MAGA-aligned Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Friday echoed warnings from U.S. Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and John Cornyn (R-TX) regarding Sharia law. The governor announced on social media: “In our state, you cannot replace Arkansas law with Sharia law. We will not allow it. Period.”
In February, Sens. Tuberville and Cornyn co-sponsored the ‘Defeat Sharia Law in America Act’ to, according to Cornyn, “ensure anti-American jihadists and those who dare to try and implement Sharia Law’s hateful ideology in our freedom-loving, God-fearing communities are stopped and held accountable for their radical discrimination and flagrant violation of our Constitution.”
The Alabama chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the bill and called it an “unconstitutional attack on religious freedom.”
[NOTE: According to the American Civil Liberties Union, there is no evidence of a “Sharia threat” to the American judicial system.]
In our state, you cannot replace Arkansas law with Sharia law. We will not allow it. Period.
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) July 17, 2026
Several X users replied to Huckabee Sanders’ post with criticism, noting the small number of Muslims living in her state, where they account for less than one percent of the population. One commenter wrote: “There are about 5,000 Muslims in the entire state of Arkansas; there’s no need to invent problems just to offer a useless solution.”
[According to Data Pandas: 0.22 percent of those living in Arkansas are Muslims, 0.45 percent of those living in Alabama are Muslims, and 0.98 percent of those living in Texas are Muslims.]
Others complained that Huckabee Sanders should focus her energy on other issues, including poverty and education. As one X user replied, “Instead of trying to get some cheap brownie points from randoms in the internet you should focus more on fixing your abysmal poverty rate, awful public schools, and failing healthcare system.”
Ryan Melton, a Democrat who ran for Congress in Iowa in 2024 but lost to Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra, replied to Sanders: “There is something fundamentally wrong with our politics and society if this kind of stuff wins people elections. There is literally a zero percent chance the below will happen, and yet this is far from the first time I’ve seen stuff like this.”
[NOTE: The Islamic Center for Human Excellence in Little Rock, Arkansas has been working on building a residential subdivision in the city which will include 22 single-family homes, two prayer halls, an educational building, health clinic, and community garden and playground. According to The Batesville Tribune, the Little Rock Planning Commission approved of the development in 2020, 10-0, and “No legal challenges to the development have been reported in public records.”]