The Movement: ‘Islamification’ fears drive appeals to conservative base

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Republican fear about the “Islamification of America” is poised to be a lasting focus of advocacy aimed at energizing the right-wing base, as the topic has gained steam among Republicans in Congress and on the campaign trail this year — often veering into anti-Muslim rhetoric.

A Sharia-Free America Caucus launched this year has more than 60 members, including the No. 3 House Republican, Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.). Several Republicans have bills to ban immigration for those who adhere to Sharia Law or are from majority Muslim countries, and a proposed development of an Islamic community in Texas was a major focus of the Republican Senate primary in the state.

GOP lawmakers’ focus on the issue stood out to me as I was reporting on the future of the House Freedom Caucus and the issues that will define the group in the near future.

Both Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas), who is expected to be one of the most prominent voices in the group next year, and Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), the newest Freedom Caucus member, told me that a major focus of the group will be combatting the “Islamification of America” and Sharia Law. That was somewhat surprising to me as someone who had seen the Freedom Caucus as largely focused on the legislative process and fiscal issues.

Fine said it “has been remarkably underreported how concerned base Republican voters are” about the issue and recalled it being a dominant concern at a recent town hall in The Villages retirement community in Florida with Eric Bolling, a host for the conservative outlet Real America’s Voice.

“He surveyed this crowd of Republican primary voters on what their number one issue was, and he was stunned when it was overwhelmingly the ‘Islamification of America,’” Fine said. “And by the way, The Villages is not a place that is going through Islamification. There aren’t any mosques, I don’t think, in The Villages. But that was the issue that people were super worried about.”

The issue doesn’t show up in polls, Fine said, because such lists measuring top voter concerns are often pre-populated with different topics.

“We’ve got to attack this Sharia onslaught across America,” Self said, listing it as one of the “most important issues in our nation today.”

There’s certainly been an undercurrent of fears about radical Islam in the 25 years since 9/11, and in the wake of terror attacks that have happened since. President Trump made it a prominent topic in his 2016 race and after he banned immigration from several majority-Muslim countries once he was elected.

After simmering for years, though, discussion of radical Islam is ramping back up now. According to Google Trends, interest in “Sharia Law” has peaked over the last six months or so up to where it was a decade ago.

Republicans are responding to that. In Texas, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) had one prominent ad asserting that “Sharia Law has no place in American courts or communities.” Numerous other Republicans downballot have made combatting radical Islam the focus of their own campaign ads, as Stateline reported earlier this year. Alabama Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell, who is running for Alabama attorney general, said in one ad: “Stand with radical Islam and you can Allah Akbar your butt all the way back to the Middle East.”

Republican lawmakers like Rep. Brandon Gill (R-Texas), another Freedom Caucus member, have consistently pointed to Islamic communities in European cities like Paris and London as warning signs for the U.S., saying that Islam is gaining momentum as a “political movement” in the U.S.

Of course, no government jurisdiction or municipality in the U.S. has implemented Sharia Law. Republicans, though, say they are concerned about efforts to establish alternative, private institutions in Islamic communities. The proposed “Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act” aims to “prevent foreign nationals who adhere to Sharia from entering or staying in the U.S.”

George Mason University Professor Ilya Somin argued in a House Judiciary Committee hearing in February, though, that the proposed legislation violated the First Amendment.

“The proposed legislation is exactly the kind of discrimination on the basis of religion that the Free Exercise Clause bans,” Somin said in prepared remarks. “Sharia law is simply a standard term for the religious precepts of the Muslim faith. All or most Muslims accept Sharia law at least to some degree, though they differ greatly among themselves about its meaning and significance. Thus, discrimination against adherents of Sharia law discriminates against Muslims in much the same way as a bill targeting adherents of Talmudic law discriminates against Orthodox Jews, or a bill targeting adherents of Catholic Canon Law discriminates against Catholics.”

While Republicans say they are combatting the most radical elements of Islam, the messaging of the party has often veered into being generally anti-Muslim.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) wrote in one such post in March: “Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at that time that he had spoken with members “about our tone and our message.”

But the Speaker added there is “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.”

Welcome to The Movement, a weekly newsletter looking at the influences and debates on the right in Washington. I’m Emily Brooks, House leadership reporter at The Hill.

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LARGEST-EVER CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DONATION

The Chamber of Commerce announced last week that it received its largest-ever contribution: $100 million from a single individual described as a long-time member of the organization who requested anonymity.

The contribution is intended to boost the Chamber’s “New Fight for Free Enterprise” effort, which combines advocacy in the public debate and in the courts, and by utilizing its network of state partners in favor of capitalism — or as Suzanne P. Clark, the Chamber’s president and CEO, described it: “The system that drives innovation, opportunity, and upward mobility.”

It comes as the business community faces pressures not only from the anti-billionaire political left, but also from the populist right. The Chamber, for instance, advocated against Trump’s tariffs with an amicus brief in a Supreme Court case last year.

“Our mission is to ensure free enterprise remains the foundation of growth and opportunity in America,” Clark said in a statement. “That requires both the ability to move quickly in the face of new challenges and the staying power to see this work through. With this support, we will do both—and help restore confidence that business is a force for progress in all Americans’ lives and in communities across the country.”

In addition to the donation, the Chamber last week applauded the creation of a bipartisan “Congressional Free Enterprise Caucus” in the House, headed by Reps. August Pfluger (R-Texas), David Valadao (R-Calif.), Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.), as Matt Foldi broke in the Washington Reporter.

D.C. CONSERVATIVE WORLD BACKS PLATNER’S EX

Beltway conservatives who opened up last week’s major New York Times report on likely Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner’s ex-girlfriends recalling “unsettling” behavior soon saw a familiar name: Lyndsey Fifield.

The story heavily featured Fifield, a former Heritage Foundation staffer and Independent Women’s Forum fellow who also posts plenty of political commentary. She dated Platner from 2013 to 2015 and said that Platner during arguments sometimes grabbed her hard enough to leave marks — one time even shoving her into a room and closed the door so she couldn’t get out.

Platner disputed her claims, and a number of his supporters and commentators quickly voiced skepticism of Fifield’s allegations given her political work and leanings.

But Fifield’s friends and former colleagues in the conservative world publicly backed her up.

“The idea that this is either all merely normie, drunk, working-class behavior or ‘Dem HR lady politics’ to find it problematic doesn’t fly,” wrote journalist and political commentator Mary Katherine Ham. “So many people spent two decades saying every dude right of a Wellesley gender politics professor was a toxic white supremacist but now think you’re just a big p—- if you’d object to being locked in a bedroom by a big drunk guy with a Nazi tattoo.”

Daily Signal President and Executive Editor Robert Bluey; Independent Women senior policy analyst Inez Stepman; Fox News political analyst Guy Benson; and conservative columnist and commentator Bethany Mandel were among those who also defended Fifield.

And in true conservative fashion, they turned their ire on The New York Times itself, which had reported that it could not independently corroborate Fifield’s claims. Fifield posted that the Times reporters had said that they could corroborate her stories; she had expected the paper to report accusations of sexual assault from other women that Platner had dated.

“It dawned on me that this really was a set up all along. The journalists I trusted who convinced me to share a story I never wanted to tell methodically delayed and twisted this into a gift to the Platner campaign,” Fifield wrote.

Daily Caller senior editor Will Upton argued that the story was a “soft catch and kill” operation intended to actually lessen the impact of negative information.

A Times spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News that the story “accurately presents each of these accounts as told to our reporters and according to our standards.”

ON MY CALENDAR

Friday-Saturday, June 12-13: The 55th Annual National Right to Life Conference takes place in Arlington, Va. Details here.

June 14: President Trump’s 80th birthday and a planned UFC fight on the White House lawn.

THREE MORE THINGS

Match made in MAHA: Alex Clark, host of the Culture Apothecary podcast, announced her engagement to Substacker Vance Voetberg on stage at the Turning Point USA Women’s Leadership Summit. “God’s goodness is not measured by whether your timeline is unfolding according to your plan,” she said on stage.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a fireside chat with American Compass’s Oren Cass at the organization’s gala last week, made a more populist economic argument. “We got lulled into this idea that prosperity does not require security. And national security is economic security …. There are a group of us in this administration who believe that there are five to eight essential industries that we’ve got to reshore.”

On the heels of his sit-down with Candace Owens, Hunter Biden is going viral after joining the social platform X and cracking jokes about his past crack cocaine use and even engaging with those saying he should run for president in 2028. He said in a video over the weekend that he does not have a team, and it’s just him. Is the charm offensive working on his MAGA critics? President Trump, asked about the prospect of a Hunter Biden 2028 run, pointed to Graham Platner: “If the guy from Maine can do well, I guess Hunter can do well too.”

WHAT I’M READING

The Washington Post’s Amy B Wang: Hunter Biden has been talked about for years. Now on X, he isn’t holding back.

Mediaite’s Alex Griffing: Steve Bannon Fumes At the GOP: ‘We Are Going to Lose the Senate’

Politico’s Cheyenne Haslett: The MAHA moms who helped elect Trump are out of patience

Washington Examiner’s W. James Antle III: Can ‘Low-T’ Talarico attacks work? Ask Tim Walz

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Brandon Gill

Eric Bolling

John Cornyn

Keith Self

Randy Fine

Tom Emmer

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