Policy Issues / Healthy Communities

Policy Brief: The Threat of Radical Islam and Sharia Law

by CRA Staff

December 9, 2025

“Since the objective of the message of Islam is a decisive declaration of man’s freedom, not merely on the philosophical plane but also in the actual conditions of life, it must employ Jihaad.”

—Seyyid Qutb (1)

Synopsis

The danger of Sharia law is growing in the United States. The implementation of Sharia is largely occurring in enclaves of Muslim communities and surrounding areas, many of which are composed of significant numbers of imported foreign nationals from predominantly Islamic nations such as Somalia, Iraq, and Syria. To understand the seriousness of this threat, it is critical to note that Sharia requires strict adherence to Quranic law and that its binding authority is universal, incorporates nearly all elements of life, and recognizes no distinctions between Muslims and non-Muslims. For its Islamic practitioners, Sharia supersedes the United States Constitution and explicitly rejects both biblical moral authority and the longstanding Christian understanding of natural rights—two foundational elements of Western civilization. 

The rise of Sharia in the United States is merely the latest chapter in an ongoing story of spiritual, ideological, and political conflict. Radical Islam and its adherents have long been a threat to the United States and the foundational tenets of Western civilization. Since its earliest days, America has fought against Islamists—in particular the Barbary pirates of North Africa, who are mentioned in the opening lines of the Marines’ Hymn.² While the United States fought the Barbary Wars primarily to keep trade lanes open, a letter from envoys and future presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson revealed that the Barbary nations had a very different motivation.

We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the Grounds of their pretentions to make war upon Nations who had done them no Injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation.

The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners, and that every Musselman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to Paradise.”³

The list of atrocities committed by Islamists and radical Muslims against Americans is lengthy and could fill multiple volumes. Among the most prominent incidents are the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by a Palestinian jihadist, the Iran embassy hostage crisis, the Beirut barracks bombings, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 9/11 attacks, the Boston Marathon bombing, and the 2025 New Year’s truck attack in New Orleans. Some of these events sparked wars, led to sustained military responses, and created tensions between the United States and Islamic nations that exist to this day. 

Sharia law and radical Islam have always been and will likely remain an existential threat to the republic. Of all the major world religions, only Islam expressly directs its adherents to carry out the conquest of nonbelievers as proof of personal devotion and the truth of its tenets. Woven through the Quran is a martial calling that encourages the faithful to wage war against and conquer non-Muslims. Just a few prominent verses include the following (all quotations follow the Ahmed Ali edition):

• “And fight those wheresoever you find them, and expel them from the place they had turned you out from. Oppression is worse than killing. Do not fight them by the Holy Mosque unless they fight you there. If they do, then slay them: such is the requital for unbelievers.” —Surah 2:191

• “Enjoined on you is fighting, and this you abhor. You may dislike a thing yet it may be good for you; or a thing may haply please you but may be bad for you. Only God has knowledge, and you do not know.” —Surah 2:216

• “O Prophet, urge the faithful to fight. If there are twenty among you with determination they will vanquish two hundred; and if there are a hundred then they will vanquish a thousand unbelievers, for they are people devoid of understanding.” —Surah 8:65

• “But when these months, prohibited for fighting, are over, slay the idolaters wheresoever you find them, and take them captive or besiege them, and lie in wait for them at every likely place. But if they repent and fulfill their devotional obligations and pay the zakat, then let them go their way, for God is forgiving and kind.” —Surah 9:5

• “Fight those people of the Book who do not believe in God and the Last Day, who do not prohibit what God and His Apostle have forbidden, nor accept divine law, until all of them pay protective tax in submission.” —Surah 9:29

• “So, when you clash with the unbelievers, smite their necks until you overpower them, then hold them in bondage. Then either free them graciously or after taking a ransom, until war shall have come to end. If God had pleased He could have punished them, but He wills to test some of you through some others. He will not allow the deeds of those who are killed in the cause of God go to waste.” —Surah 47:4

In light of this understanding, it is incumbent on policymakers and informed citizens to muster the courage to soberly reassess the compatibility of Islam with our way of life. Specifically, the rise of Sharia poses the prospectively uncomfortable but necessary question of whether Islam can coexist with our constitutional order, one driven by adherence to natural rights that derive from the Christian theological and philosophical principles that serve as the foundation of Western civilization. If the answer to that question is no, then we must ask, What should public policy look like to preserve the constitutional order from an ideology fundamentally tasked with destroying it?

Background: The Rise of Sharia in the States

“Islam will enter every house, every house, and don’t worry about the Islamophobe. . . . Their children will be Muslim.”

—Sharia Preacher Sheikh Uthman Ibn Farooq, July 2025⁴

What is Sharia law? 

A textbook definition is that Sharia is the Islamic legal and moral framework that derives from the Quran and the hadiths, the records of Muhammad’s teachings, sayings, and actions. Sharia categorizes human actions into five divisions and devises a blueprint for both living a “virtuous” life and building a “virtuous” society. These divisions are the fard (mandatory actions), the mustahabb (recommended actions), the mubah (permitted actions), the makruh (discouraged actions), and the haram (forbidden actions). But a more practical understanding flows from the godfather of modern jihadists, Seyyid Qutb.

Qutb was a leading figure within the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, a proponent of violent jihad, and the leading influence on the life of the radical Islamist Abdullah Azzam, the spiritual mentor to Osama bin Laden. In his book Milestones, Qutb sums up Sharia as follows:

In the Islamic concept, the sovereignty of God means not merely that one should derive all legal injunctions from God and judge according to these injunctions; in Islam the meaning of the Shari’ah is not limited to mere legal injunctions, but includes the principles of administration, its system and its modes. This narrow meaning (i.e., that the Shari’ah is limited to legal injunctions) does not apply to the Shari’ah nor does it correspond to the Islamic concept. By the Shari’ah of God is meant everything legislated by God for ordering man’s life; it includes the principles of belief, principles of administration and justice, principles of morality and human relationships, and principles of knowledge. 

The Shari’ah includes the Islamic beliefs and concepts and their implications concerning the attributes of God, the nature of life, what is apparent and what is hidden in it, the nature of man, and the interrelationships among these. Similarly, it includes political, social and economic affairs and their principles, with the intent that they reflect complete submission to God alone.⁵

Put another way, Sharia law is the complete political, societal, and individual submission to Islam as written in the Quran and found in the hadiths of Muhammad.

The proposed East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC) near Dallas, Texas, is a high-profile flashpoint for increasing public awareness about Sharia law in the United States.⁶ The EPIC project includes more than a thousand homes, parks, shops, and a school, all explicitly curated to be a self-sustaining Islamic community. EPIC therefore is intended to follow the explicitly political mandate embedded within Islam to subordinate all aspects of government and civil society to its conquering ambitions.⁷ Unsurprisingly, EPIC’s design and development are mired in controversy over reports of irregular activity and numerous alleged legal violations.⁸ These reports, combined with a concerted effort by Texas Republicans to have state and federal agencies investigate EPIC,⁹ have recently forced the project to rebrand as “the Meadow.”¹⁰ 

Reports of secret Sharia courts operating in north Texas have been around for at least a decade,¹¹ suggesting that groundwork for the Islamification of the area has long been underway. Governor Greg Abbott recently directed law enforcement entities in Collin and Dallas Counties to investigate a reported Sharia court operating in Dallas.¹² Earlier this year, in a different part of Texas, a Houston imam engaged in demonstrations and threats against businesses selling pork and other forbidden (haram) products because they violate Sharia law.¹³

In heavily Muslim Dearborn, Michigan, the civic and political infrastructure has been fully transformed to subject non-Muslims to a form of second-class subservience. Mayor Abdullah Hammoud recently went viral when he excoriated a constituent at a city council meeting who was protesting the renaming of a street sign to honor a supporter of the Islamic terror groups Hezbollah and Hamas. The citizen, a Christian minister named Ted Barham, opposed honoring Osama Siblani due to Siblani’s vocal support for jihadist organizations that have murdered hundreds of Americans over the years.¹⁴ Hammoud responded, “You’re an Islamophobe. And although you live here, I want you to know that you are not welcome here. The day you move out of the city will be the day I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city.”¹⁵

In 2023, Minneapolis, Minnesota, became the first major U.S. city to allow broadcasts of the Muslim call to prayer (salah) at all hours; it can now be heard over speakers five times a day, year-round.¹⁶ This call to prayer, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is pivotal for establishing Islam’s dominance over a particular area or population. It is a means of soft conquest, and not only have Somalis in Minneapolis explicitly stated their preference for Sharia law¹⁷ but individuals have attempted to enforce Sharia in the streets.¹⁸ And earlier this year, Illinois became the first state to mandate Sharia-compliant meals at government schools and hospitals.¹⁹ 

The extension of Sharia into everyday American civil society is entirely predictable. Historically, when Islam has gained a stronger foothold and larger numbers of Muslims have congregated in specific areas of non-Muslim nations, the influence of Sharia grows commensurately. In non-Muslim nations, Sharia is typically first tested as a shadow form of law before enough political power is accumulated to make it the de facto framework for the Muslim community. Islamists’ strategy is ultimately to subvert the American constitutional order and replace one civilization with another. As the Quran attests, Islam may be better understood as a political ideology that aspires to conquer on a global scale, subordinating all aspects of government and civil society to itself.²⁰ In this respect, it is unique—and uniquely dangerous—among major world religions.

After large swaths of foreign-born Muslims have been imported into the United States through refugee and visa programs, many of those Muslims have intentionally balkanized themselves, creating sprawling enclaves of Islamic communities. These communities have never assimilated, much less been required to abandon their fealty to doctrines that aim to replace our constitutional republic with Islamic law. In fact, Sharia law is designed to eradicate the First Amendment, which forbids a state-established religion while guaranteeing the right of people to practice their faith unhindered in the public square. 

It is an uncomfortable truth that Islamists and Sharia practitioners are using the very rights recognized in the United States Constitution as the primary means by which they seek to eradicate those rights. The Founders, a group of primarily Christian men who followed in the footsteps of pilgrims fleeing state-sponsored religious persecution, conceived of the First Amendment as both preventing future state-sanctioned religious persecution and ensuring that followers of the numerous Christian denominations could live out their faith freely and publicly in accordance with such natural rights as created by God. 

The importation of large numbers of foreign-born Muslims is not something that the Founders would have conceived as possible. Nor did the Founders conceive that future political leaders would intentionally open the nation’s borders to allow millions of noncitizens to pour into American communities illegally. Nevertheless, these are the realities facing Americans in 2025.

In Focus: Islam’s Subversive Influence in Government

“Islam is politics or it is nothing.” 

—Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini²¹

The rise of Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s Muslim socialist mayor, is a perfect example of how the increase in the foreign-born Muslim population in the United States (and Europe) is extending the reach of Islamism and Islamist sympathizers. The political left believes that Islam’s anti-American ideological disposition mirrors its own political goals, viewing Muslims as key allies in a critical theory–infused attempt to tear down America’s “oppressive” Christian patriarchy. Of course, Islamism will dismantle the left once in power. Liberal voters in Hamtramck, Michigan, received a taste of this when the majority Muslim city council passed a law banning public displays of the gay pride flag just a few short years after intersectional-minded progressives celebrated the election of America’s first majority-Muslim local government.²²

For his part, Mamdani has promised a veritable buffet of neo-Marxist policies as mayor of New York City to win political support from radical progressives who see him as a vessel to achieve their goals. These policies include proposed rent freezes, raising the minimum wage to $30 per hour, establishing government-run grocery stores, and creating an agency to send social workers to respond to 911 calls. Such proposals clearly demonstrate the political alliance between the far left, Islamists, and Islamist sympathizers.²³ While their end goals may differ, there is unity among domestic Islamists and far-left progressives in advancing policies that aim to stall American renewal and degrade Western civilization.  

Recently, Mamdani made remarks suggesting that Muslims were the real victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks: “My aunt stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab,” he claimed.²⁴ Mandani’s aunt, Masuma Mamdani, lived in Tanzania during this time and did not wear a hijab. Mamdani also posted a picture of himself with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, whom he called “one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders.”²⁵ It is suspected that Wahhaj was a co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six people.²⁶ The attempt to reframe reality and gaslight Americans about the most horrific terrorist attack in American history, carried out by Islamist jihadis, is not without purpose.

This subversion is intended to soften the citizenry to submission to Islam. The playbook very closely resembles that of communist movements throughout the twentieth century, such as Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China, to rewrite or erase history and untether people from their own civilization. This strategy lowers a society’s defenses to pave the way for revolution and deconstruction.

Radical Islam and Sharia adherents have long used Western institutions to undermine Western principles and advance Islamic interests. There is perhaps no clearer illustration of this tactic than the recent revelations involving the coordinated and widespread welfare fraud scheme carried out by members of Minnesota’s Somali Muslim community. The total cost of the fraud is allegedly in the billions of dollars: Reports state that a Somali enclave set up dozens of fake entities under the guise of “culturally appropriate programming” to bilk taxpayers through increasingly expansive government welfare programs.²⁷ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) uncovered suspected fraud in 275 cases in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.²⁸ Some examples include the following:²⁹ 

• One alien admitted to fabricating a death certificate from Kenya for $100 to falsely claim the termination of a marriage. The spouse in question is alive, is living in Minneapolis, and is the mother of five of his children.

• An alien who is the son of a known or suspected terrorist overstayed his visa and was found to have engaged in marriage fraud that resulted in the denial of several immigration benefit requests.

• An alien engaged in marriage fraud by taking advantage of an elderly U.S. citizen spouse, including subjecting the spouse to elder abuse and exploitation.

In response to these and related cases, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow pointed out that fraud is not a victimless crime and said that fraud undermines the integrity of national security.³⁰ But the scope of the foreign-born Somali community’s fraudulent activities is far wider than simply fraud or theft. In numerous incidents, Somali networks used these fraudulent entities to collect taxpayer money to fund remittances back to their home country through the hawala system (a hard-to-monitor money trading system used in the Middle East and South Asia for centuries) that went directly into Al-Shabaab coffers to carry out Islamic terror operations abroad.³¹

One former official on the Minneapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force stated that “for every dollar that is transferred from the Twin Cities back to Somalia, Al-Shabaab is . . . taking a cut of it.”³² The use of hawala to move large sums of money through archaic methods that leave neither a money trail nor a digital footprint has long been a powerful weapon in financing jihad.³³ The 9/11 Commission found that hawala, which is largely built on trust and transfers money via hawaladar operators from one location to another without concretely moving the funds, was critical in the financing of Al-Qaeda’s operations across the globe.³⁴

As elements of Sharia take root in Muslim enclaves from Minneapolis to Houston to Dearborn, the resources of hardworking American citizens will increasingly be used to fuel the ideology that, by its very nature, seeks to subjugate them. Meanwhile, progressive entities and officials in the United States have made common cause with these efforts, with the culturally significant ramifications already appearing. For example, the non-Muslim progressive mayor of Paterson, New Jersey, celebrated the first day of Ramadan earlier this year by declaring, “Paterson is the capital of Palestine in the United States of America.”³⁵ 

Government officials must take into account the effect that this will have on the social fabric of Western nations. This shift has been going on for some time. Before Mamdani’s mayoral election victory in New York City, Sadiq Khan became the first Muslim mayor of London in 2016.³⁶ In 2021, Boston and New York City elected their first Muslim city council members, and in 2022, Dearborn, Michigan, inaugurated its first Muslim mayor.³⁷ State legislatures from Maine to Texas have welcomed about fifty Muslim members into their ranks over the past few years.³⁸ 

To be clear, not all Muslims are Islamists, but the fact remains that the growth of the foreign-born Muslim population is significantly expanding the reach of Islamists and their allies. The election of Islamists to both state and federal political office, especially the House of Representatives, is concerning not just because of the actions of these particular politicians but also because of what it reveals about America’s progressive-induced identity crisis, destructive immigration policies, and refusal to demand assimilation to our culture and way of life. For example, a few years ago, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN), a Somali immigrant, described the 9/11 attacks as “some people did something.”³⁹ This is a shockingly dismissive statement about an attack in which “some people”—radical Islamists—slaughtered nearly three thousand Americans in cold blood and sparked a two-decade conflict overseas that saw even more American lives shattered or lost. Omar was also removed from the House Foreign Affairs Committee due to past antisemitic comments regarding Israel and concerns over her objectivity regarding the national security of the United States.⁴⁰ 

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), born in Detroit to foreign-born Palestinian parents, was censured by the House of Representatives with twenty-two Democrats joining Republicans after she repeatedly used the phrase “from the river to the sea.” This phrase is commonly considered to be a call to end Israel’s existence and is the official slogan of the terrorist organization Hamas, which states outright in its charter its intentions to murder millions of Israeli Jews.⁴¹ 

Observers can easily infer that the sentiments of Omar and Tlaib, the deceptive narrative-weaving of Mamdani, and the criminal actions taken to fund jihad by vast swaths of the foreign-born Somali enclave in Minnesota are further evidence that for many Muslims the interests of Islam concretely supersede the well-being of American citizens and fidelity to the United States Constitution. The common thread of their participation in the processes and institutions of the republic appears to be the degradation of Western principles in favor of Islamic advancement. 

While it cannot be known where each Muslim’s sympathies lie, the cultural shift represented by large numbers of Muslims is self-evidently at odds with American cultural norms and the foundational tenets of Western civilization. The First Amendment is not a suicide pact, and it does not require American policymakers to intentionally ignore the threats of growing Muslim populations sympathetic to Islamism, many of whom are foreign-born and make use of broken refugee and visa programs. While it is true that not all Muslims are Islamists, it is also true that all Islamists are Muslims. And the evidence suggests that the existence of large Muslim populations causes major concerns for a country wanting to evade the threat of Islamism.  

In Focus: Radical Islam in the Broader Western World

“The flag of Sharia will eventually fly over Downing Street.” 

—Imam Anjem Choudary⁴²

The growing support for Sharia law is a concerning sign of Islamism’s influence in the West. Polling from a decade ago shows that a substantial number of American Muslims surveyed believe that Muslims should have the choice of being governed according to Sharia law as opposed to the United States Constitution.⁴³ A poll released by the Center for Security Policy showed “more than half (51%) of U.S. Muslims polled believe that they should have the choice of American or Sharia courts, or that they should have their own tribunals to apply Sharia.”⁴⁴ Similarly, a 2013 Pew Research study on Afghan nationals reported that 99 percent of Afghans surveyed wanted Sharia law to be the official law of their land, and 61 percent of Afghans surveyed believed Sharia law should be applied to all citizens, including non-Muslims.⁴⁵ The large number of Muslims who want Sharia law indicates firm support and sympathy for Islamism’s political end, which is effectively the establishment of an Islamic theocracy. It is essential to note that some of the specific provisions in Sharia law that would be applied to everyone under Islamic law include the following:⁴⁶

• Honor killings and stoning to death as punishment for adultery

• Death as punishment for leaving Islam and converting to another religion

• Polygamy as an acceptable practice

• Corporal punishments, including stoning, lashing, and amputation of limbs, for certain crimes, such as theft, blasphemy, and adultery

In a constitutional republic founded on principles such as religious liberty and the rule of law built on a Judeo-Christian framework, there is simply no place for Sharia law, which explicitly aims to replace all forms of government, politics, economics, law, and human social interactions with strict precepts derived straight from the Quran and hadiths. Sharia law is not only incompatible with Western forms of government but explicitly at war with them. 

In Europe, some of the predictably uglier aspects of Sharia law are emerging after predominantly Christian and culturally Western nations invited tens of millions of foreign-born Muslims into their nations, primarily through destructive refugee policies. For example, in 2023, an Italian court gave a Pakistani couple life sentences for killing their eighteen-year-old daughter because she refused an arranged marriage.⁴⁷ In the United Kingdom, honor-based abuse offenses recorded by police forces have increased by more than 60 percent since 2022.⁴⁸ In August, the Vienna Regional Court for Civil Matters in Austria confirmed an arbitration award based on Sharia law.⁴⁹ A report released by the French government earlier this year summed up the disaster unfolding in Europe by stating that “the Muslim Brotherhood poses a long-term threat to France’s national cohesion not through violence, but by gradually eroding secular values at the local level.”⁵⁰ 

Yet European governments continue to capitulate to Islamism. The Middle East Forum reports that for years dozens of Sharia councils have existed in the United Kingdom and are mediating the resolution of civil disputes according to Sharia and not British common law.⁵¹ Last April, an employment tribunal judge in the United Kingdom found a British citizen, Patrick Lee, guilty of misconduct over posts on X (formerly Twitter), including one calling the Prophet Muhammad a “monster.”⁵² Lee recently won legal protection for expressing his beliefs, but his case demonstrates how Islamists are effectively tightening their grip on legal institutions across the West.⁵³ Such alarming Islamification has been spreading throughout the West for a long time. In 2014, a German court ruled that Islamists who patrolled a city’s streets as “Sharia Police” did not break the law and would not be prosecuted.⁵⁴ 

Demographically, the number of Muslims as a percentage of the total population in key Western nations is exploding. In England and Wales, the total percentage of the population identified as Muslim is now at least 6.5 percent, an increase of 33 percent from 2011.⁵⁵ In France, the percentage of the population identified as Muslim is 10 percent.⁵⁶ In Germany, Muslims now comprise at least 6.4 percent of the population, with an estimated 5.5 million foreign-born Muslim immigrants living in the country.⁵⁷ In Austria, Muslims comprise at least 8.3 percent of the population.⁵⁸ 

It is imperative to point out that beyond the existential implications Sharia law has for basic human liberty and Western civilization, significant aspects of Muslim culture are simply not compatible with Western values. For example, consanguineous marriages, in which spouses are related by blood, are prevalent in many Arab nations, with rates ranging as high as 50 percent in some countries.⁵⁹ In Britain, estimates from 2021 suggest that the majority of British Pakistanis are married to first cousins.⁶⁰ Consanguineous marriages are not prevalent in the United States.⁶¹ In fact, twenty-three states banned the practice between 1858 and 1940.⁶² But recently, the Delaware legislature considered legislation, introduced by State Representative Madinah Wilson-Anton, that would recognize marriages between first cousins.⁶³ Wilson-Anton asserted that the bill was designed for a constituent who wanted to bring his spouse from another country into the state.⁶⁴ According to the Institute for Family Studies, bans on consanguineous marriage are necessary for health-related reasons.⁶⁵ Malign recessive genes that are less likely to express themselves in children born to unrelated spouses are more likely to manifest in marriages between close relatives.⁶⁶ Yet this will not be the last bill of this kind that a state legislature will have to consider.

This is just a snapshot of Islam’s growing power in Western nations. However, the growing Islamist demographic and voting bloc supporting the rigid application of Sharia law is reaching critical mass in European nations.

In Focus: Jihadist Radicalization and Homegrown Violence 

“Nidal Hasan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.” 

—Anwar al-Awlaki on Nidal Hasan’s terror attack on Fort Hood⁶⁷

In 2016, the FBI issued an ominous if not obvious warning: Immigrant Muslim communities in America are more susceptible to radicalization from Islamist terrorist organizations and to homegrown violence than the rest of the population.⁶⁸ Organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) encourage this influence. In fact, in the most significant terrorism-financing case in U.S. history, CAIR was listed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, and government exhibits from the trial revealed that CAIR’s founders participated in a meeting of Hamas supporters in Philadelphia.⁶⁹ President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order directing Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to begin designating certain chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.⁷⁰ 

According to the House Committee on Homeland Security, cases of homegrown violent extremism are the greatest and most immediate international terrorism threat to the U.S. homeland because they are inspired by FTOs but lack a direct connection to an FTO. This allows homegrown extremists to mobilize without detection.⁷¹ The FBI defines homegrown violent extremists as “individuals of any citizenship who have lived and/or operated primarily in the United States or its territories, who advocate, are engaged in, or are preparing to engage in ideologically motivated terrorist activities in furtherance of political or social objectives promoted by a foreign terrorist organization but are acting independently of direction by an FTO.”⁷² Between April 2021 and September 2024, there were more than fifty jihadist cases in twenty-nine U.S. states, and since the beginning of 2023, there have been 158 plots in Western Europe.⁷³ The House Committee on Homeland Security outlined these examples, which include some of the following:⁷⁴

• November 9, 2022: Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 24, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to over 17 years in prison for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State (ISIS). On September 16, 2021, he pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to ISIS regarding his plan to attack a church in Pittsburgh.

• February 9, 2023: Kambiz Attar Kashani, 44, of the United States and Iran, was sentenced for conspiring to provide equipment and technology for the benefit of the Central Bank of Iran, a designated entity that materially supports known terrorist organizations.

• May 17, 2023: Sayfullo Saipov, 34, of Uzbekistan, was sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences plus 260 years in prison for carrying out a terrorist attack on October 31, 2017, in the name of ISIS, in which he used a truck to kill eight victims and hurt others on a bike path in Lower Manhattan, New York.

• June 29, 2023: Kaan Sercan Damlarkaya, 23, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for attempting to provide material support to ISIS. He sought to join ISIS overseas, and if not, then he would carry out an attack on non-Muslims in the United States; a “dream” of his was to be a martyr.

• June 13, 2024: Abdelhamid Al-Madioum, 27, of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, was sentenced to 120 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release for providing material support to ISIS.

• June 25, 2024: DHS has identified over 400 individuals who have crossed into the United States over the past three years as “subjects of concern” as they were brought by an ISIS-affiliated human smuggling network. The whereabouts of more than 50 remain unknown.

On November 26, 2025, one National Guard member was killed and another was in critical condition after a targeted shooting near the White House in Washington, D.C., by a foreign-born Muslim refugee.⁷⁵ The suspect is an Afghan national who was one of the many unvetted individuals who entered the United States in 2021 under the Biden administration.⁷⁶ 

Islamist organizations are also fomenting anti-American, antisemitic, and anti-Christian encampments and protests at American colleges and universities in support of terrorist organizations. National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), for example, claims to support “over 350 Palestine solidarity organizations on college campuses across the continent.”⁷⁷ In a values statement on its website, SJP says that “the struggle for a free Palestine is interconnected with the struggle for Black liberation, for gender-based and sexual freedom, and for a livable and sustainable planet. All pursuits for freedom, justice, and equality are materially intertwined and require us to struggle against state violence, colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism in all of their forms.”⁷⁸ After Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, SJP organized a “National Day of Resistance” and circulated a “Resistance Toolkit” to frame the attacks as a justifiable part of the Palestinian struggle.⁷⁹ This narrative encouraged campus demonstrations and amplified anti-Israel sentiment, pushing an agenda consistent with Hamas’s broader Islamist goals.⁸⁰ 

This type of influence is not confined to college campuses. While the Trump administration is working to end the conflict in the Gaza Strip, Islamist Palestinian organizations continue to cause problems in the streets of the United States and Europe. For example, nearly five hundred people were arrested in central London in October during protests in support of the group Palestine Action. Three suspected members of Hamas were also recently arrested for allegedly planning attacks on Israeli and Jewish institutions in Germany.⁸¹ Islamism is the primary driving force for Islamic terrorism and violence.

The Path Ahead: Curbing Islamism and Sharia

For policymakers, the immediate task is to assess the full scope of the Islamification of the United States. If evidence continues to warrant it, investigations into enclaves of foreign-born Muslims should be multiplied and prioritized, especially in light of the discovery of the Minneapolis Somali community’s widespread fraud network. And mass deportations must accompany such efforts. Aligned with these efforts should also be congressional hearings and whole-of-government initiatives that determine whether Islam ultimately seeks to use the First Amendment to abolish our constitutional republic.

If the answer to that question is yes, then public policy must begin to reassess the universal application of the rights recognized in the U.S. Constitution to noncitizens and movements that explicitly aim to eradicate those rights. Further, if Islam’s ultimate goal is the abolition of the U.S. Constitution, the very question of whether a Muslim can faithfully take the oath of citizenship must be publicly broached. For Muslims, one’s allegiance is either to the U.S. Constitution, rooted in biblical understandings of natural rights, or it is to Sharia, rooted in Quranic teachings on the supremacy of Islamic law. It simply cannot be both.

This question will spark a predictable uproar with accusations of bigotry from progressives who benefit politically from the domestic rise of Islamism, but the well-being and long-term survival of the American republic must supersede such acrimony. In the meantime, immediate policy actions that should be taken are as follows:

• The executive branch should freeze all immigration from hostile Muslim-majority nations and territories, including especially the Palestinian territories, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iran, and Yemen.⁸² Congress should consider legislation that bans Sharia in the United States. A recent bill introduced by Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX), the Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act, offers a model. It prevents all foreign nationals who observe Sharia law from either entering the United States or from remaining in the country.⁸³

• Congress should statutorily enact a strict vetting process for U.S. visa programs that includes an intensive program flagging support for Sharia law and other culturally incompatible practices (child marriage, cousin marriage, bachi bazi (pederastic sexual absue of young boys), etc.) as prohibitive for the approval of any visa. Connected to such vetting processes should be criminal prosecutions for individuals who lie about their support for Sharia law and other culturally incompatible practices.

• Both the executive branch and legislative branch should permanently prohibit visas for individuals who hail from hostile Muslim-majority nations and territories—first through an executive order and then through statutory changes.

• State legislatures should consider preempting localities and municipalities with noise ordinance bills that restrict the ability of muezzins to use mosques and other structures to broadcast the Islamic call to prayer over entire neighborhoods, blocks, and cities. Such approaches should be written to ensure that musical broadcasts such as the ringing of church bells are not prohibited.

Lastly, a broad-based legal approach is needed to address the fundamental challenge of the First Amendment being used by Islamists as a vehicle for its eradication. Regardless, it is imperative to take action now, particularly on the policies that will begin to curb Sharia’s rise. This must be done before the United States finds itself in a destructive spiral alongside the European nations that foolishly opened their countries and cultures to invasion and civilizational replacement.

Conclusion

Islamism and Sharia law pose a persistent, multifaceted threat to America’s constitutional order, and growing Sharia-supremacist enclaves demand robust action from the federal government to ensure that Islamism does not supplant the Western values on which the American republic was founded. The executive branch and Congress must consider every possible response to this threat and ensure that our republic endures for generations to come.

Endnotes

1. Qutb, S. (1964). Milestones, 63 

2. The Marines’ Hymn (1942). United States Marine Corps. https://www.marineband.marines.mil/Audio-Resources/The-Marines-Hymn/ 

3. Adams, J. and Jefferson, T. (March 28, 1786). Letter from American Commissioners to John Jay.  https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-09-02-031

4. Amy Mek (July 13, 2025). “Islamization of America rages on . . .,” X.  https://x.com/AmyMek/status/1944341740993106041?s=2

5. Qutb, S. (1964). Milestones, 107 

6. Fullerton, A. and Ardary, S. (May 12, 2025). “Muslim-Centered EPIC City Now Under DOJ Investigation, Sen. Cornyn Says,” FOX 4 Dallas.  https://www.fox4news.com/news/epic-city-doj-investigation

7. Hirsi Ali, A. (November 9, 2015). “Islam Is a Religion of Violence,” United States Institute of Peace. https://www.usip.org/publications/2015/11/islam-religion-violence 

8. Pinkoski, N. (May 7, 2025). “Primer: The Islamist Threat to American Communities,” Center for Renewing America. https://americarenewing.com/primer-the-islamist-threat-to-american-communities/

9. Press Release (October 14, 2025). “Attor­ney Gen­er­al Pax­ton Uncov­ers Ille­gal Activ­i­ties by EPIC City Devel­op­ers and Requests Refer­ral from State Secu­ri­ties Board to File a Lawsuit,” Ken Paxton, Attorney General of Texas. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-paxton-uncovers-illegal-activities-epic-city-developers-and-requests-referral-state 

10. Wooten, N. (November 10, 2025). “Muslim-Centric EPIC City Development Gets a New Name. Here’s Why,” Dallas Morning News. https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2025/11/10/muslim-centric-epic-city-development-gets-new-name-heres-why/

11. CBS Texas Report (February 2, 2015). “North Texas Home to First Islamic Tribunal in U.S.,” CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/north-texas-home-to-first-islamic-tribunal-in-u-s/ 

12. Blankley, B. (November 20, 2025). “Abbott Directs Law Enforcement to Investigate Sharia Tribunal in Texas,” The Center Square. https://www.thecentersquare.com/texas/article_2eee1b2f-80d6-4c43-9cbb-fc8113a9fff3.html   

13. Saunders, C. (September 9, 2025). “Video of Muslim Cleric Harassing Local Businesses Has Abbott’s Attention,” KTRH Houston. https://ktrh.iheart.com/featured/houston-texas-news/content/2025-09-09-video-of-muslim-cleric-harassing-local-businesses-has-abbotts-attention/ 

14. FOX 2 Staff (September 25, 2025). “Dearborn Mayor Gives Statement, Doesn’t Apologize to Resident He Called Racist,” FOX 2 Detroit. https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/dearborn-mayor-breaks-silence-doesnt-apologize-christian-minister-he-called-racist 

15. Ibid. 

16. Associated Press (April 14, 2023). “Minneapolis Becomes First Major U.S. City to Broadcast Islamic Call to Prayer 5 Times per Day,” PBS News. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/minneapolis-becomes-first-major-u-s-city-to-broadcast-islamic-call-to-prayer-5-times-per-day

17. Horowitz, A. (September 21, 2016). “Minneapolis Muslims: Sharia Law Better Than American Laws,” FOX News. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6QC_qEyl0Q  

18. CBS Minneapolis Report (April 13, 2017). “Man Trying to Impose Sharia Law in Cedar-Riverside,” CBS Minnesota. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/sharia-law-minneapolis/  

19. FOX 32 Staff (March 23, 2025). “New Illinois Law Mandates Halal, Kosher Meals Be Available at State Schools, Hospitals,” FOX 32 Chicago. https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/illinois-law-halal-kosher-food 

20. Pinkoski, N. (May 7, 2025). “Primer: The Islamist Threat to American Communities,” Center for Renewing America. https://americarenewing.com/primer-the-islamist-threat-to-american-communities/

21. Lewis, B. (January 21, 1988). “Islamic Revolution,” The New York Review of Books. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1988/01/21/islamic-revolution/

22. Perkins, T. (June 17, 2023). “‘A Sense of Betrayal’: Liberal Dismay as Muslim-Led US City Bans Pride Flags,” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/17/hamtramck-michigan-muslim-council-lgbtq-pride-flags-banned  

23. Silverio, N. (October 27, 2025). “AOC Screams at Top of Her Lungs, Panders to as Many Minority Groups as Possible in 38 Seconds,” The Daily Caller. https://dailycaller.com/2025/10/27/aoc-screams-top-of-lungs-minority-groups-mamdani-rally/

24. Wright, D. and Pazmino, G. (October 24, 2025). “Mamdani Defends His Islamic Faith and Slams Cuomo in a Tearful Speech,” CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/24/politics/zohran-mamdani-islam-cuomo

25. Mamdani, Z. (October 17, 2025). “Today at Masjid At-Taqwa, I had the pleasure of meeting with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, one of the nation’s foremost Muslim leaders and a pillar of the Bed-Stuy community for nearly half a century. I was also joined by CM @dr_yusefsalaam of Harlem. A beautiful Jummah,” X. https://x.com/ZohranKMamdani/status/1979353018589237717

26. Press Release (November 3, 2025). “Roy Op-Ed in the Federalist: Mamdani’s Rise Signals the Islamic Revolution Remaking the United States,” Office of Rep. Chip Roy. https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/roy-op-ed-federalist-mamdanis-rise-signals-islamic-revolution-remaking-united

27. Thorpe, R. and Rufo, C. (November 19, 2025).  “The Largest Funder of Al-Shabaab Is the Minnesota Taxpayer,” City Journal.  https://www.city-journal.org/article/minnesota-welfare-fraud-somalia-al-shabaab

28. Press Release (September 30, 2025). “USCIS Announces Results of Operation Twin Shield, a Large-Scale Immigration Fraud Investigation,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/news-releases/uscis-announces-results-of-operation-twin-shield-a-large-scale-immigration-fraud-investigation

29. Rapid Response 47 (September 30, 2025). “USCIS Director Joseph Edlow lays out examples of immigration fraud caught in the Minneapolis area during Operation Twin Shield,” X. https://x.com/rapidresponse47/status/1973090583284695070?s=46&t=yoRaohotqXP0omWUE7Z7EQ

30. Ibid. 

31. Ibid. 

32. Ibid. 

33. Study Paper (January 2024). “Hawala: From Ancient Remittance Transfer System to Terrorist Financing Method,” European Foundation for South Asian Studies. https://www.efsas.org/The%20Hawala%20System%20-%20STUDY%20PAPER.pdf 

34. Roth, R., Greenburg, D., and Wille, S. (2004). “Monograph on Terrorist Financing,” National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, 25. https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/staff_statements/911_TerrFin_Monograph.pdf 

35. Propper, D. (March 10, 2025). “Paterson Mayor Calls NJ City ‘Capital of Palestine’ in Ramadan Kickoff Remarks: ‘4th Holiest City in the World,” The New York Post. https://nypost.com/2025/03/10/us-news/paterson-mayor-calls-nj-city-capital-of-palestine-in-ramadan-remarks/ 

36. Smith, C. (December 5, 2024). “Muhammad Overtakes Noah as the Most Popular Boy’s Name,” BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly4g2v0ej6o

37. Farivar, M. (October 18, 2024). “Muslim Candidates Surge in Local Elections in US,” Voice of America. https://www.voanews.com/a/muslim-candidates-surge-in-local-u-s-elections/7828101.html

38. Ibid. 

39. CBS Minnesota Report (September 11, 2019). “‘Some People Did Something’: Son of 9/11 Victim Addresses Ilhan Omar During Memorial Ceremony, CBS Minnesota. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/some-people-did-something-son-of-9-11-victim-address-ilhan-omar-during-memorial-ceremony/

40. Ginsberg, M. (February 2, 2023). “House Boots Rep. Ilhan Omar Off Key Committee Over Anti-Semitic Remarks,” The Daily Caller. https://dailycaller.com/2023/02/02/house-boots-rep-ilhan-omar-off-key-committee-over-anti-semitic-remarks/

41. Peller, L. and Hutzler, A. (November 7, 2023). “Rep. Rashida Tlaib Censured by House over Israel Comments,” ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-rashida-tlaib-faces-2nd-censure-resolution-criticism/story?id=104693855

42. Smith, T. (October 31, 2014). “‘Britain Belongs to Allah’: Anjem Choudary and His Supporters,” Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies. https://www.ipcs.org/comm_select.php?articleNo=4718

43. CSP Staff (June 23, 2015). “Poll of U.S. Muslims Reveals Ominous Levels of Support for Islamic Supremacists’ Doctrine of Shariah, Jihad,” Center for Security Policy. https://centerforsecuritypolicy.org/nationwide-poll-of-us-muslims-shows-thousands-support-shariah-jihad/

44. Ibid.

45. CRA Staff (September 13, 2021). “Primer: Afghan Culture Is Prohibitive for Assimilation,” Center for Renewing America. https://americarenewing.com/primer-afghan-culture-is-prohibitive-for-assimilation/

46. Robinson, K. (December 17, 2021). “Understanding Sharia: The Intersection of Islam and the Law,” Council on Foreign Relations. https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/understanding-sharia-intersection-islam-and-law

47. Ng, K. (December 20, 2023). “Italian Court Jails Parents for Life over ‘Honour Killing’ of Pakistani Teen,” BBC.

48. Siddique, H. (April 7, 2024). “Honour-Based Abuse in England Increases 60% in Two Years,” The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/honour-based-abuse-in-england-increases-60-in-two-years

49. The Catholic Herald News Report (August 24, 2025). “Vienna Court Upholds Sharia-Based Arbitration, Sparking Political Backlash,” The Catholic Herald. https://thecatholicherald.com/article/vienna-court-upholds-sharia-based-arbitration-sparking-political-backlash 

50. Le Monde with AFP Religion Report (May 21, 2025). “French Report Warns of Spread of Muslim Brotherhood Ideology,” Le Monde. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2025/05/21/french-report-warns-of-subtle-but-subversive-spread-of-muslim-brotherhood-ideology_6741471_7.html

51. Meotti, G. (August 26, 2025). “Sharia Courts Are a Reality in Europe,” Middle East Forum. https://www.meforum.org/mef-online/sharia-courts-are-a-reality-in-europe

52. West, P. (November 9, 2025). “We Should Not Need a Court’s Permission to Criticise Islam.” The Spectator. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/we-should-not-need-the-courts-permission-to-criticise-islam/

53. Ibid. 

54. BBC News Report (December 10, 2025). “German Court Lets Off ‘Sharia Police’ Patrol in Wuppertal,” BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35059488

55. Census Data Analysis (2021). “Religion, England and Wales: Census 2021,” Office for National Statistics. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/religion/bulletins/religionenglandandwales/census2021 

56. Information File (November 30, 2025). “Country Sheet: France,” Robert Schuman Foundation. https://www.robert-schuman.eu/en/our-information-files/france

57. Pfündel, K., Stichs, A., and Tanis, K. (April 28, 2021). “Muslim Life in Germany 2020,” Federal Office for Migration and Refugees.  https://www.bamf.de/SharedDocs/Anlagen/EN/Forschung/Forschungsberichte/fb38-muslimisches-leben.html

58. U.S. Embassy Report (2023). “2023 Report on International Religious Freedom: Austria,” United States Department of State.  https://at.usembassy.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/70/2020/12/2023-Report-on-International-Religious-Freedom-in-Austria.pdf

59. Khayat, A., Alshareef, B., Alharbi, S., AlZahrani, M., Alshangity, B., and Tashkandi, N. (February 16, 2024). “Consanguineous Marriage and Its Association with Genetic Disorders in Saudi Arabia: A Review,” Cureus. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10924896/

60. Cole, A. and Hashmi, E. (January 27, 2025). “Couple Defend First-Cousin Marriages amid Ban Call,” BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g38l07895o

61. Paul, D. and Spencer, H. (December 23, 2008). “‘It’s OK, We’re Not Cousins by Blood’: The Cousin Marriage Controversy in Historical Perspective,” PloS Biology. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2605922/

62. Yenor, S. (March 3, 2025). “Why Every State Should Ban First-Cousin Marriage,” Institute for Family Studies. https://ifstudies.org/blog/why-every-state-should-ban-first-cousin-marriage

63. Mueller, S. (May 8, 2025). “Legislation Recognizing First-Cousin Marriages Dies in the Delaware House,” WHYY. https://whyy.org/articles/first-cousin-marriages-delaware/

64. Ibid. 

65. Yenor, S. (March 3, 2025). “Why Every State Should Ban First-Cousin Marriage,” Institute for Family Studies. https://ifstudies.org/blog/why-every-state-should-ban-first-cousin-marriage

66. Ibid. 

67. BBC Report (September 30, 2011). “In Quotes: Anwar al-Awlaki,” BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-15124351 

68. Read, R. (September 28, 2016). “FBI Director: Somali Muslim Immigrants More ‘Susceptible’ to Radicalization by Terror Groups,” The Daily Caller. https://dailycaller.com/2016/09/28/fbi-director-somali-muslim-immigrants-more-susceptible-to-radicalization-by-terror-groups/

69. Vincent, I. (August 7, 2025). “US Muslim Charity Which Takes In Over $26m a Year Should Be Investigated over Hamas Ties: Senator Tom Cotton,” The New York Post. https://nypost.com/2025/08/07/us-news/senator-tom-cotton-demands-investigation-into-controversial-muslim-group/

70. Wehner, G. (November 24, 2025). “Trump Signs Executive Order Targeting Certain Muslim Brotherhood Chapters as Terrorist Groups,” Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-signs-executive-order-targeting-certain-muslim-brotherhood-chapters-terrorist-groups

71. Terror Threat Snapshot (October 3, 2024). “Foreign Jihadist Networks and Homegrown Violent Extremism: A Persistent Terror Threat to America,” U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security. https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CHS-10.3.24-Terror-Threat-Snapshot.pdf

72. Committee Hearing (December 5, 2023). “Statement of Christopher A. Wray, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation,” U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2023-12-05_-_testimony_-_wray.pdf

73.  Terror Threat Snapshot (October 3, 2024). “Foreign Jihadist Networks and Homegrown Violent Extremism: A Persistent Terror Threat to America,” U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security. https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CHS-10.3.24-Terror-Threat-Snapshot.pdf

74. Ibid. 

75. NBC News (November 27, 2025) “National Guard Member Dies After Potential ‘Terrorist’ Shooting in D.C.,” NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/live-updates-national-guard-members-shot-washington-rcna246184

76. CRA Staff (September 13, 2021). “Primer: Afghan Culture Is Prohibitive for Assimilation,” Center for Renewing America. https://americarenewing.com/primer-afghan-culture-is-prohibitive-for-assimilation/  

77. National Students for Justice in Palestine (accessed December 1, 2025). “Who Are We?” https://www.nationalsjp.org/about 

78. Ibid. 

79. SJP Pamphlet (2024). “Hamas’s Influence on U.S. Campuses,” George Washington University Program on Extremism. https://extremism.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5746/files/2024-11/Pamphlet_compressed.pdf

80. Ibid.

81. Davies, A. (October 1, 2025). “Germany Arrests Suspected Hamas Members over Alleged Attack Plot,” BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgknpzrkyvno

82. As this paper was prepared for publication, USCIS issued a major decision that halted immigration and naturalization processes for individuals hailing from nineteen countries tagged under President Trump’s June 2025 presidentabuseabuseial proclamation.

83. Press Release (October 8, 2025). “Rep. Roy Introduces Bill to Preserve America from Sharia Law,” Office of Rep. Chip Roy. https://roy.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-roy-introduces-bill-preserve-america-sharia-law