A Dallas-area juvenile arrested by the FBI for planning a terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS may also have been planning to assassinate Rep. Keith Self (R-TX), the co-founder and co-chair of the Sharia-Free America Caucus, according to information reviewed by Breitbart News.
The FBI arrested the juvenile on October 5, 2026, in connection with an alleged plan to conduct a terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS.
Investigators also received information suggesting the juvenile may have been planning to assassinate Self with a firearm at a local event on October 17, 2026.
The suspect has been charged and remains in custody.
“In order to preserve our Constitutional Republic from the onslaught of radical Islam we need to be willing to take some slings and arrows. It may mean being on the receiving end of name calling, threats or something worse,” Self told Breitbart News regarding the alleged assassination plot. “Our Founders thought the idea of this country was worth the sacrifice. Those who have served in our military think that defending freedom is worth the sacrifice. Our elected leaders should govern with the same mindset.”
Self, who represents Texas’s Third Congressional District, has emerged as one of Congress’s most outspoken opponents of Sharia law and co-founded the Sharia-Free America Caucus with Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) in December 2025.
By June 29, the caucus had grown to 68 House members representing 25 states.
The caucus said it remains devoted to “upholding the Constitution as the supreme law of the land” while “defending the freedoms and liberties upon which the United States was founded.”
“Christian values form the foundation of our nation and the constitutional system that governs our daily lives,” Self said when announcing the caucus’s growth. “Sharia and its principles stand in direct opposition to those foundations and are wholly incompatible with the rule of law in the United States.”
Roy said Sharia “is a direct threat to our Constitution and Western values and seeks to replace our legal system and erode our basic freedoms.”
On September 3, Self introduced a concurrent resolution denouncing Sharia law and opposing its implementation in the United States. The resolution “reaffirms a fundamental principle: the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land” and states that “no foreign legal or political system should supersede the Constitution or undermine the rights and liberties it protects.”
In July, Self introduced the Preserving Our Constitution Act, which would ensure that courts and adjudicative bodies in the United States “do not recognize or enforce foreign laws, religious laws, customs, or practices that conflict with the Constitution of the United States and the laws made pursuant to it.”
Self also introduced the Freedom Against Imposed Theology Harms, or FAITH Act, in April. The legislation “establishes a nationwide standard that prohibits any person, organization, or entity — governmental or nongovernmental — from imposing fees, fines, penalties, or any form of financial coercion based on an individual’s religious beliefs or their refusal to participate in another faith’s practices.”
Self, who serves as chairman of the Europe Subcommittee on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, delivered a House floor speech on November 19, 2025, declaring, “Sharia is dangerous.”
“The United States Constitution and Sharia are fundamentally at odds with one another,” Self said. “The Constitution begins with ‘We the People,’ Sharia states, ‘Allah has said.’ Followers of Sharia believe Muhammad received a divine legal code that stands supreme over all man-made laws.”
“Freedom of religion is in our 1st Amendment, but ‘Freedom of religion’ in Sharia means one is permitted to embrace Islam, but one is never free to leave Islam,” Self continued. “Abandoning Sharia is an apostasy punishable by death.”
“In the streets of New York City, a Muslim Imam recently proclaimed, ‘We will not stop until Islam enters every home,’” Self said. “There is no denying Islam’s intent to dominate Western civilization. Their stated objective is to destroy us from within.”
“This is a time for choosing,” Self concluded. “Either we defeat the Sharia advances in America, or government of the people, by the people, for the people may indeed perish from the earth.”
The disclosure about the alleged plot against Self follows other ISIS-related cases involving government targets. In August, the FBI arrested 35-year-old Jessica Bowie of Albany, New York, over an alleged ISIS-inspired plot to bomb the New York State Capitol. Federal authorities alleged Bowie pledged allegiance to ISIS, sought instructions for making explosives, made several visits to and took several photographs of the Capitol, and intended to attack while lawmakers were present. She was apprehended on August 19 after taking possession of what she believed was an explosive device, and authorities alleged she wanted to “destroy as much of the building as possible” and kill senators before fleeing to ISIS-controlled territory in Syria. FBI Albany Special Agent in Charge Craig Tremaroli said, “Miss Bowie didn’t just want to kill lawmakers; she wanted a complete disruption of our government.” Bowie was charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
Bowie buying items necessary to build an explosive device. (FBI)
Bowie doing reconnaissance on New York Capitol. (FBI)
A separate case involved Christopher Lee Cornell of Ohio, who plotted an attack on the U.S. Capitol during the 2015 State of the Union address. According to court documents, Cornell researched weapons, bomb construction, the Capitol, and other Washington-area targets, possessed two semi-automatic rifles and approximately 600 rounds of ammunition, and intended to kill federal officers and employees in an attack he admitted was meant to provide material support to ISIL. The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested him on January 14, 2015, and he later pleaded guilty to attempting to kill government employees, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, and attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Cornell was sentenced to 30 years in prison and lifetime supervised release, with then-U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman saying he “plotted to commit violence as a symbolic attack on the United States as a whole.”
Debate over Sharia law has also become an issue in Michigan’s 2026 U.S. Senate race.
Breitbart News reported in September that Michigan Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed criticized Oklahoma voters’ decision to ban Sharia law during a 2022 CAIR event. “When 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. He later added, “the same exact forces that drove Native peoples from their land two centuries ago, destroyed Black Wall Street a century ago, bombed a building decades ago, and tried to ban Sharia law not a decade ago are alive and well today.”
Breitbart News reported on August 12 that El-Sayed’s campaign confirmed he continues to follow Sharia law in his personal life after resurfaced 2009 comments in which he described doing so as a lifelong “obligation.” “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 told the New York Times at the time. “Not because of fear but because of obligation.” Campaign spokeswoman Roxie Richner said, “Abdul believes in the separation of church and state,” adding that while he personally follows his faith, he “opposes any effort by any religious community to write their faith laws into the laws of our country.” During his failed 2018 campaign for Michigan governor, El-Sayed denied ever saying he was “Sharia-compliant” and later told filmmakers, “We’re trying to keep the shot secular.”
Breitbart News also reported in August that El-Sayed argued during 2025 remarks that U.S. conduct abroad can contribute to terrorism. “I think too often, the way [America has] engaged in the world has been that we set up this rules-based international order, and then we break the rules of the rules-based international order, and that creates a situation where there are a lot of people who look at us and say that’s hypocritical and that’s wrong,” El-Sayed said. He later asked “what moves somebody into” terrorism and “how is it that we’re behaving that may get somebody to think that we don’t see them, and that’s creating pain?” The report also noted El-Sayed’s association with streamer Hasan Piker, who previously said that “America deserved 9/11.”
