The FBI arrested a Dallas-area juvenile in an alleged ISIS attack plot that may have targeted Rep. Keith Self with a firearm, the latest warning for lawmakers battling radical Islam.
Breitbart News reported that agents took the unnamed juvenile into custody on October 5, 2026, over a plan to stage a terrorist attack on behalf of ISIS. Investigators also received information suggesting the juvenile may have planned to assassinate Self with a firearm at a local event on October 17. The suspect was charged and remains in custody. No injuries were reported.
Self represents Texas’s Third Congressional District and co-founded the Sharia-Free America Caucus. He chairs the Europe Subcommittee on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The congressman answered the reported threat without retreat.
Self told Breitbart News:
"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. 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."
In December 2025, Self and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas launched the Sharia-Free America Caucus. By June 29 it had grown to 68 House members from 25 states. The group says it is 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.”
Self has moved three measures on the same theme. In April he introduced the Freedom Against Imposed Theology Harms Act, or FAITH Act. It would set a nationwide rule against fees, fines, penalties, or financial pressure based on a person’s religious beliefs or refusal to join another faith’s practices. In July he introduced the Preserving Our Constitution Act, which would bar courts and other bodies from recognizing or enforcing foreign laws, religious laws, customs, or practices that conflict with the U.S. Constitution. On September 3 he introduced a concurrent resolution denouncing Sharia and restating that the Constitution is supreme and that no foreign legal or political system should override it.
On the House floor on November 19, 2025, Self laid out the conflict in plain terms.
"Sharia is dangerous."
He continued:
"The United States Constitution and Sharia are fundamentally at odds with one another. 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."
Self also told colleagues that “freedom of religion” under Sharia means permission to enter Islam, not leave it, and that apostasy is punishable by death. He cited an imam in New York City who said, “We will not stop until Islam enters every home,” and closed with a choice: defeat Sharia advances in America, or watch government of the people perish.
Roy has described Sharia as “a direct threat to our Constitution and Western values” that “seeks to replace our legal system and erode our basic freedoms.” Self has said Christian values form the foundation of the nation and that Sharia principles stand in direct opposition and are “wholly incompatible with the rule of law in the United States.”
The Dallas case does not stand alone. In August, the FBI arrested Jessica Bowie, 35, of Albany, New York, over an alleged ISIS-inspired plot to bomb the New York State Capitol while lawmakers were present. Prosecutors said she pledged support to ISIS, sought explosives instructions, visited and photographed the Capitol, and planned to flee toward ISIS-held territory in Syria. Agents arrested her on August 19 after she took possession of what she believed was an explosive device. She was charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
FBI Albany Special Agent in Charge Craig Tremaroli said Bowie “didn’t just want to kill lawmakers; she wanted a complete disruption of our government.” Federal cases like that one, and a separate murder-for-hire plot in Washington, show how often political targets now sit in the crosshairs.
In 2015, Christopher Lee Cornell of the Cincinnati area plotted an attack on the U.S. Capitol timed to the State of the Union period. He researched weapons and bombs, possessed two semi-automatic rifles and about 600 rounds of ammunition, and intended to kill federal officers and employees to support ISIL. The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested him on January 14, 2015. He 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. A court sentenced him to 30 years in prison and lifetime supervised release.
Then-U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman said Cornell “plotted to commit violence as a symbolic attack on the United States as a whole.” The same FBI that disrupted those schemes later faced its own pressure when hackers hit an FBI jobs portal and claimed employee data theft, a reminder that the bureau’s counterterror work runs under constant strain.
While Self pressed legislation, Michigan Democrat Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed, a U.S. Senate nominee, took a different line. At a 2022 CAIR event he criticized an Oklahoma referendum that amended the state constitution to ban Sharia law, saying he did not know what the ban meant and that voters barred it anyway. He linked the effort to older American wrongs, from the displacement of Native peoples to the destruction of Black Wall Street.
His campaign spokeswoman, Roxie Richner, said El-Sayed “believes in the separation of church and state,” follows his faith personally, and “opposes any effort by any religious community to draft their faith laws into the laws of our country.” In 2009 remarks to the New York Times, El-Sayed described a personal duty to live the Shariah-compliant way from obligation rather than fear. In 2025 comments he asked what moves someone into terrorism and how American conduct abroad might create pain that others feel unseen. Readers tracking that debate have also seen resurfaced audio of El-Sayed on a Michigan synagogue attack.
Breitbart noted El-Sayed’s association with streamer Hasan Piker, who previously said “America deserved 9/11.” Terrorism symbolism still sparks fights in other cities, including when NYC’s mayor handed a 9/11 pen to a former al Qaeda defense lawyer and drew fury from victims’ families.
Key details on the juvenile still sit outside public view. The suspect’s name, exact age, and specific charges have not been released. The precise local event planned for October 17 was not named. Primary charging papers and the full evidence trail tying the ISIS plan to any Self assassination scheme were not published in the available reporting. It is also unclear whether the Self plot itself was charged, or only the broader ISIS-linked attack plan.
What is clear is the sequence: arrest on October 5, a possible firearm attack date of October 17, and a sitting member of Congress who has spent the past year building a caucus, floor record, and bill stack against Sharia’s advance. National security work depends on steady intelligence leadership, a point sharpened when the Senate confirmed an intelligence director while a key surveillance program sat idle.
Lawmakers who name the threat will keep drawing the threat. The answer is not silence. It is the same duty Self stated after the arrest, defend the Constitution without flinching, and keep the people who enforce it on the job.