🚨 Harriet Hageman Unmasks Secret Sharia Tribunals Operating on American Soil

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]I will now recognize the gentle lady from Wyoming, my good friend Ms. Hackman.

[00:00:04]Thank you. In our previous hearing on this topic, I focused on how Sharia-based tribunals will jeopardize America's rights to equal protection and due process under the law, particularly in cases involving women and minors. We learned that the presence of Sharia-based tribunals in the United States date back decades and that it is common practice for these tribunals to stray from a traditional judicial proceedings, meaning that participants risk losing protections guaranteed under the Constitution, as was just being debated. One example of such a tribunal operating near Dallas before altering its website actually prided itself on being a unique institution of its kind in the United States with the intention of setting a precedent that would be emulated and duplicated throughout the country. That same tribunal further claimed that, quote, "Conflicting problems within American Muslim society may range from personal and family matters, such as marriage and divorce, as well as disputes among community members and those in positions of leadership. The courts of the United States of America are costly and consist of ineffective lawyers." End quote. To be clear, conformity to the Constitution is the governing factor behind the operation of our judicial system. The Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and 14th Amendments are there to ensure that everyone has a right to a fair trial.

[00:01:25]While the First Amendment is intended to ensure that every American citizen can practice the religion of their choosing, it does not permit any parallel tribunal or body to supersede the role of our judiciary in the protections of those constitutional rights. Ms. Meckelberg, Sharia-based tribunals often label themselves as offering voluntary services, but is it not true that individuals have been coerced into using these bodies because of social, social, familial, and other community pressures?

[00:01:59]Yes, I was actually saying earlier that right now in communities all across Texas, all across different places throughout the United States, from birth to death, they now have full operational societies that somebody could actually be born in America and never have to operate outside of and and deal with any kind of non-Muslim. So, within these societies, they have their courts. And if you notice, most of the imams that are the heads that are coming from outside the country are Sharia judges.

[00:02:29]And these Sharia judges hand down these different They they use many different names. They will say that they're an imam, they're a Sharia you know, expert, a Sharia jurist, etc. But if you go and you look, these are the people who are acting as the judges within these communities. And there's an entire organization around this. If you look up the Assembly Muslim of Jurists in America, they're issuing fatwas. We have fiqh council people who are also again, that's a Sharia judge. These are people who are putting out fatwas that you can kill apostates, blasphemers. This is happening inside America. And again, >> That's clearly a violation of the Constitution and the rights of the individuals who are involved in those tribunals, correct?

[00:03:15]>> Correct. All right. And another a characteristic of American courts is generally the presence of robust oversight. We have court records, decisions are easily accessible, attorneys are present, and the transcripts of proceedings are properly recorded so that we know what happens in our court system. Would you please explain how does this oversight compare to the operation of a Sharia-based tribunal? This is handled inside the community, so you'll never know of of any of these things. And that's the problem that I always have with We we say when I say we're failing children and we're we're failing minorities and women and things are happening in these communities that nobody ever knows of and there is no voice for the little girl who's being born in this community.

[00:04:00]She doesn't even know what her rights are in this country that she's being born into. So, again, she is answering to her family, she is answering to her Imam and she is answering to the person who is the the expert in Sharia within her community. But at the same time, she's not able to fully exercise the constitutional rights that that has been have been bestowed on her.

[00:04:22]>> Absolutely not.

[00:04:23]>> So, in terms of are there judgments or rulings categor- cataloged? Are they consistent from one Imam to the to another one or one Sharia-based judiciary to another one?

[00:04:34]>> Yes, and I think that's why when you look up the assembly the this one body, they are a lot of they're handing out the different uh they're handing out the different legal it's the legal arm within inside the community. But again, are there different uh variations that different people follow? At times, but that's why they have and again, if you look up the Fiqh Council where Yaser Kazi is the head of or you look up a place like Amja where they're pushing out these different fatwas to that all the mosques are following. It does act as the governing body, the the the legal body, I'm sorry.

[00:05:12]>> Just very quickly, in light of the disaster of the open border Biden administration, have you seen an increased in the attempt to enforce or impose Sharia law in the United States?

[00:05:22]Absolutely, because within these communities, they are also the they're absorbing the refugees coming in. That's what they're hoping for to increase the numbers.

[00:05:32]Thank you. I appreciate your testimony.

[00:05:33]I yield back.