SMFNews: Illinois County Board Reverses Vote Denouncing Sharia Law
Header photo: The LaSalle County Courthouse in Ottawa, Illinois. Photo: Teemu08 (CC BY-SA 2.0); adapted by SMF.
OTTAWA, Ill. — The LaSalle County Board in north-central Illinois voted 16-12 on Monday, Nov. 2, to rescind a resolution denouncing Sharia law, less than a month after narrowly approving it. The county’s own attorney told members the measure singled out one religion and would be struck down as unconstitutional if anyone challenged it in court, Shaw Local reported.
The rescinded measure, listed on the board’s Nov. 2 agenda as “A Resolution Reaffirming the Supremacy of the United States Constitution and the Illinois Constitution, and Prohibiting the Application of Foreign or Religious Law in LaSalle County Proceedings,” had passed 13-12 on Oct. 8. As drafted, it mentioned Muslims and Sharia law more than 20 times, 103.9 WLPO reported.
How the resolution began
Board members on both sides tied the resolution to the Fox River Resort in Sheridan, which closed in October 2025. Jamil Ahmed Sukhera, founder of the Pennsylvania-based company Vairt, had planned to buy the property, and some neighbors feared it would become a gated Islamic community, according to Shaw Local and WLPO. Sukhera has denied, in interviews with Shaw Local and on social media, that there were ever plans to run the resort under Sharia law. WSPY reported that some marketing materials had advertised the property as an Islamic community, but the developer later said it would be used only as a resort.
At the Oct. 8 meeting, the board first rejected, 12-13, a motion to table the resolution until Nov. 2, then approved it 13-12 after a clerk spent eight minutes reading it aloud, Shaw Local reported. Board member James Reid, who brought the measure forward, said it was largely modeled on language being considered in Congress. County attorney Patrick Herrmann warned at the time that similar resolutions elsewhere had been found discriminatory for singling out a particular religion, WLPO reported.
A contested vote to reverse course
On Nov. 2, Herrmann told the board it is unconstitutional for any government, including LaSalle County, to discriminate against a religion, and that naming one faith in the resolution was the problem. When board member William Brown argued that Sharia is a law rather than a religion, Herrmann answered that it is based on a religion and that the resolution also named Islam, according to Shaw Local.
After the 16-12 vote, Reid argued that rescinding the resolution required a two-thirds majority under Robert’s Rules because notice had not been given at the prior meeting. Board Chairman Don Jensen read a rule allowing a simple majority when notice is given and said the item’s place on the agenda met that requirement. After a five-minute recess, the board kept the simple-majority result.
Reid and members who supported the original measure stood together while he read a statement defending it. He said a non-binding resolution creates no criminal offense and gives the sheriff’s office and state’s attorney no new enforcement power. Reid also said he had offered a similar resolution that mentioned all religions known to be practiced in the United States, while Jensen noted that the board had already affirmed the supremacy of the U.S. Constitution in an earlier America 250 resolution, WSPY reported.
What residents asked for
Public comment was divided. Briggs Kremsky read a statement from the US Patriot Society objecting to the resolution’s language on constitutional grounds. Michelle Peterson of Defend LaSalle, the group that first pushed for a resolution, said members believe part of the adopted text is unconstitutional and asked the board to write a new one combining both versions, according to Shaw Local. WSPY reported that some residents said the debate was meant to be about whether the property would be used as permanent housing and whether local infrastructure could handle it, not about who was buying it.
Board member Brian Dose, who supported rescinding the measure, said the board has not helped Norway-area residents with the tax losses from the resort’s closure and has proposed a committee to address them. “The first thing we have to do is rescind this resolution and fix it, and then come back through a committee and actually put something behind it, a financial commitment and a dedication to the Constitution,” Dose said, according to Shaw Local.
What comes next
The board recessed until Nov. 25, according to its agenda. No replacement resolution had been reported as of Nov. 11.
SMF has covered similar debates before, including members of Congress opposing a “Sharia Free America” caucus in June and a Baltimore County school board member’s apology over an anti-Sharia post in August.
“We welcome the LaSalle County Board’s decision to listen to its own attorney. Government cannot single out one faith, and Muslim residents of LaSalle County deserve the same equal treatment as their neighbors.”
Sources
Shaw Local (Nov. 5, 2026) and Shaw Local (Oct. 14, 2026); WSPY News (Nov. 6, 2026); 103.9 WLPO (Nov. 3, 2026) and 103.9 WLPO (October 2026); LaSalle County Board agenda, Nov. 2, 2026.
Comments