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| - Although Texas introduced no such law in December 2024, the state did pass House Bill 45 in 2017. That legislation regards "the application of foreign laws in certain family law cases" and has been criticized for being anti-Shariah. However, it does not specifically mention Shariah law or any Islamic laws.
In December 2024, a claim that the state of Texas had just passed a bill "banning islamic shariah law and anything that contradicts American values" was circulating online.
One post (which has since been removed from X) read: "BREAKING: Texas has passed a bill banning islamic shariah law and anything that contradicts American values." The use of the word "breaking" suggested that this legislation had just been enacted in late December.
Other examples of the rumor appeared elsewhere on X late in the month.
(X user @TuckerCNews)
In fact, the rumor appeared to start circulating in the summer of 2024 when it first cropped up on X (archived) and Facebook (archived) on Aug. 7. Posts featuring the claim's main text and the word "breaking" followed on Threads (archived), LinkedIn (archived) and were repeated on X throughout September and November.
However, Texas passed no such legislation banning Shariah law in December 2024. Therefore, we have rated the claim as false.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, a U.S. foreign policy think tank, Shariah is "the divine counsel that Muslims follow to live moral lives and grow close to God." Interpretations of Shariah, the principles of which stem from the Quran and hadith, the latter of which are sayings attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, form the basis of Muslim law.
No Bill Banning Shariah Law Passed in December 2024
A Google search of news stories throughout December 2024 produced no evidence of Texas enacting a bill that would ban Shariah law.
Additionally, the official websites of the Texas State Law Library and the Legislative Reference Library of Texas make no mention of any Shariah-related legislation being passed in December or taking effect as of Jan. 1, 2025.
Likewise, searching for "Sharia," "Shariah" and "Islam" on the Texas Legislature Online website provided no results. Similarly, searches for "Sharia" and "Shariah" on the Texas Constitution and Statutes website produced no results, while a search for "Islam" revealed two unrelated results about food labeling and a political party in Sudan.
Additionally, the picture used alongside the claim in numerous social media posts shows Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signing a different piece of legislation in June 2023.
2017 Texas Bill Has Been Described as 'Anti-Shariah'
It is true that the state enacted a bill regarding the application of "foreign laws" in family law cases in 2017. However, that legislation, called House Bill 45, did not mention Shariah or any Islamic law by name.
Technically, the bill would apply to Shariah law as that falls under "foreign law," and civil rights advocacy groups, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), have branded the legislation and others like it "anti-Sharia."
House Bill 45 took effect in Texas on Sept. 1, 2017. One local media outlet, ksst radio, said the legislation would "require the Texas Supreme Court to adopt rules to ensure that the application of foreign laws cannot be used to violate constitutional rights guaranteed under the Texas or United State Constitutions."
The first section of House Bill 45 reads as follows:
(1) litigants in actions under the Family Code involving a marriage relationship or a parent-child relationship are protected against violations of constitutional rights and public policy in the application of foreign law and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitration awards by courts of this state by a well-established body of law, described by Tex. Att'y Gen. Op. No. KP-0094 (2016), which includes protections provided under:
(A) the United States Constitution and the Texas Constitution;
(B) federal law, treaties, and conventions to which the United States is a signatory;
(C) federal and state judicial precedent; and
(D) the Family Code and other laws of this state;
CAIR in Texas opposed the bill in 2017, likening it to "similar unconstitutional and discriminatory 'anti-Sharia,' 'anti-foreign law' and 'anti-Islamic Indoctrination' bills" which had been "introduced in state legislatures nationwide," such as Arkansas.
Arkansas enacted similar legislation on April 6, 2017. The Bill Summary of Act 980 reads: "To Protect The Rights And Privileges Granted Under The Arkansas Constitution And The United States Constitution; And To Declare American Laws For American Courts."
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