World • United States • Texas

Abbott Orders Probe of Sharia Tribunal in Texas

By Sojworldnews • October 24, 2026

Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed state and local officials in November 2025 to investigate an Islamic tribunal in North Texas, and the issue is back in the spotlight. The governor says some groups may be posing as legal courts. Muslim advocacy group CAIR, however, calls the move anti-Muslim. As a result, the dispute now tests where religious practice ends and state law begins.

On November 19, 2025, Abbott sent a letter to the district attorneys and sheriffs of Collin and Dallas counties. He also copied the Texas Attorney General’s office and the Department of Public Safety. In it, he urged them to investigate a Dallas-based Islamic tribunal and any other entities that may be enforcing Sharia law in Texas.

“I urge you, therefore, to investigate efforts by entities purporting to illegally enforce Sharia law in Texas.”

Abbott said certain entities may be “masquerading as legal ‘courts.'” According to him, those bodies use “judges” whose orders could bind people to Islamic codes and override state and federal law. He insisted that legal disputes in Texas must follow American due process. Furthermore, he described Sharia law dispensed in such settings as “modern day star chambers.”

The letter also raises a constitutional point. Abbott argued that the U.S. Constitution’s religious protections “provide no authority for religious courts to skirt state and federal laws.” In addition, he cited bills he has signed since 2017 that protect women and children in family law disputes and bar foreign laws from being imposed in Texas. He also pointed to the Texas Penal Code, which makes it a crime to purport to exercise the functions of a judge or court.

The Dallas group at the centre of the letter calls itself an Islamic Tribunal. It says it arbitrates disputes among Muslims, including marriage and divorce cases, under Islamic law. It also claims its rulings carry approval from the Texas judicial system. Yet its own website states that it is “not a law firm” and that none of its members are lawyers. At the time of the original report, the tribunal had not responded.

CAIR reacted sharply. The group called the move “anti-Sharia panic” and “blatant Islamophobia.” It also branded Abbott an “anti-Muslim bigot.” Meanwhile, the reaction came a day after Abbott declared CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organisations. CAIR had threatened to sue, and Abbott replied that a lawsuit would expose its finances to scrutiny.

Several points deserve care. First, arbitration is legal in the United States, and many religious communities use private panels for family and business disputes. Courts generally enforce those decisions only when they meet ordinary legal standards. Second, the real question is whether this tribunal claims powers it does not have, such as issuing orders that bind people as a state court would. Investigators, not social media posts, will have to answer that.

Supporters of the governor say the state must protect residents, especially women and children, from any parallel system that pressures them to give up their legal rights. Critics reply that the action targets a minority faith, and they warn that it may chill ordinary religious practice. Both views carry weight, and the facts of each case will matter most.

Some viral posts have claimed Abbott vowed to “purge” Sharia from Texas. Sojworldnews found no such wording in the governor’s official statement, which describes a letter urging investigation. The outcome now rests with local prosecutors, sheriffs and the state’s law enforcement agencies.

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