in both houses of Congress, titled a hearing Wednesday by a House Judiciary subcommittee as “An America Without Sharia Law: Why Political Islam and Sharia Law Are Incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.” A similar hearing also took place in February.
“The radicals who advocate political Islam do not want to coexist with the American culture and political order. They want to replace it,” Republican US Representative Chip Roy said at the hearing.
Critics have said such hearings ridicule Muslims, revive clichés and conspiracy theories against them, and are unnecessary because U.S. laws prevail on American soil.
There is no evidence that any dominant American Muslim group has advocated the imposition of Sharia law in the United States.
The American Council of Muslim Organizations, which represents more than 50 Muslim groups, condemned what it called the “militarization of government against American Muslims” and said the hearings had engaged in “the politics of fear.”
“The anti-Sharia hearings are not about protecting the Constitution. They are about demonizing Islam and portraying Muslim Americans as perpetual foreigners,” said Zainab Chaudry, director of the American Council on Islamic Relations in Maryland.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the hearings were a distraction and attacked religious freedom.
Human rights advocates in the United States have noted a rise in Islamophobia over the years, attributing it to the attacks of September 11, 2001; and more recently to anti-immigration policies, white supremacy and the fallout from the Israeli war in Gaza.
CAIR says it recorded 8,683 anti-Muslim and anti-Arab complaints in the United States in 2025, the highest figure since it began publishing data in 1996.
An April study by the think tank Center for the Study of Organized Hate indicates that anti-Muslim bigotry from Republican elected officials has increased since early 2025, citing more than $1,100 in online posts from Republican members of Congress and governors.
Republican governors in Florida and Texas have called CAIR, which has opposed Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown and pro-Palestinian protests, a “terrorist” group. CAIR and other civil rights groups denounced the allegations.
