Shooting in Austin, Texas
Floor Speech
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Mr. SELF. Mr. Speaker, I thank my very good friend, fellow Texan colleague and cofounder of the Sharia-Free America Caucus, Congressman Chip Roy, for yielding me time.
First of all, I have been aware of and been involved in Iran since 1979. I commanded the Special Forces Detachment 18 at that time. While the trigger was not pulled, I was in a forward-deployed battalion, and we were prepared to go in early to get the hostages should we need to. We had just came out of a--actually, we had literally, just the week before, I believe, come out of a shooting house in northern Germany where we had actually rehearsed a hostage rescue.
I also was involved in Iran in 1984, when the 82nd Airborne Division was preparing Op Plan 1004.
I have been cognizant of and aware of Iran and planning for Iran since the late seventies, since the ayatollah took over.
Mr. Speaker, we have in the United States one Constitution, one legal system, and one supreme law of the land. No foreign code, no religious legal system, and no ideology that rejects our founding principles has any place here.
Just this week, as you heard, on March 3, 2026, Texas Republicans delivered an overwhelming message that cannot be ignored, should not be ignored. Proposition 10, which states that the State of Texas should prohibit sharia law, passed by--get this--a 95-percent landslide in the Republican primary.
Texans are saying loud and clear: American law only. Sharia is not compatible with our Constitution, and our constituents reject any attempt to import it.
This nonbinding proposition is a clarion call to this Congress: Protect our sovereignty before it is too late.
Tragically, just 2 days before that vote, on March 1, we witnessed exactly why this mandate is so urgent. In Austin, Texas, as the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy) just outlined for you, a gunman opened fire on innocent people enjoying their night. He killed three young Americans.
We always say their names: 19-year-old Ryder Harrington, a Texas Tech student; 21-year-old Savitha Shan, a University of Texas student; and 30-year-old Jorge Pederson. Mr. Speaker, 13 others were wounded, some critically.
The suspect, as you have heard, was a naturalized U.S. citizen, originally from Senegal, who entered the United States on a B-2 tourist visa in March 2000, overstayed illegally, married a U.S. citizen in 2006 to adjust status to lawful permanent resident, and was naturalized as a full citizen in April 2013, despite a history of arrests both before and after receiving his green card.
Our broken legal system let him in, let him stay, and, disturbingly, made him one of us via naturalization.
Investigators found him wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with ``Property of Allah'' and an undershirt featuring an Iranian flag design, and recovered a Koran from his vehicle. The FBI is investigating this as having a potential nexus to radical Islamic terrorism tied to U.S. actions involving Iran.
These three young lives filled with promise, dreams, and futures were stolen in an instant.
This is not random violence. The symbols were unmistakable and intentional: ``Property of Allah,'' references to Iran, and a Koran at the scene. This attack was a direct, bloody manifestation of the supremacist ideology that sharia promotes, one that claims divine authority over man-made law, demands submission, and justifies violence against those who stand in its way.
Islam steeped in sharia teachings that reject equality under the law, free speech, and constitutional governance is not some abstract debate. It arrived here through failed vetting and immigration loopholes. It took root over the years as a legal resident and citizen, and struck at the heart of Texas.
The enemy is inside the gates. Wake up, America. We don't have to accept this. We don't have to watch leaders, Republican and Democrat, allow individuals from regions hostile to our values to enter on temporary visas, overstay, marry their way into permanent status, become naturalized despite red flags, and then unleash terror on our streets.
This horror is precisely why Proposition 10 passed with such overwhelming numbers, because sharia ideology fosters the very extremism that turns foreign loyalties or personal grievances into mass murder on American soil.
This brings us to the heart of this matter. Sharia is not merely personal religious observation. It is a comprehensive political and legal system that stands in direct conflict with everything we hold sacred.
As Karl Popper warned in ``The Open Society and Its Enemies'': ``Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.''
In the name of tolerance, we must claim the right not to tolerate the intolerant, although I admit that we, unfortunately, have to tolerate the Democrats.
Sharia, as a supremacist ideology that demands submission and rejects our freedoms, falls squarely into this category. It refuses to tolerate dissent, equality, or our Nation's law.
To preserve America's tolerance, liberty, and open society, we must firmly reject and refuse to accommodate sharia. Unlimited tolerance for such intolerance would destroy the very foundations of our tolerant Republic.
Sharia includes clear, real-world practices that directly violate our Constitution, such as wife beatings. Although, in America, you are prohibited from breaking your wife's bones--I mean, it is disturbing that we even have to say this. It includes forced child marriages, child genital mutilation, and death penalties for apostasy, which is leaving Islam, and blasphemy. It also includes harsh penalties, like hand amputations for theft and stonings for adultery, and public floggings.
Sharia law is systemic inequality. Women receive only half as much inheritance as men. Their courtroom testimony counts as half a man's value. Non-Muslims are treated as second-class citizens.
Sharia explicitly asserts supremacy over man-made law, explicitly, directly contradicting ``we the people,'' and the very foundation of our Constitution.
The Austin attack is a tragic, real-world illustration of what happens when elements of this supremacist ideology take hold here. We cannot afford to ignore the warning signs any longer.
That is precisely why Congressman Chip Roy and I launched the sharia- Free America Caucus. It has grown rapidly to dozens of members, now 46 strong, from across the country, representing 22 States. The caucus' mission is clear: ensure sharia never gains a foothold in America, protect the Constitution as the supreme law, secure our borders against ideologies that refuse to assimilate, and defend Western civilization. We will not surrender our freedoms.
I urge every colleague, Republican and Democrat, who believes in American sovereignty to join us.
Mr. Speaker, the American people expect us to defend the Constitution against any ideology that seeks to replace it. Let us pass legislation affirming that no court may consider sharia or any foreign religious code. Let us strengthen vetting to keep out those who adhere to sharia. Let us advance the PAUSE Act to freeze immigration until our system is secure. Let us stand with the sharia-Free America Caucus and declare once and for all: America must be made sharia-free.
Mr. Speaker, I represent a district in north Texas. Mr. Roy represents a district in the Hill Country. I would ask the gentleman how bad he thinks the Islamization of Texas is.
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Mr. SELF. Will the gentleman yield?
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Mr. SELF. Mr. Speaker, I would say absolutely.
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Mr. SELF. Absolutely. Texas has seen 48 new mosques in the last 2 years, just 2 years. That is roughly one every month. This is the fastest pace in the Nation, and it reflects rapid Muslim growth in suburban areas like DFW where I live and Houston which is closer to where Chip lives.
Frankly, it is not just in Texas. I was told by one of our North Carolina Members just today that in his district they plan to build the largest mosque in this hemisphere, I believe is the way he characterized it. So, no, it is not just in Texas. However, Texas is ground zero.
My district, I believe, Mr. Speaker, is ground zero because of this EPIC City, because of the mini mosque. EPIC City was going to be a 400- plus-acre compound, Muslim only, and if you invested a certain amount of money, Mr. Speaker, then you might be able to buy a plot of land and you might be able to build a house. However, when you sold the house, Mr. Speaker, you had to sell it to the right person using contract law and using our own freedoms, our own legal system against us.
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Mr. SELF. Absolutely. I understand that from the local officials that women are not comfortable traveling there because, frankly, to quote an imam, women are animals created by Allah to be used by men. Women are no different from cows, sheep, horses, or mules. God made women resemble humans.
That is totally anathema to our vision of equality between men and women. It is not that men are women and not that women are men. We can define what a woman is. However, women have certain individual rights under our concept of individual human rights. Under sharia law, it is total submission. It is totally different. We need to understand that.
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Mr. SELF. Absolutely. In fact, there is a term now that is being used: civilization jihad. This is the importation of Muslims who are under sharia. It reaches the accommodation phase: Yes, we will pray in the middle of the street. No, you can't walk your dog on the public sidewalk. Then it goes to the intimidation phase that my friend was referring to earlier about women feeling unsafe on the street.
We do not want to get to the position where Great Britain is where they have rape gangs that kidnap young girls off of the street, take them and fill them full of drugs and alcohol, rape them mercilessly, and then the police arrest the young women for being drunk in public.
We do not want to get to that point that the U.K. is at currently.
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Mr. SELF. We are 46 strong as of today.
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Mr. SELF. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend very much for allowing me to participate.
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