Republicans Warn of 'Massive Muslim Takeover'

Republican lawmakers have warned of a "massive Muslim takeover" in the U.K. government, while claiming that it could also happen in the U.S., despite Muslims making up a small percentage of the population in both countries.

On Wednesday, Representative Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, posted a clip posted on X, formerly Twitter, of Representative Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, giving a speech on the House floor, voicing fears of Muslims gaining membership in the U.K. government.

"You've got a massive Muslim takeover on the United Kingdom going on right before our eyes," Roy said without giving evidence to back up his claims. "I've got some pretty strong concerns about Sharia law and whether that will be forced upon the American people." Sharia law is the legal system followed by Muslims.

"I've got pretty strong concerns about people who want to see Israel's destruction. Who were happy about October 7th. Who are elected in the United Kingdom. Some might say that we've seen that here in the United States," Roy said.

Roy then questioned if immigrants in the U.S. are being taught about Western civilization.

"Are we teaching people about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the rule of law ... are we teaching them God exists?" Roy asked. "Or are we teaching an entire generation or two or three to run around complaining about what's wrong and why the entire world is against them because of their skin color, their sex, their supposed gender identity—whatever that hell category we create to make people have an excuse for not just stepping up and achieving the American dream?"

Alongside the video, Boebert claimed, also without any evidence, that "the United Kingdom has radical Islamists taking political office all over the country. We're looking at it from here in America horrified, not realizing that it will be us next."

She continued: "Councillors chanted 'Allahu Akbar' to celebrate their victories when they got elected. We're either going to get serious about our borders quickly or the issues the UK is seeing will be here faster than we can imagine."

Newsweek reached out to Boebert and Roy's offices via email for comment on Wednesday.

The U.K. held local elections last week, in which Green Party candidate Mothin Ali was elected as councillor in Leeds. Following Ali's election victory, he said, "We will not be silent. We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine. Allahu Akbar," according to the Yorkshire Evening Post. "Allahu Akbar" roughly translates to "God is greater" and is used by Muslims in prayer or in a declaration of faith. Ali later apologized for his comments.

The safety of U.S. borders, particularly the U.S.-Mexico border, has been a top concern, especially among Republicans. Since the start of the 2024 fiscal year, which began in October, there have been 1,733,496 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) encounters with migrants.

Roy and Boebert's comments come after Liberal Democrats gained 104 council seats while Conservatives lost 474 seats in the U.K.'s recent election. Liberal Democrats now have 522 council seats while Conservatives have 515. The Labour Party gained 186 seats, giving them a total of 1,158.

It is unclear how many of the newly elected U.K. officials are Muslim, but, according to England and Wales census data from 2021, 6.5 percent of the population identified as Muslim (3.9 million people). Pew Research Center estimated that Muslims made up about 1.1 percent of the U.S. population in 2017 (3.45 million).

The Muslim Council of Britain, a Muslim advocacy group in the U.K., told Newsweek via email on Thursday: "We have a proud multifaith and multicultural country where we have people of all faiths and none in public service. We have a British Hindu Prime Minister and yes, British Muslims leading our cities and representing ordinary Britons. They don't come close to reflecting the demographic make-up of minorities, and yet their numbers are big enough to trigger bigots on both sides of the Atlantic.

"We are getting used to extremist American politicians' scaremongering over this, just as we've had American commentators lying about supposed British no-go zones dominated by Muslims. We hope common sense prevails."

Meanwhile, Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid touched on the size of the Muslim populations in the U.K. and U.S. in an X post on Wednesday.

"MAGA [Make America Great Again] Rep Chip Roy fear mongers over 'Muslims taking over UK & USA to enforce Shariah Law.' Muslims are 6.5% of UK population & 1.5% of US population. Also we have state/religion separation. What Roy actually means is his religion should be enforced & others should be banned," Rashid wrote.

British-American journalist Medhi Hasan, editor-in-chief and CEO of the new media company Zeteo, posted: "'You've got a massive Muslim takeover of the United Kingdom,' says this massively dishonest, massively ignorant, massively bigoted GOP Rep, Chip Roy. Will he be condemned? No. Will the Dems who voted to censure Rashida Tlaib insist Roy be censured? No. Islamophobia is fine."

Representative Tlaib, Michigan Democrat and lone Palestinian American in Congress, was censured, or strongly condemned, for her pro-Palestinian statements about the Israel-Hamas war.

Update 5/9/24, 10:10 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from the Muslim Council of Britain.