The 2015 Texas Hoax of the Year: Rumors about Sharia courts

Notorious Texas urban legends, debunked

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Paranoia and fear mongering gave birth to a myth about extra-Constitutional Islamic tribunals operating in Texas. No matter how often it’s been debunked by local and national media, the story keeps popping up and attracting hate groups along the way.

The pernicious and undying nature of the Sharia Law rumor is why we’re naming the fable the 2015 Texas Hoax of the Year.

Where the Hoax Started

Certain myths seem to exist in a fact-free vacuum in the current political climate. The same ideological-based panic that has helped feed the Donald Trump candidacy also has allowed a Texas hoax to persist all year round.

This wasn’t the only local hoax born of mistrust this year. The Jade Helm operation – a two-month summer military exercise where elite U.S. forces trained in Central and West Texas – led to claims that the government was planning a military takeover of the state.

Although the Gov. Greg Abbott activating the state guard to monitor Jade Helm, the exercises passed without much ado and the only lasting effect was that the rest of the U.S. had a laugh at the state. (Even Barack Obama named Jade Helm his favorite conspiracy theory). But the Sharia law conversations have resonated deeper with many Americans, stoking Islamophobia and influencing legislation.

An article by right-wing news organization Breitbart published in January about the existence of an Islamic tribunal first sparked the rumors. In February, Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne took to Facebook to say she would look into the alleged "Sharia Court" and added: "Our nation cannot be so overly sensitive in defending other cultures that we stop protecting our own." From there the tale spread out of control.

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Email chains started to circulate about Texas allowing the first Sharia court in America. Van Duyne and state Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano) pushed an ultimately failed bill that would’ve forbid judges from employing foreign laws in their own rulings. But the rhetoric has had consequences for the local mosque in Irving.

“It fuels anti-Islamic hysteria,” Zia Sheikh, imam at the Islamic Center of Irving told the Dallas Morning News in March. “[The mayor's] whole point was to rile up her supporters. ... The problem is we become the whipping boys.”

In the past few weeks, the Ku Klux Klan and an armed militia group have used the Sharia rumors as a reason to organize protests outside the Islamic Mosque of Irving.

The Truth About the Islamic Tribunal

An Islamic tribunal does operate in the Dallas area, and has done so for several years. But the imams that run the panel do not usurp state or federal law. What exists is a forum where Islamic scholars help settle business disputes and other non-criminal matters. The rulings are nonbinding and work within the guidelines of U.S. law.

This is explicitly stated on the tribunal’s website: “These proceedings must be conducted in accordance with the law of the land; local, state and federal within the United States.”

Similar religious mediation services exist throughout the U.S. – for Christians, Jews and other devout worshipers – as a way to avoid heading to a civil court. These panels prevent private matters from turning into expensive, public affairs.

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Since 1925, when Congress enacted the Federal Arbitration Act, U.S. law has been very open to the idea of private dispute resolution, said Lee Ann Bambach, a Georgia-based attorney who has a Ph. D in religion from Emory University. Her dissertation was titled "Faith-Based Arbitration by Muslims in an American Context."

“Those who would jump up and down about these so-called Sharia courts, which are really just alternative dispute resolution forums, will speak very highly of Christian reconciliation,” which is based on Biblical teachings, Bambach said.

The Islamic tribunals can benefit Muslim women by allowing them to receive a religious divorce. A women can receive a divorce from a U.S. civil court, but if she wants to remarry in the faith, then a religious divorce is warranted. In cases where the husband does not want to grant a divorce, a Muslim woman can make a case to a tribunal, but they are not always granted. Religious courts in Catholicism and Judaism perform similar acts for observers.

Still, a number of right-wing lawmakers have tried to pass either toothless or unconstitutional bills targeting the Islamic tribunals. They do so without any evidence that Sharia Law is causing an issue in their district.

Debunking Not Slowing Hoax

The panel in Dallas first registered as a nonprofit in Texas in 2012, according to D Magazine, and served the community without issue until this year. The D Magazine story notes that the tribunal is not affiliated with the Irving Islamic Center that has been the target of protesters.

An armed militia group protested outside the North Texas mosque in November, and then published the home addresses of Muslims in the community and “Muslim sympathizer[s].” The Ku Klux Klan announced plans for a peaceful “mosque rally” next spring.

Both groups have distanced themselves from each other. The Ku Klux Klan does not want weapons at their rally. The militant anti-Muslim group told the Morning News that “It’s not like we’re racist homophobic bigots.”

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With politicians like Van Duyne and Trump refusing to back down from inflammatory remarks, the hoax that Sharia Law has superseded the Constitution in Texas likely will continue into 2016.

“I don’t think a lot of people care about the facts or pay attention to what the facts really are. The fear mongering is a lot more attractive to them,” Bambach said. “It’s getting to the point where I think it’s very scary and dangerous.”

See the gallery above for a look at some of the biggest urban legends about Texas.

h/t Snopes and Politifact for some of the background used in this article