When on November 19 Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for an official investigation into so-called “Sharia courts”, it was not based on evidence, complaints, or any legal irregularity. It was a political performance. There are no Sharia courts in Texas — only voluntary Muslim mediation panels operating under the same framework used by Jewish beth din courts and Christian arbitration services.

Yet in a letter sent to district attorneys and sheriffs demanding an investigation, Abbott wrote that “The Constitution’s religious protections provide no authority for religious courts to skirt state and federal laws simply by donning robes and pronouncing positions inconsistent with western civilization,” implying that Muslims were secretly building an alternative legal system.

This is not law enforcement. It is political theatre designed to stoke fear.

A day earlier, on November 18, Abbott issued an executive order designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) — the largest Muslim civil rights organisation in the country — as a “foreign terrorist organisation” (FTO).

The order cited no crimes, no violence, no plot, no prosecutorial record. It was simply a sweeping claim that an American civil rights group constituted a national security threat.

Lawyers immediately noted that Abbott does not have the authority to designate FTOs; only the US federal government does. But again, the point was not legal accuracy.

This ineffectual order was more about political messaging than anything else. It was aimed to portray Muslim Americans and their institutions as suspect and their civic engagement as a security risk.

Abbott’s actions are the latest product of a long-running American panic machine that transforms ordinary Muslim life into a threat narrative. This panic machine has been in operation for decades and has repeatedly weaponised Sharia for political gain.

For example, in the late 2000s, a coordinated national campaign—spearheaded by activists like David Yerushalmi and organisations such as ACT for America—pushed........

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