Sharia Courts in Texas: Peter McIlvenna Warns Women Have "No Choice” Under Parallel Islamic Legal System

The Sharia expansion Texas crisis is worse than officials admit, and Peter McIlvenna says women trapped inside these courts are the first to pay the price.

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This clip aired on WarRoom’s morning show on December 3, 2025. Transcript begins below (lightly edited for clarity; may contain minor errors).

STEVE BANNON (HOST): Peter McIlvenna joins us now. Peter, wrote a piece the other day. You came and spent just a couple of days in Texas and you were shocked. And you have been one of the best, now that Niger is in the government, Raheem is over here covering more American news. I think you are probably, you and Tommy Robinson are the two best about showing what is going on and really the collapse of our mother country, Great Britain, and it is shocking and it gets worse every day and it is accelerating at an accelerating rate. You came here for just a couple of days in Texas and you told me, he said, hey look, you guys got to understand, you are heading down the same path and maybe heading down the same path more rapidly than you guys were at the beginning. Walk us through that in this piece you wrote the other day.

PETER MCILVENNA (GUEST): Well, yeah, Raheem has done great job. He has left Londonistan. I am still here. And this was showing some of the courts that are operating, some of the Sharia courts that are operating in the US, to give you an example. And in the UK, we have got 85 Sharia courts. They have been operating since 1982. There was a government report back, I think, 2018. And it said that these bodies operate as a parallel legal system and they subject tens of thousands of British women to medieval rules. That was the understanding of the British government in 2018.

So over in the US in Texas, I looked at three different Sharia courts that are operating. The Islamic Tribunal of Dallas, which is up there northeast Dallas, up near Piano, where the huge epic city development is being pushed forward. And it is, it now, I think it started 2014 as a voluntary mediation service. And these all start as voluntary. But Steve, it is not voluntary for the women. The women have no choice. And in the UK, some of the courts, 90 percent of the cases are by women who are desperate and want to help in their marriages and are trapped. And all they need is the man to say, I divorce you three times, according to Islamic law. And she is divorced. She is thrown out. And she is nothing because the man takes all. He is the winner.

So you have got the Islamic Tribunal of Dallas that is now having 300 cases a year. Starting 2014, that is ramped up. And I looked at some of the other ones. One of the big ones in the US is the North American Islamic Trust. And back in 2003, I think it was in a Senate hearing, and it talked about them then having title to 3000 to 325 US mosques. Now, at the time, that was 11 percent. At the time, there were about 1300 mosques, so 10 percent. You now have 2700 mosques, according to 2020 figures. That is well above 3000 now. So who knows how many mosques the North American Islamic Trust now operates. It could be far more. At that time, it was 27 percent. It could, if it is the same amount, then they rule. They run 650 mosques in the US.

And again, there are Sharia courts attached to a number of those mosques. And this is about divorces. This is about estate issues. Local issues. And again, these are run by all male, as you can imagine, four men. A lot of these are trained in the Middle East. So they come over, they then run these courts, and subjugate, subject these women to medieval rules.

And I was, when I look back at the state of Texas, I kind of thought as a foreigner, you know, Texas has always been a red state. And then you look. It was only basically, you only had three Republican governors, I think, since the founding of Texas state up until George W. Bush. And then you have had 30 years from George W. Bush, Rick Perry and Greg Abbott. This ramping up of mosques, this ramping up of Sharia courts, this ramping up of halal food in Dallas running, in Houston running at 23 percent a year. The biggest growth in halal food in America in Houston. This has happened under Republican governors.

Now, it is not my place to criticize. I will let the WarRoom Posse have their say on that. But there is a concern that this is happening under the noses and at least Greg Abbott has woken up to this.

STEVE BANNON (HOST): Peter McIlvenna, I have been told forever in London and in Texas that the Sharia courts have no standing, no bearing. They cannot do anything. What do you mean they are telling women what to do and they are making these courts? They tell us over and over again, not the Muslims. They say, no, Sharia law works. I am talking about American officials who sit there constantly and say, you are wrong. You are an alarmist. In England, you are an alarmist. They have no standing, no jurisdiction. What say you, sir?

PETER MCILVENNA (GUEST): Well, I have made this point regularly, Steve. They are simply there to look after the children. Now, in the US. In the UK, it was the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal Act. Say that quickly. And that was passed in 1982, I believe. And then, since then, we have allowed Muslim courts, of which there are 85. In America it is slightly different. My understanding is that you have got the Federal Arbitration Act of 1924 or 1925. And that allows Christian, Jewish, and Muslim courts.

Now, I would argue, why do you need religious courts in a country? Because then you have got competing different laws. That is where the opening happened to allow this. So for 100 years, this has been happening. But you have not had mass immigration. You have not had Muslim entities. Now you do. Now you have this huge growth. And therefore this. Therefore, they do seem to be legally binding.

No, it says they are only legally binding if it does not conflict with federal or state laws. But you tell me, which court or police officer is going to go into an Islamic area and demand access to those rulings and then begin to enforce or unenforce them? That does not happen.

Of course these courts, it is wonderful because it is not in English. There are no records kept. There is no transparency. So the government is not allowed a look in. If it was allowed a look in, it would realize that these are absolutely unfair to how women are treated, especially in divorce cases and custody cases, in financial cases, in business transactions. This is unfair and does conflict with US law. But you will need a very brave individual in law enforcement or courts who is going to enforce the rule of law.

STEVE BANNON (HOST): We are going to have to do that in Texas. One of the reasons I meet with Glenn and the team this afternoon is that you are going to have to. You have designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as terrorist outfits. Now you have got to get down to it. You have got to dig them out of here, starting with these Sharia courts. And I am telling you, what is happening in Texas is very scary.

We are going to have a bunch of big announcements about all this in the days and weeks ahead before Christmas, about January and 26, what we are going to do to start off with a bang.