Preventing Sharia law from taking over Texas is one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s concerns and one of his top priorities for Texas senators.
The good news for Patrick is Sharia law is not a threat to the state, according to Edward Ahmed Mitchell, a civil rights attorney and National Deputy Director of CAIR — Council on American Islamic Relations.
Speaking to Texas Public Radio’s "Texas Matters" on Friday Mitchell said concerns about Sharia law in Texas is “nonsense.”
“It's so nonsensical. It's so crazy. So you'll hear people claim that Texas Muslims are somehow imposing Sharia law on the state of Texas. This is nonsense,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell said even if Muslims wanted to enforce Sharia law in Texas, which they don’t, it would be impossible to accomplish.
“Texas Muslims are a small percentage of the population. So, the idea they're going to somehow impose their religion on everyone else defies logic,” he said.
There are approximately 400,000 Muslims in Texas, constituting roughly 1% to 1.7% of the state's total population, according to the Texas Almanac.
Mitchell added that Muslims are not trying to force Sharia law in Texas. “This is America, the Jewish community, the Christian community, the Muslim community. We cannot force our religion on other people, nor do we want to do that,” he said.
“Obviously, that would be illegal. So, this is all made up. It's nonsense,” Mitchell said.
Patrick’s claims of a Sharia law threat to Texas follows other charges from the state leadership against Muslims in the state and are particularly pointed against CAIR.
In November Governor Greg Abbott signed a proclamation declaring CAIR along with the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organizations and transnational criminal organizations.
“The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’" said Governor Abbott.
"The actions taken by the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to support terrorism across the globe and subvert our laws through violence, intimidation, and harassment are unacceptable. These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas,” Abbott said.
Mitchell said Abbott’s conflation of CAIR with the Muslim Brotherhood is a deliberate attempt to confuse Texans and the two organizations are not connected in any way.
“There is no relationship whatsoever,” Mitchell said.
“These are all debunked conspiracy theories that have been spread online for years. I never thought I would see the governor of a state putting them in writing in an official proclamation. This is all nonsense that can be easily rebutted with a simple Google search. For example, CARE has spent 30 years condemning terrorism, very vocally,” he said.
Mitchell said the state’s Republican leadership is amplifying their baseless accusations against CAIR because they are trying to exploit the politics of fear as they head into a challenging campaign season.
“Ken Paxton, John Cornyn, and others, because it's an election year, are tripping over each other to try to get in this fight as well, to fan the flames of anti-Muslim hysteria, partly for political gain, partly to win an election, but also because they want to target and silence Muslims critical of Israel,” he said.
Mitchell said the only people who are trying to force their religion on others in Texas are the Republicans.
“We must note the irony of Ken Paxton, Greg Abbott, and others saying that Muslims are the ones trying to impose their religion on other people, when you've got the government trying to force schoolteachers and students to read Bible passages,” he said.
The GOP-led State Board of Education on Wednesday showed support for a plan that would make Texas the first state in the country to mandate all public school students read passages of the Bible.
Mitchell said if this Republican-led plan to force Texas public school children learn portions of the Bible becomes enacted, then that would be an “obvious constitutional violation, obviously infringe on the freedom of religion of students and teachers.”
“I think they know this is illegal, but they're trying to see how much they can get away with doing,” he said.
Mitchell said CAIR has been successful in the courts after past attacks by Abbott and the state of Texas. And he is confident CAIR will continue to triumph in future lawsuits against Texas as the state persists in attacking their freedom of religion.
Texas officials are also trying to revoke CAIR’s nonprofit status through a mix of state enforcement pressure and efforts aimed at its federal tax status.
On January 28, 2026, Greg Abbott demanded that the Texas Office of the Attorney General use its authority to “strip” the nonprofit status of the organization and eliminate the ability of CAIR and affiliated entities to operate in the state.
