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Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas has announced a flurry of steps this week aimed at thwarting Islamic groups in the state, moves that both worry and baffle Muslims and religious experts.

On Tuesday, he declared that the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights groups, was a foreign terrorist organization, an accusation the group said had no basis in fact. The following day, he directed law enforcement officers to investigate an Islamic organization in Dallas, saying the group was illegally enforcing Islamic “Shariah law” in the state.

In a letter sent on Wednesday to district attorneys and sheriffs in two North Texas counties, Mr. Abbott suggested there were multiple entities in the state “masquerading” as legal courts, but he named only one: the Islamic Tribunal, an independent institution that has operated in the Dallas area for more than a decade.

The letter quoted from the tribunal’s website to suggest it was illegally posing as a rival court to the Texas judicial system and speculated that the court could recommend stoning as a punishment.

Other faith groups operate ecclesiastical tribunals in the United States that resolve spiritual matters and disputes that overlap with the traditional court system. In Judaism, rabbinical courts known as beth dins rule on the details of divorce agreements, among other issues. Catholic dioceses, including the diocese of Dallas and others throughout Texas, also operate courts to handle cases of church law, including marriage and annulment.

The governor’s statement said the Islamic Tribunal was different from other faith-based arbitration bodies because it was “purporting to replace actual courts of law to evade neutral and generally applicable laws.”

“The Constitution’s religious protections provide no authority for religious courts to skirt state and federal laws simply by donning robes and pronouncing positions inconsistent with western civilization,” the governor wrote in the letter. He offered no specific examples of resolved disputes that have violated U.S. law but urged the counties to work with the state’s Department of Public Safety and attorney general, Ken Paxton, who had “additional investigative tools at their disposal.”

For experts in Islamic law and culture, the move was puzzling.

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Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas in September. This week, he declared that a Muslim advocacy and civil rights group was a terrorist organization. The group said the statement had “no basis in law or fact.”Credit…Antranik Tavitian/Reuters

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