St. Sen. Dolezal to Newsmax: Sharia Law Has No Place in Georgia

Georgia Republican State Sen. Greg Dolezal on Friday on Newsmax defended his proposal to ban Shariah in Georgia, citing ongoing state investigations of Islamic tribunals in Texas that officials allege have been masquerading as legal courts.

Dolezal, one of four leading candidates in the May 19 Republican primary for lieutenant governor, said he introduced legislation this year specifically to prevent the establishment of similar tribunals in Georgia.

His bill, SB 486, cleared committee in February and explicitly prohibits any foreign law that conflicts with the Georgia Constitution.

"We do not want to see these tribunals set up," Dolezal said on "Finnerty."

He described cases in Dallas where family law and business disputes were, in his characterization, being resolved under foreign legal codes rather than American law or the Constitution.

"That is just the start," he said. "And so we need to ensure that those seeds are not planted anywhere else in America."

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called on district attorneys and sheriffs in Dallas and Collin counties to investigate entities he described as Islamic "Shariah courts" that he alleges are issuing orders outside their legal authority.

The Dallas-based Islamic Tribunal, the primary target of that scrutiny, has since updated its website to state that it provides only voluntary, non-binding religious guidance, does not function as a court and issues no legally binding decisions.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has separately demanded documents from the group as part of an investigation into whether it is engaged in illegal activity.

Asked whether being labeled Islamophobic bothers him, Dolezal said it does not.

He pointed instead to the March shooting at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.

The gunman, Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, was a former Virginia National Guard member who had previously pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to ISIS and was on probation for that terrorism-related charge when he carried out the attack.

One person was killed and two others were wounded before ROTC students subdued and killed Jalloh.

He had been previously released from federal custody in December 2024 after completing a substance abuse treatment program that allowed early release.

"What bothers me is that he was not denaturalized and deported, and now we've got dead Americans as a result of that," Dolezal said.

Dolezal went further, arguing that broader immigration policy failures posed a threat beyond the question of Islamic law.

"It is the concept of the globalists who do not recognize that not all cultures are created equal," he said, calling for stricter vetting of immigrants based on compatibility with U.S. constitutional values.

Recent polling shows 79% of Republican primary voters remain undecided in the lieutenant governor race, with Dolezal drawing 5.2% support.

He faces a field that includes state Sens. Steve Gooch, John Kennedy, and Blake Tillery, all of whom lead in polling and media attention alongside him. A runoff election is scheduled for June 16 if no candidate clears a majority on May 19.

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