The “Sharia Caucus” Distraction: How Performative Politics Serves Power, Not America
The Sharia Scare Tactic: How Culture‑War Theater Distracts From America’s Real Crises
In recent months, a group of Republican lawmakers - Keith Self, Chip Roy, Randy Fine, and Brandon Gill - have amplified rhetoric about a so-called “Sharia caucus” in Washington.
The phrase is inflammatory, culturally loaded, and politically convenient. But it is also a distraction, diverting public attention from the real crises facing the United States.
At a time when Americans are struggling with affordability, historic national debt, institutional corruption, and global moral failures, these lawmakers have chosen culture-war spectacle over serious governance.
Follow the Money, Not the Rhetoric
All four figures have benefited from political support aligned with AIPAC or its affiliated donor networks — one of the most powerful foreign-policy lobbying forces in American politics. That support is legal, normalized, and bipartisan. But it is not neutral.
When lawmakers aggressively frame Muslims or Islamic concepts as existential threats, while remaining silent or defensive about U.S. foreign policy that results in mass civilian suffering abroad, it raises legitimate questions about whose interests are being prioritized.
This is not “America First.” It is influence politics dressed up as patriotism.
The Real Crises Americans Face
While politicians rail against imaginary enemies, Americans are confronting realities that demand attention:
• Affordability: Housing, healthcare, insurance, childcare, and food costs are crushing working families. There is no serious legislative agenda from these lawmakers addressing cost-of-living relief at scale.
• National Debt: The U.S. national debt has surpassed $34 trillion, yet fiscal responsibility is selectively invoked — loudly against social programs, quietly ignored when funding foreign conflicts.
• The Epstein Files: Public trust continues to erode as politically connected elites appear insulated from accountability. Calls for transparency are met with silence.
• Illegal immigration: Addressing the crisis requires enforcing the law and fixing a broken immigration system so it is orderly, humane and aligned with economic and security realities.
Instead of grappling with these issues, lawmakers push fear-based narratives about Islam — a religion practiced peacefully by millions of American citizens who serve as doctors, soldiers, teachers, and first responders.
Weaponizing Fear to Avoid Accountability
The “Sharia caucus” narrative is effective precisely because it is vague. It does not require evidence. It does not require policy solutions. It only requires outrage.
By manufacturing an internal cultural enemy, politicians avoid scrutiny of:
• Their donor dependencies
• Their foreign policy alignment
• Their lack of economic solutions
• Their unwillingness to challenge entrenched power
This is not conservative governance. It is performative politics.
Not America First — Power First
If “America First” meant anything substantive, it would prioritize:
• American workers over defense contractors
• Transparency over donor influence
• Fiscal responsibility over endless war
• Civil liberties over religious scapegoating
Instead, what we see is selective populism — loud toward minorities, deferential toward power.
That is not a defense of American democracy. It is a distortion of it.
Dr Taha Ansari MD of Context-Corner.