Texas student says he recieved death threats after revealing campus hijab booth

FIRST ON FOX — A Texas high school student who went viral after calling on an Islamic group to distribute hijabs on her campus told members of Congress last week that she received death threats for speaking out.

Marco Hunter-Lopez, 16, a Wylie East High School student and president of the campus Republican Club, told Fox News Digital that he was invited by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, to testify May 13 before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government at a hearing titled “America Without Sharia.”

Hunter-Lopez testified “Why Islam?” on the high school campus on February 2. She describes an incident that occurred when she came across an Islamic stand occupied by four adult women from her organization. It distributed headscarves to female students, copies of the Quran with conversion instructions, and a pamphlet titled “Understanding Sharia.”

Event received national attention After Hunter-Lopez posted videos of the stand on social media. During his testimony, he later revealed that he had received death threats.

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“There were people at my house saying they were going to wait for me and shoot me,” Hunter-Lopez said. he told the subcommittee. “I had people telling me to kill myself. So many different things. But I know that no one can declare anything over me because I wake up every morning in the victory of Jesus.”

In her testimony, Hunter-Lopez said sharia law was fundamentally incompatible with the U.S. Constitution and American values ​​and argued that the outside group violated school policy and parental rights.

“Distributing materials that present Sharia in a positive light to minors during the school day without parental consent risks normalizing ideas that undermine the principles our public schools should uphold,” he said. “This is not impartial education; it is ideological promotion under the guise of diversity and inclusion.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. an exchange of views with it also went viral After questioning the purpose of the session, the lawmaker asked whether he believed the United States needed special laws targeting specific religious communities rather than keeping everyone bound by secular law.

When Raskin posed the question to Hunter-Lopez, the teenager challenged Raskin’s characterization of America’s legal system, pointing out that the vast majority of signers of the Declaration of Independence were church-attending Christians.

Texas high school student Marco Hunter-Lopez testifies May 13 before the House Judiciary Committee at the “America Without Sharia: Why Political Islam and Sharia Law Are Incompatible with the U.S. Constitution: Part II” hearing. (House Judiciary Committee)

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Conservatives after clips of the stock market appeared on X last week praised the young man For his clear response to the congressman’s questions.

Hunter-Lopez later told Fox News Digital that Raskin repeatedly interrupted her before she could fully argue that lawmakers should accept America’s Christian foundations, but that she was prepared to defend her views.

“I believe he thought he would catch me off guard by calling me. “But it didn’t happen,” Hunter-Lopez told Fox News Digital. “I joined the fight.”

Representatives for Raskin did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Hunter-Lopez credited her faith and community for giving her the courage to fight back, noting that her peers were more motivated to share their views after the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.

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Charlie Kirk was the 31-year-old co-founder of Turning Point USA and host of the top-rated podcast and nationally syndicated Salem radio show “The Charlie Kirk Show.” He was the author of four books and a prominent social media personality known for his campus rallies and conservative activism. (Trent Nelson/Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)

“After that, instead of being afraid to speak out, I actually saw more students daring to speak openly,” she told Fox News Digital. He encouraged other students to get involved in their communities and “find other students you can connect with.”

The Christian conservative student was also asked to testify about allegations that the Republican Club has been subject to “hostile scrutiny” by the school administration since its founding last year. Hunter-Lopez claimed that school officials initially denied his club was too political, targeted its posters, and selectively enforced policies against religious and political student groups.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Wylie Independent School District (ISD) officials strongly denied any claim that the institution engages in viewpoint discrimination or selectively enforces policies related to religion or political views.

“Wylie ISD does not endorse or endorse any religion,” a spokesperson said. “As a public school district, the district is legally required to remain neutral on religion and respect the constitutional rights of all students. The district does not operate ‘Islamic prayer rooms’ or provide preferential treatment to one religious group over another. Reasonable accommodations may be made for students’ religious observance when appropriate, in accordance with the law.”

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In her written testimony to Congress, Hunter-Lopez noted a “pattern of pressure” against the Republican Student Club she founded regarding how school administrators promoted Islamic ideology. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)

District officials said the school “had challenges with the monitor last school year” regarding the Republican Club and that communication between the school and students “could and should be better, and district leadership recognizes that.”

Regarding the initial incident on Feb. 2, Wylie ISD reiterated that the incident was a procedural glitch regarding visitor procedures and “not an intentional effort to promote any religious viewpoint or organization.” The district said a required verification step was skipped by campus staff, adding that “if this critical step had been completed, the outside group would not have been allowed to meet with the student club that day.”

“Following the incident, the district has reinforced expectations with campuses and updated club and visitor procedures to help ensure a situation like this does not occur again,” a spokesperson said.

The hearing comes amid a broader push by Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, who launched the “America Without Sharia Rally” late last year against what they describe as a threat to American civil liberties.

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Representatives Chip Roy and Keith Self launched the America Without Sharia Caucus in December. (Tom Brenner/Getty Images; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

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Self told Fox News Digital that the incident at Wylie East High School was not an isolated school surveillance.

“This was not a procedural glitch as the school said it was,” Self said. “It was intentional, it’s happened before and they were caught by a young man who wasn’t going to let it happen without protesting.”

Wylie ISD disputed Self’s comments in a statement to Fox News Digital, calling the congressman’s remarks “disappointing” and saying it never contacted district leadership or campus administration to discuss the issue.

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Roy echoed Self’s concerns in a comment to Fox News Digital, saying Sharia influence was spreading rapidly in Texas, with “more than 300 mosques and proposals for Muslim-only cities.” He applauded the high school student for speaking out.

“Marco saw the consequences of this firsthand at his own high school, and I admire his courage in speaking out and telling the truth about how the growing influence of Islam is affecting our state,” she said.