Are Muslim ‘Shariah courts’ taking root in Texas?

“​​The Constitution’s religious protections provide no authority for religious courts to skirt state and federal laws simply by donning robes and pronouncing positions inconsistent with Western civilization,” Abbott’s letter said.

The tribunal’s founder, Taher El-badawi, referred a request for comment to local attorney Khalid Hamideh, who shared a statement.

“It is important to remind the Governor that religious courts have been a part of this republic since its founding,” Hamideh said in the statement. “Their existence and operation are fully protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.”

The statement said the tribunal’s judges only handle mediation and arbitration in family law disputes, like divorces. A judge’s decision is referred to Texas courts for a final ruling and for enforcement, according to the statement.

Abbott’s letter said religious organizations were permitted under Texas law to “adjudicate ecclesiastical questions,” but not to set up separate courts to “evade neutral and generally applicable laws,” as he said the Islamic Tribunal had done.

“Despite suggesting that submission to its jurisdiction is voluntary, the Tribunal commands that all ‘Muslims here in America are obligated to find a way to solve conflicts and disputes according to the principles of Islamic Law,’ and it steers them away from ‘(t)he courts of the United States of America (which) are costly and consist of ineffective lawyers,’” according to Abbott’s letter, which quoted from the tribunal’s website.

“Greg Abbott appears to understand the law as well as he understands Texas Muslims—not at all,” CAIR’s statement said. “If Abbott is referring to private arbitration that businesses, religious communities, and others sometimes choose to engage in, every American has the right to engage in voluntary arbitration, only official courts can enforce private arbitration decisions, and such decisions must not violate public policy or the law.”

Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy director, said in an interview that people of many faiths use religiously based arbitration as an alternative to filing a lawsuit.

Organizations that offer such a service include The Institute for Christian Conciliation, which says online it resolves disputes in a “biblical manner,” and The Beth Din of America, which describes itself as a rabbinical court “firmly anchored in the principles of halacha (Jewish law).”

Muslim scriptures, like other religious texts, do at times call for violent punishments for certain offenses. Abbott’s letter highlighted that Muslim scriptures call for stoning as a punishment for adultery.

Mitchell said that US law already prevents a religious organization from ordering any punishment, like stoning, which would violate existing laws. “There are safeguards already in place to make sure that private arbitrators don’t end up engaging in or sanctioning conduct that would violate the law,” he said.

Private religious arbitration, he said, is an alternative to civil courts, not criminal courts. Civil courts handle things like divorces, employment contracts and business disputes.

“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.” Abbott argued in a proclamation that the Muslim Brotherhood was founded as a jihadist movement dedicated to establishing a caliphate and had already been banned or limited in Austria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates due to engaging in terrorism or destabilization.

He noted that branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, such as the Arms of Egypt Movement and Liwaa al-Thawra, had already been designated by the US as terrorist groups, as had Hamas, which was born from the movement’s Palestinian branch. The governor added that Hamas had kidnapped and murdered American citizens during the October 7, 2023, massacre.

CAIR, which has offices in Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth, was accused by Abbott of being a “successor organization” to the MB and being organizationally tied to Hamas as a front organization.

Abbott explained that CAIR was listed in 2007 as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case, in which the Texas charity and five of its officers were convicted of providing material support to Hamas. One of those men was Ghassan Elashi, who Abbott said was a founder of CAIR Texas. CAIR has denied that Elashi was ever an officer or employee of the organization.