President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would “absolutely” prohibit Sharia law in the United States, jumping into a Republican battle that has turned Islamic law into a national campaign issue and a flashpoint in Michigan’s Senate race.
Trump gave the answer on “The Glenn Beck Show” after Beck asked whether he would support legislation barring Sharia law through an executive ruling.
“On Sharia law, I would absolutely say that’s not this country. There’s no Sharia law. And you do have pockets of it, as you know,” Trump replied.
The president said Islamic law was already “happening in this country a little bit” and argued that the United States must keep one legal system.
“When we see it we take it out and you have to take it out,” Trump said.
.@POTUS: "I would absolutely prohibit the Sharia Law thing. It is happening in this country a little bit, and where we see it, we take it out… We have one system." pic.twitter.com/edQeG7b36w
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) August 26, 2026
“You have one system, we have a great system, sometimes it’s very frustrating but it’s the best there is, that I can say,” Trump added.
Beck had introduced the topic by warning Trump about what he called “enemies” inside the country, naming Democratic Socialists of America, Islam and the “Red-Green Alliance.”
Trump answered by pointing to London and Paris as examples of what he said the United States should reject.
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“I would say no, and you go to London, you go to Paris. It’s almost like a second way of life. It is ridiculous,” Trump said.
The president’s remarks put him alongside Republican lawmakers already working to limit how Sharia or other foreign laws can be used in American courts.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville introduced the No Sharia Act in October, saying Americans are free to practice religion peacefully but cannot place Sharia above U.S. law.
“Sharia law is fundamentally anti-American and has no place in our country,” Tuberville said. “If you want to peacefully practice your religion, you have every right to do so under the Constitution.”
Tuberville said anyone advocating “for the practice of Sharia law over U.S. law” should not be in the country.
The No Sharia Act would prevent courts from enforcing foreign-law judgments, decrees or contracts when that would violate constitutional rights. The bill also covers marriage, divorce, custody, adoption and inheritance disputes when foreign law conflicts with American law.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota joined the Sharia Free America Caucus earlier this year and cast Sharia as a threat to the country’s social order.
“Sharia is completely incompatible with the American way of life and threatens the very fabric of our society,” Emmer said.
The fight moved from Congress into the Michigan Senate race through Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic candidate who has defended following Sharia while saying he would not force his faith on anyone else.
El-Sayed appeared Monday on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” where host Jesse Watters questioned him about a 2022 speech to the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR-Oklahoma.
Abdul El-Sayed says that banning Sharia Law would be the same thing as banning Canon Law. pic.twitter.com/fhMEBMoFog
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 25, 2026
In that speech, El-Sayed criticized an Oklahoma referendum that amended the state constitution to ban Sharia law.
“The state of Oklahoma voted in a referendum to amend the constitution to ban Sharia law. What does that mean? I don’t know. And yet the voters banned it anyway,” El-Sayed said in the 2022 speech.
He also said the “same exact forces” behind the Trail of Tears, the Tulsa race massacre and the Oklahoma City bombing were still alive and added, “You cannot understand the challenges we face today without understanding White supremacy.”
Watters pressed him on the comparison. “Getting rid of Sharia law is White supremacy? Can you explain that one?” Watters asked.
El-Sayed responded by saying no one was trying to impose Islamic law and compared his position to people who follow canon law.
“Nobody is trying to push Sharia law on anyone else, just like I hope nobody is trying to push Canon law on anybody else, because we live in an America where you should have the freedom of your religion,” El-Sayed told host Jesse Watters.
He said he would “never” push his faith on another person and accused Trump and Vice President JD Vance of targeting him because he is Muslim.
“There’s statistical evidence that the president and the vice president like to target me simply as a function of my faith,” El-Sayed said.
El-Sayed’s public comments on Sharia date back to 2009, when The New York Times interviewed him as a 24-year-old medical student using a Sharia-compliant mortgage structured to avoid interest prohibited by Islamic law.
He told the outlet that the decision was about obligation rather than fear.
“Ultimately, the question is, when I die and I stand before God and go through everything I did in my life, I don’t want to say I did it the easy way instead of the Shariah-compliant way,” El-Sayed said. “Not because of fear but because of obligation.”
In July 2025, El-Sayed again compared Sharia law to canon law while saying the issue was whether he could practice his own faith.
“The idea that I could practice my faith as I choose is a problem,” El-Sayed said. “Nobody is trying to push Sharia on anyone else. Just like I hope nobody is trying to push canon law on anybody else.”
El-Sayed also attacked Tuberville by name, saying the senator was going after Muslims because they are different.
He said Tuberville was “barely” good at coaching football and argued that “less than 1% of the Muslim community in America” was being treated as if Muslims were trying to impose Sharia law.
The legal question is not only theoretical. In 2008, Maryland’s highest court refused to recognize a husband’s unilateral divorce under Pakistani law incorporating Islamic law because the ruling would have let him avoid Maryland’s rules for dividing marital property.
The political fight is also unfolding as 255 Muslims hold elected office across multiple levels of government in the United States.
Tuberville later reposted a clip from El-Sayed’s Watters interview and wrote, “Sounds like something a terrorist sympathizer would say.”
