House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., cautioned that efforts to promote Sharia law within the United States pose a challenge to the nation’s constitutional framework, describing the issue as a growing concern during a press briefing in Florida on Tuesday.
Johnson addressed the topic after being asked about a controversial post on X by Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., who wrote Monday, “Muslims don't belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie.” While Johnson did not endorse the language used in the message, he said he understood the concerns behind it.
“There's a lot of energy in the country and a lot of popular sentiment that the demand to impose Sharia law in America is a serious problem,” Johnson said. “That's what animates this. The language that people use is different language than I would use, but I think that that's a serious issue.”
Johnson argued that any attempt to introduce or enforce Sharia law within the United States would contradict the nation’s constitutional principles.
“Sharia law and the imposition of Sharia law is contrary to the U.S. Constitution. Our Constitution is the greatest in the world. It's the longest surviving Constitution on the planet, and we're 250 years into this grand experiment in self-governance,” he continued.
The speaker also emphasized that American legal and political traditions, including the principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence, protect human dignity and religious liberty.
“But when you seek to come to a country and not assimilate, but to impose Sharia law — Sharia law is in conflict with the Constitution — that is the conflict that people are talking. It is not about people, as Muslims; it is about those who seek to impose a different belief system that is in direct conflict with the Constitution.”
The debate over Sharia law has also surfaced among other Republican lawmakers. In January, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, announced the formation of the Sharia-Free America Caucus alongside another Texas congressman, citing concerns that some immigrant communities might seek to establish areas governed by Islamic law.
Roy later presided over a hearing of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government to examine the issue. During the hearing, several Democratic lawmakers dismissed the concern about Sharia law while warning instead about what they described as the influence of “white Christian nationalism,” a term they did not define.
Roy said during the hearing that some residents in the Dallas-Fort Worth region had expressed worries that certain neighborhoods were becoming “no-go zones” for non-Muslims, drawing comparisons to reports of similar situations in parts of Europe and the United Kingdom.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., criticized Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., following a controversial social media post in which Ogles wrote that Muslims do not belong in American society.
In a post on X, Raskin argued that the United States is founded on constitutional protections that safeguard religious liberty and prohibit discrimination based on faith earlier this week.
“Racism and religious bigotry are the lie — not pluralism — and Andy Ogles doesn't know the American Constitution, which guarantees Free Exercise of Religion, no Establishment of Religion, Equal Protection and no religious tests for public office,” Raskin said in an X post.
