The claim, checked
The claim: Muslims are nice and placate the crowds until they have a majority in an area. Then they bring in Sharia, or Islamic law. In Iran, leftists were promised freedom when Khomeini took power, then purged.
- Where Muslims hold power: True in several countries, but not the rule. Iran, Pakistan, northern Nigeria and Aceh in Indonesia added Islamic law after power changed hands. Long-ruling leaders added it in Sudan and Brunei. Many Muslim countries stay secular, and Sudan rolled some of it back.
- Friendly first, then a crackdown: True in Iran and Afghanistan. Khomeini promised "complete freedom" in 1978, then banned parties and papers and killed thousands of prisoners. The Taliban promised women's rights in 2021, then shut girls out of school.
- Western towns with Muslim majorities: None has adopted Islamic law, which U.S. law would not allow. The closest case is Hamtramck, Michigan, which banned Pride flags along with other group flags.
After Texas Democrats won on Nov. 3, a Colorado imam called it "a chance for us Muslims to grab." He said believers must confront disbelievers, "not necessarily physically," and by "lawful means" like elections. "But it will escalate to confrontational," he said. "It has to at the end." He called Sharia "the only thing which will bring peace on the face of this earth." He also said, "We're not going to force it on you." Critics say Muslims are friendly while they are few, then bring in Sharia once they hold power. Profoundd checked that claim against the record.
Iran: promises, then purges
The clearest case is Iran. In late 1978, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini is reported to have given 132 interviews from France. He told Le Figaro he favored "complete freedom." He told Der Spiegel there would be "free elections." He said he would not take a central role in a new government. Leftists, liberals and nationalists joined his revolution.
Six months after he took power, Khomeini said he should have "banned all corrupt parties and punished their leaders" and "erected gallows on every street." "I apologize to almighty God and to our dear people for our errors," he said in August 1979. That month his government shut down dozens of newspapers. It banned the National Front in 1981 and outlawed the communist Tudeh Party in 1983. In 1988 it killed at least 5,000 political prisoners on Khomeini's secret order, Amnesty International says. Most were from the Mujahedin, an early ally that had taken up arms against him. Hundreds of leftists were also killed.
The goal was not new. In 1970 lectures, Khomeini had argued that Islamic jurists should rule. The Swiss paper NZZ called his Paris image "clever self-marketing." Revolutions without religion have done the same thing. Russia's Bolsheviks shared power with leftist allies, then crushed them in 1918.
Afghanistan and other countries
The Taliban took a similar path. When they took Kabul in 2021, they promised to honor human rights, including women's rights. In March 2022 they kept girls' high schools closed. In December 2022 they barred women from universities. They had kept girls out of school in their first rule, from 1996 to 2001, too.
Other countries added Islamic law. Pakistan added punishments such as stoning and whipping under a military ruler in 1979. Sudan's ruler added public amputations and floggings in 1983, 14 years after he seized power. Twelve states in northern Nigeria adopted Sharia criminal codes by 2002, after military rule ended. Aceh's Islamic code, with caning, took effect in 2015. Brunei's sultan, in power since 1967, added stoning in 2019.
Many Muslims back Sharia as law. In a 2013 Pew survey, 99% of Muslims in Afghanistan and 84% in Pakistan wanted it as official law. In Pakistan, 89% of those supporters also backed stoning for adultery. But support was 8% in Azerbaijan, 10% in Kazakhstan and 12% in Turkey, which keep secular law. And Sudan dropped its death penalty for leaving Islam in 2020.
The West
No Western city has adopted Islamic law. U.S. law would not allow it. The closest case is Hamtramck, Michigan. In 2023 its all-Muslim city council voted unanimously to ban Pride flags on city property. One member said the city wanted to "respect the religious rights of our citizens." The ban also covers religious, ethnic and political flags. "We are not targeting one group or another," the mayor said. A federal appeals court upheld the ban in August.
In Britain, a 2015 poll of Muslims in areas that are at least 20% Muslim found 23% backed parts of Britain where Sharia replaces British law. That year in London, a court threw out the election of Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman. It found fraud, bribery and "undue spiritual influence." A letter signed by 101 imams had told Muslims it was their "religious duty" to vote. Rahman denied wrongdoing.
A hidden plan?
A 1991 Muslim Brotherhood memo was used as evidence in a 2008 terror-funding trial in Texas. It called the group's U.S. work "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within." It listed U.S. groups such as the Islamic Society of North America among "our organizations and the organizations of our friends." In August, a witness told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Brotherhood "is largely succeeding." In 2009, a federal judge ruled that prosecutors had violated the rights of groups they named in the case by listing them in public. He also found "ample evidence" tying some of them to the charity on trial.
At a May 2026 conference in Arlington, Texas, held by AbuZaid's group, preacher Uthman ibn Farooq said of America becoming a Muslim country, "That's our goal." He said it would happen "peacefully – with dawah," or preaching, "not forcing anybody." Critics also point to "taqiyya," which they say lets Muslims deceive non-Muslims. Scholars say the word means hiding one's faith to escape persecution.
Pew's 2026 study of Muslim Americans did not ask about Sharia. A 2015 online poll for the Center for Security Policy, a group that warns about Sharia, found 51% of U.S. Muslims wanted the choice of being governed by it. Georgetown University's Bridge Initiative faulted the poll because people signed up to take it instead of being picked at random.
Reporting through Tuesday, November 10, 2026. Sources: Khomeini's Aug. 17, 1979 speech (Kayhan), Boroumand Center translation; NZZ, June 25, 2025; London Review of Books; Time, 1979; Ayandegan; Britannica on Bani-Sadr; Keesing's, 1984; Amnesty International; Human Rights Watch, 2022; Islamic Government (1970); Left SR uprising, 1918; Hudood Ordinances; Sudan's September Laws; Human Rights Watch on Sudan, 2013; U.S. State Department, Sudan, 2020; Human Rights Watch on Nigeria, 2004; Jakarta Post on Aceh, 2015; Amnesty on Aceh, 2014; Pew Research Center, 2013; Pew Research Center, 2026; Michigan Advance, June 14, 2023; CNN, June 15, 2023; BBC, April 2015; UK Human Rights Blog, May 2015; ISGAP, 2025; Encyclopedia.com on taqiyya; Al Jazeera, Taliban timeline, Dec. 21, 2022; Human Rights Watch on Taliban pledges, Aug. 18, 2021; Al Jazeera on Brunei, April 3, 2019; National Front (Iran); MEMRI transcript, AIM conference, May 23, 2026; Arielle Klepach, Senate Judiciary testimony, Aug. 5, 2026; NBC DFW on the 2009 ruling; Channel 4 / ICM poll, April 2016; Bridge Initiative on the 2015 poll; Michigan Advance on the appeals ruling, Aug. 25, 2026; Karim AbuZaid, Nov. 6, 2026.
