In political campaigns and the party鈥檚 platform, Texas Republicans condemn 鈥渟haria law鈥 as a dangerous system of extremist Islamic rules and restrictions that threaten democracy, religious freedom and personal liberty 鈥 an affront to American values that must be stamped out.
But when Shaimaa Zayan considers what 鈥渟haria鈥 means to her, the Austin resident doesn鈥檛 see a hot-button political issue or a legal code that undermines the U.S. Constitution. She sees a set of daily practices that gradually lead Muslims like her closer to Paradise.
Linguistically, she said, sharia means 鈥渁 path to water.鈥 Religiously, she added, the Arabic term describes 鈥渢he path to success鈥 or 鈥渉ow we should practice our faith.鈥
鈥淚t's for Muslims, so thinking that this is something that Muslims are bringing for everyone is just so far from the understanding of sharia,鈥 she said.
As Texas Republicans escalate attacks on Islam based on opposition to what they call sharia law, Muslims are pushing back, saying the term has been distorted by ignorance, fear and political opportunism. It鈥檚 time, they say, to set the record straight on the meaning of sharia as a religious concept.
State Rep. , the first Muslim elected to the Texas Legislature, said sharia is an 鈥渆thical and moral framework that governs your personal conduct.鈥 It involves 鈥済iving, charity, praying consistently to God, being honest with your neighbors, with your friends, with everybody.鈥
鈥淚t is a personal moral code, and not something that I can impose on anybody else,鈥 said Bhojani, D-Euless.
Republicans see a far different meaning, denouncing sharia law as an oppressive legal code that is incompatible with state and federal laws.
鈥淧ersonal religious expression, belief and worship are protected under the First Amendment,鈥 state Rep. said in a statement. 鈥淲hat is not protected is the imposition of a foreign legal system that conflicts with Texas law, the U.S. Constitution, or the equal rights of others.鈥
In March, Money created the Sharia Free Texas Caucus in the state Legislature, about three months after two fellow Republicans from Texas, U.S. Reps. Keith Self and Chip Roy, started the Sharia-Free America Caucus in Congress.
The congressional caucus includes 68 Republicans from 25 states, Self . 鈥淐hristian values form the foundation of our nation and the constitutional system that governs our daily lives,鈥 he said in introducing the caucus. 鈥淪haria and its principles stand in direct opposition to those foundations.鈥
In mid-August, Gov. to withhold funding from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport and Houston鈥檚 George Bush Intercontinental Airport, saying washing stations used by Muslims before prayer were illegal because they offered special treatment based on religion.
In November, Abbott declared the Council on American-Islamic Relations 鈥 or CAIR, the largest Muslim civil rights group in the United States 鈥 a terrorist organization, its goals were 鈥渢o forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam鈥檚 鈥榤astership of the world.鈥欌
In the March GOP primary, asking if 鈥淭exas should prohibit Sharia law鈥 was supported by 95% of voters.
A resolution titled 鈥淒on鈥檛 Sharia My Texas,鈥 adopted this summer in the Republican Party of Texas platform, calls on state lawmakers to approve legislation and constitutional amendments to:
- Declare sharia law seditious, subversive and 鈥渁 competing enemy鈥 of the state and U.S. constitutions.
- Make advocating or implementing sharia law a crime that would disqualify someone from public service, the military or law enforcement.
- Formally ask the federal government to deport or denaturalize advocates of sharia law.
Some Republican and conservative leaders are pressing the Legislature, which convenes in January, to restrict hijabs and other types of Islamic dress, close Islamic charter schools and withhold professional licenses from Muslims.
鈥淪haria is Islamic law,鈥 said Money, R-Greenville. 鈥淚t is threatening because it explicitly claims supremacy over all man-made law, including the US Constitution, and because it violently oppresses women and non-Muslims.鈥
For scholars of Islam, such descriptions of sharia are nonsensical and Islamophobic.
鈥淪haria literally means the 鈥榳ater hole鈥 or the 鈥榩ath,鈥欌 said Khaled Abou el Fadl, a professor of law specializing in Shari鈥檃h, Islamic law and Islam at the University of California Los Angeles. 鈥淪haria in Arabic always implies a path of goodness, or the source of goodness, where the good comes from.鈥
Abou el Fadl 鈥 who was appointed by President George W. Bush to the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom 鈥 has spent his 鈥渆ntire life studying sharia,鈥 he said in an interview, and even so has 鈥渂arely scratched the surface.鈥
When sharia is not treated with nuance, the result is disastrous, Abou el Fadl said.
鈥淵ou cannot make any generalization about Muslims in this world,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hey're just human beings like everyone else.鈥
鈥淓verybody has a different way of interpreting鈥
Muslims make up roughly 2% of the Texas population, with estimates ranging from 300,000 to 500,000 in the state of about 32 million, according to the Pew Research Center.
For Texans like Zayan, there is a massive gulf between her Muslim faith and representations of Islam in the media and in politics, which often cast sharia as the faith鈥檚 defining characteristic.
鈥淚 can go to the mosque every day for three months without hearing the word sharia,鈥 said Zayan, operations manager for the Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
At a typical mosque service, imams 鈥 leaders of a Muslim congregation 鈥 discuss how to deal with parents, treat neighbors, be of good character and be steadfast in prayer and fasting, Zayan said.
鈥淭hey talk about specifics, they don鈥檛 really mention the word sharia,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut of course, every time I turn the TV on, it鈥檚 鈥榮haria, sharia, sharia,鈥 right?鈥
David Cook, a professor of religion at Rice University who specializes on Islam, said sharia is 鈥渘ot one single thing.鈥
鈥淚t is, in its broadest sense, a combination of traditions that stem from the Prophet Muhammad, the legal formulations that were derived from those traditions, and then the continual discussion and update of those legal formulations that goes on to this very day,鈥 Cook said.
Abou el Fadl generally agrees 鈥 Islam has been around for roughly 1,400 years, he said, and there has always been a wide range of interpretations of what Muslim leaders like the Prophet Muhammad said or did.
鈥淲hen you talk about sharia, you're talking about not a few texts 鈥 you are really talking about hundreds of thousands, if not millions of juristic texts,鈥 Abou el Fadl said.
Many of the examples of appalling sharia law that Republicans protest 鈥 such as child marriage or bans on women working 鈥 are not practiced by the majority of the world鈥檚 Muslims, or even exclusive to adherents of Islam.
While there is no single definition of sharia, some Muslim-majority countries have instituted oppressive laws under the name, Cook said.
鈥淎s it's manifested in Muslim majority countries 鈥 and this is where the fear that you're encountering is coming from 鈥 it is quite coercive, and it does dominate the public space in a way that is difficult for Americans to understand,鈥 he said.
Some sects of Islam, Cook said, cast their understanding of sharia as 鈥淭HE Sharia, with a capital 鈥楾HE鈥 in front of it.鈥
Those groups 鈥渢ry and pretend that it鈥檚 a unified document or system of belief that is roughly comparable to, let's say, the U.S. Constitution,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the sharia that probably the right fears the most, but it doesn't really exist, because the fact is that sharia 鈥 and here I鈥檓 deliberately saying it as undefined 鈥 does have a multiplicity of interpretations.鈥
Zayan does not deny that a 鈥渧ery small minority of Muslims overseas鈥 abuse the concept 鈥渢o control and oppress their people,鈥 but she said this can happen in any religious tradition.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not something specific to Islam that some group 鈥 some radical group 鈥 abuse their faith, because faith is powerful,鈥 she said.
Fear of mandatory Islamic dress is frequently cited when Republicans talk about what sharia law would entail in the United States.
Zayan finds this fear absurd.
Of six Muslim women working at CAIR Texas, Zayan said, only three wear a hijab 鈥 a head covering commonly worn by Muslim women.
鈥淣o one is imposing it,鈥 she said. 鈥淵ou cannot force people to worship. You just teach people. You guide people. You spread the knowledge.鈥
According to a 2017 , 64% Muslims in the United States said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of Islam, while 31% said 鈥渢here is only one true way to interpret the teachings of the faith.鈥
American Christians answered the question similarly: 60% said there is more than one true way to interpret the teachings of Christianity, while 34% believed there is just one true way.
How far does sharia go?
A consistent Republican criticism of Islam is that sharia law is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution because it creates a code of law for Muslims 鈥 one that supersedes state and national laws.
When asked to define sharia, state Rep. 鈥 a founding member of the Sharia Free Texas Caucus 鈥 said it 鈥渋s the comprehensive Islamic legal, social, and political system that governs every aspect of life, not merely personal religious belief or private worship.鈥
鈥淎s members of the Sharia Free Texas Caucus emphasize, Islam functions as a civilization with its own legal code (sharia), distinct cultural norms, and religion. The issue is not theology or the right to pray; it is the attempt to import and apply those legal rules inside Texas courts, communities, or parallel systems,鈥 Isaac, R-Dripping Springs, said in a statement.
As a member of the state Legislature, Bhojani said he has not seen sharia represented well 鈥 it鈥檚 been 鈥渢aken as a sort of legal system,鈥 he said, one that it is 鈥渋nconsistent with our Constitution and our legal framework because sharia is trying to take over our court system, which it is absolutely not.鈥
Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, an incoming professor of Islamic studies and American religious history at the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, said the idea that Muslim beliefs create an alternate authority that supplants the Constitution is a 鈥渇ear-mongering tactic,鈥 one often used on 鈥渕inority religious institutions.鈥
鈥淲e saw this before with Catholics in the 19th century,鈥 GhaneaBassiri said in an interview. 鈥淟ike, oh, Catholics are going to abide by whatever the pope says, and they鈥檙e not going to follow the Constitution, right?鈥
Even if a separate legal structure was wanted, there is no practical way of doing so, Abou el Fadl said.
鈥淭hose who actually know something about the legal system know that we have a well-established, long doctrine in the United States 鈥 that foreign law that is against public policy cannot be implemented by American courts,鈥 he said.
For Shakeel Rashed, a Muslim from Austin and president of the board of directors at Interfaith Action of Central Texas, Muslims want the same things as most other Americans.
鈥淲e are also looking to practice our faith as it is required of us, as long as it's not going against the Constitution, as long as it is not creating anything of a complete disturbance, right?鈥 Rashed said. 鈥淲hat's wrong with it?鈥
This story is published through a collaboration between The Texas Tribune and .
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