The Council on American-Islamic Relations has designated the U.S. House of Representatives Sharia Free America Caucus an “anti-Muslim hate group,” the first time in CAIR’s 32-year history that it has designated a congressional caucus an extremist organization, according to a Feb. 18 statement from the group.
“Caucus members support extreme policies that would effectively ban the practice of the world’s second-largest religion in the United States,” the designation states, explaining that “like canon law for Catholics and halachah for Orthodox Jews, Sharia refers to the rules that Muslims follow, including praying five times a day, fasting in Ramadan, giving in charity, and following the laws of the land in which they live.”
CAIR’s announcement comes as the Republican-led caucus continues to advocate for legislative and policy action against what its members describe as the threat of Islamic law in the United States.
“If enacted, their extreme policies could have significant impacts on U.S. commercial interests, international adoptions, foreign marriages, business arbitration and inheritance disputes, where contracts may include considerations of the laws of Muslim majority nations,” the designation states.
CAIR research and advocacy director Corey Saylor said, “Congressmen Randy Fine, Chip Roy, Keith Self and other members of this so-called caucus have appointed themselves as religious police with the power to tell Americans how to worship.”
He added that “these legislators have put cancel culture on steroids, applying it to an entire faith,” he said. “The bigoted rhetoric used by this caucus resembles the hatred that anti-Catholic politicians once unleashed against Irish Americans.”
Saylor noted that “Islam is an American faith, present for over 250 years. No one who wrote the Constitution or enforced it since has empowered these legislators to pick which religions get to exist in America.”
In response to CAIR’s designation, Roy, a co-founder of the caucus, rejected the characterization.
“The same day we were named a ‘hate group’ by CAIR, the Sharia Free Caucus met in Dallas-Fort Worth to discuss legislative, legal and immigration options to combat the advance of radical Islam in Texas,” he wrote. “We won’t be intimidated.”
