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FIRST ON FOX – A Texas high school student who went viral after calling out an Islamic group for handing out hijabs on his campus told members of Congress last week that he had received death threats for speaking out.
Marco Hunter-Lopez, a 16-year-old student at Wylie East High School 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 in a hearing titled “Sharia-Free America.”
Hunter-Lopez testified about an incident that occurred on February 2 on her high school campus, when she came across an Islamic booth where four adult women from the “Why Islam?” They were handing out hijabs to female students, copies of the Quran with conversion instructions, and a booklet titled “Understanding Sharia.”
The incident gained national attention after Hunter-Lopez posted videos of the booth on social media. During his testimony, he revealed that he later received death threats.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, invited the high school student to testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government in a hearing titled “Sharia-Free America.” (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
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“There were people saying they were going to be at my house waiting for me to get there and they were going to shoot me,” Hunter-Lopez told the subcommittee. “There were people telling me to kill myself. Many different things. But I know that no one can proclaim anything about me because I wake up every morning with the victory of Christ.”
In her testimony, Hunter-Lopez said Sharia law is fundamentally incompatible with the Constitution and American values, and argued that the outside group violated school policy and parental rights.
“Delivering materials that present Sharia favorably to minors during the school day, without parental approval, risks normalizing ideas that undermine the very principles our public schools are supposed to uphold,” he said. “This is not neutral education; it is ideological promotion under the guise of diversity and inclusion.”
An exchange with Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., also went viral after the lawmaker questioned the purpose of the session and asked if anyone believed the United States needed special laws targeting specific religious populations rather than forcing everyone to abide by secular law.
When Raskin directed the question to Hunter-Lopez, the teenager questioned Raskin's characterization of the American legal system, pointing out that the vast majority of signers of the Declaration of Independence were church-going Christians.
Texas high school student Marco Hunter-Lopez testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on May 13 at the hearing “Sharia-Free America: Why Political Islam and Sharia are Incompatible with the United States Constitution: Part II.” (House Committee on the Judiciary)
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After clips of the exchange were posted on X last week, conservatives praised the teen for his eloquent response to the congressman's questioning.
Hunter-Lopez later told Fox News Digital that Raskin repeatedly interrupted him before he could fully argue that lawmakers should recognize America's Christian foundations, but said he was ready to defend his views.
“I think he thinks he was going to catch me off guard by calling me. But it wasn't like that,” Hunter-Lopez told Fox News Digital. “I took the fight.”
Raskin's representatives did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Hunter-Lopez credited his faith and community for giving him the boldness to stand his ground, noting that his peers have been more motivated to share their views after the murder 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 the host of Salem's top-rated podcast and nationally syndicated radio show, “The Charlie Kirk Show.” He was the author of four books and a prominent social media personality, best known for his campus rallies and conservative activism. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images)
“After that, instead of being afraid to speak out, I saw more students brave to speak out,” he told Fox News Digital. He encouraged other students to get involved in their community and “find other students they can connect with.”
The conservative Christian student was also asked to testify about allegations that the Republican Club faced “hostile scrutiny” from school administration since its launch last year. Hunter-Lopez alleged that school officials initially disowned his club for being too political, attacked its signs, and selectively enforced policies regarding religious and political student groups.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Wylie Independent School District (ISD) officials strongly rejected the claim that it discriminates viewpoints or selectively enforces policies regarding religion or political opinions.
“Wylie ISD does not endorse or promote any religion,” a spokesperson said. “As a public school district, the district is legally required to remain neutral with respect to religion while respecting the constitutional rights of all students. The district does not operate 'Islamic prayer rooms' or provide preferential treatment to one religious group over another. In accordance with the law, reasonable accommodations may be made for students' religious practices when appropriate.”
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In her written testimony before Congress, Hunter-Lopez pointed to a “pattern of repression” against the Republican Student Club she founded regarding the way school administrators handle the promotion of Islamic ideology. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
District officials said the school “experienced monitor-related challenges last year” regarding the Republican Club and said communications between the school and students “could and should have been better, and district leadership has recognized this.”
Regarding the original Feb. 2 incident, Wylie ISD reiterated that the situation was a procedural failure regarding visitor procedures, “not an intentional effort to promote any religious viewpoint or organization.” The district stated that campus staff skipped a required verification step, adding that “if that 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 reinforced expectations with campuses and updated club and visitor procedures to help ensure a situation like this does not happen again,” a spokesperson said.
The hearing comes amid a broader push by Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Keith Self, R-Texas, who launched the “Sharia Free America Caucus” late last year to counter what they describe as a threat to American civil liberties.
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Representatives Chip Roy and Keith Self launched the Sharia-Free America 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 oversight.
“This was not a procedural failure as the school has said,” Self said. “It was intentional, it had happened before, and they were just caught by a young man who wasn't going to let it happen without a counterattack.”
Wylie ISD disputed Self's comments in a statement to Fox News Digital, calling the congressman's comments “disappointing” and saying he never contacted district leadership or campus administration to discuss the matter.
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Roy echoed Self's concerns in comments to Fox News Digital, saying that Sharia influence is spreading rapidly in Texas, with “more than 300 mosques and proposals for Muslim-only cities.” He applauded the high school student for speaking.
“Marco has seen the consequences firsthand at his own high school and I applaud his bravery for speaking out and telling the truth about how the growing influence of Islam is affecting our state,” he said.
