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Congressman Keith Self has spent much of his life serving and defending America, and today, that fight continues in Washington, D.C.
In this episode of Let’s Talk Local, Congressman Self joins host Sarah Zubiate Bennett for a candid conversation about the threat of radical Islamism, the rise of extremist ideologies, and the challenge of protecting both national security and the First Amendment.
They also discuss the growth of mosques across DFW and the controversy surrounding a major mosque expansion in McKinney, raising difficult questions about religious freedom, community concerns, and where the line should be drawn when extremist beliefs threaten American values.
How do we protect freedom of religion while confronting genuine extremism? What should local and federal leaders be watching for? And why does Congressman Self believe Americans need to pay closer attention?
Join Sarah and Congressman Keith Self as they tackle one of the most complicated and consequential conversations facing North Texas and the country.
Creators and Guests
What is Let's Talk Local?
Join host Sarah Zubiate Bennett on Let’s Talk Local as she uncovers the stories, people, and places shaping Dallas, fostering a stronger and more connected community—let's get to know the real Dallas!
Congressman Keith Self, I'm so grateful to you for being here. You have been such a strong voice for a long time, but as of late you've been in the media a lot surrounding this entire McKinney Islamic Association site. And if you would, just before we dive in, just for our viewers and listeners who might not be intimately familiar with this particular issue, Would you mind giving us some backstory, just a general backstory, actually occurred in McKinney?
Rep. Keith Self:Well, the specifics are that this mosque has been there for years now. They wanted to expand it dramatically to like 40,000 square feet. But the Planning and Zoning Commission said that was too much, so they cut it down all the way to 32,000. So I'm not sure the 8,000 difference, but they approved that. So this sits at the corner of a development, a housing development that has one entrance.
Rep. Keith Self:It is going to cause the local problems that everyone has been talking about. Traffic. They already walk across El Dorado there to a parking lot. They already need another parking lot, in other words. So this is going to be a major increase in everything that you can think of in that area.
Rep. Keith Self:That's what the citizens are speaking about. My issue is the broader issue of the Islamization of Texas. I'm using this as an example, but that is the local setting. So the city council meeting on August 4, they had estimates vary. I'm gonna use the word 500 citizens there.
Rep. Keith Self:Most of them arguing against the approval of the next step, which the city council understands as administrative. Well, that's a state issue because if it's administrative, why do you have to have the city council voting on it? But let's set that aside. So most of the 500, depending on what figure you want to use, were against it. Many of them spoke, some of them did not.
Rep. Keith Self:They simply registered. But, the city council then voted seven to zero. Unanimous. So unanimously approved this next step. So some courageous citizens then looked at the way they think the city council has been ignoring the citizens of McKinney for years.
Rep. Keith Self:The big issue, of course, being the airport. The citizens have voted against an airport bond twice now. There are other issues, the bypass, the parking garage. There are other issues, but the litany is what actually brought the recall petition about. And they're very careful to say this is a litany of actions by the city council that has caused the recall.
Rep. Keith Self:So there are four members that are not up for reelection in the next election that they're trying to recall because the others will already be on the election. So all they want all seven members to be on the next election. So they need approximately 6,000 votes to have the little buffer to make sure they're all correct. So they've got until September 26 to get the 6,000 votes. I don't know if it will be successful or not, but I do know they've already made the statement that the citizens are unhappy with their elected officials.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yes, thank you for that recap. I appreciate it. Just some backstories to why this issue is so critical and important to me. I've interviewed Sam Westrop, who's a brilliant man, director of the Islamic Watch at the Middle East Forum, he's terrific. But recently, just a few weeks ago, we were in the air flying through Montenegro, Switzerland, had a brief moment in Istanbul as well.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:My 13 year old son, he's a twin but he's the one that's very hard hitting in his faith. As we were descending in Istanbul, he turned to me first and said I asked him, Hey, please do me a favor and just place your cross inside of your shirt. And he said, Please ask Poppy. Poppy's Monty. So I said, Okay.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I turned to Monty and he said, Buddy, it's our job to keep you safe right now so that we don't run into any trouble and we can get to where we're going, just tuck it in. And my son looks at me and says, If I have to die for Jesus Christ, defending my faith as an adult, I'll be happy to do it. And he's like, But I understand that it's your job to keep me safe. And so I personally had never been in a territory like Istanbul that was, let's call
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:it 90% practicing Muslims ever. I know yourself, you have a very, very different background than I do.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:A wonderful one, but different. And I told myself, you know, if I'm not as courageous as my kid, what is the point of everything that I'm doing? And all of my fight and resolve and courage stems from that critical point for myself. My faith, but also being inspired by that kid of mine. So I bring it back to local, right?
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:To local space, let's talk local. And after reviewing a bunch of footage, I asked myself, you know, I am so against the divisiveness right now occurring in the world. I think it's sickening. But I am going to, as I constantly have, be courageous with respect to my faith. That is something that I will not relent on.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And this McKinney Islamic Association site plan, what I actually did, I kind of did some research on what you have done with respect to this at a national level as a congressman. So, you have put forth the Preserving Our Constitution Act. And I think right now it's held up in the judiciary committee?
Rep. Keith Self:It is. It's been referred to the judiciary committee.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And so I have written an open letter to the House Judiciary Committee, listed individual names requesting them as chairwoman of the Dallas Express, host of this show, and I want other people, other constituents in these members' districts to be aware of the fact that this is something that you have done. What are the next steps and how can constituents of this judiciary committee ensure that they are helping prioritize this?
Rep. Keith Self:Well, contact your members of Congress, of course, because there are both there will be a majority Republicans on this committee, a minority of Democrats. Mhmm. But it is it is imperative that each of them contact their own member of congress
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:In writing.
Rep. Keith Self:As a constituent in writing.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Mhmm.
Rep. Keith Self:And I will tell you, it's best to have a handwritten note. Next would be a typed note. Last would be an email or a phone call. The hard copy, handwritten is by far the most powerful.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And can you sum up what this would actually solve if it was passed?
Rep. Keith Self:It would solve what we already see happening actually here in Dallas with the Islamic tribunal of North Dallas. Because they are already portraying themselves as a true judiciary, a judiciary function that sits alongside The US law. So this would say that no association, no court, no body can accept any of these Sharia based Islamic decrees, whatever they are. It could be, for instance, often we see contract marriages that they want to do the contract under Sharia, under Islamic law, and that they want that to take precedence over US law. That is the issue.
Rep. Keith Self:We want nothing to take precedence over The US law. We don't want a legal system that sits alongside or even tries to supplant US law.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right. And you understand US law. You're a former judge. Can you tell us a little bit about your military background?
Rep. Keith Self:I can. I grew up in Amarillo, went off to West Point from the Panhandle. I was an airborne ranger before I graduated from West Point. I went to airborne school and ranger school during the summers. So I started out in the eighty second Airborne Division at Fort Bragg.
Rep. Keith Self:I basically had tour several tours in the eighty second, several tours in in special forces. I employed once with the eighty second into combat. I did have a heavy tour, and then I got into the joint world. I served in the embassy in Cairo, which was my first experience up close and personal with, with, Islamic culture.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Mhmm.
Rep. Keith Self:I also served in the Pentagon in the very, very secret waived special access programs. I was in the European command where I worked with the IDF, the Israeli IDF. I was actually stationed in Germany but worked with them because at that time they were underneath the European command. And then I was in the NATO military headquarters working again in an Islamic environment in Bosnia Herzegovina because one third of the population there or one of the three entities there is Muslim. Then I was recalled to active duty and sent to Afghanistan and to Qatar in The Gulf to work for Tommy Franks.
Rep. Keith Self:So obviously, that was my third or fourth iteration in The Middle East working with the Islamic culture. So I understand what the culture does to the individual.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right. I appreciate that. I wanted our viewers and listeners to understand that you are not just a congressman for the sake of being one. You come with a voice of wisdom, of experience and courage. So that I think was a really important distinction to make.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Are you familiar with who Josh Howerton is?
Rep. Keith Self:I am not.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay. He breaks down the Islamic eschatology in just a very, very brief way. And even though we attend or my kids and I attend a Catholic church, he is Protestant and I donate to him and we go to the cowboy church as well but I just wanted to include his brief breakdown is positively brilliant and that's what drives my viewpoint home as a woman who's read cover to cover several times the Bible. So this brief bit:
Josh Howerton Video:If you start doing a deep dive on Christian beliefs about the end times and Islamic beliefs about the end times, I'm gonna show you some things that are a gonna blow your mind and b gonna send a chill down your spine. In Islamic eschatology, there will be an end times messianic figure that's called the Mahdi that usher in the end of the world and paradise in Islam. Now, I'm gonna bullet point for you what Muslims believe the Mahdi will do. If you are a Bible aware Christian, you're gonna have a whole bunch of, like, flashing red lights in your head going, woah, woah, woah. That sounds familiar.
Josh Howerton Video:In Islamic eschatology, the Mahdi will emerge as a charismatic messianic world leader during global chaos. He will take control of the world and destroy everyone who resists him. He will invade many nations. He will rule and reign for seven years. He will broker a seven year peace treaty with the Jews.
Josh Howerton Video:He will conquer Israel and massacre the Jews. He will establish an Islamic one world government headquartered in Jerusalem. He will establish Islam as the only acceptable religion. He will come on a white horse Hello. With supernatural power doing signs and wonders.
Josh Howerton Video:He will be assisted by a powerful prophet. Now listen. If any of that sounds familiar, it is a precise description of the bible's antichrist. Islam's Mahdi is the Christian antichrist. Now let me go one last layer deeper.
Josh Howerton Video:If you view Ezekiel 38 Yeah. As an eschatological prophecy, then what you're waiting for is that at the end, a bunch of nations in the world will gather against Israel. They will wage a multi front war, and it's gonna look like Israel is gonna be destroyed. And that at that moment is the moment that Jesus Christ will return, war horse tattoo on his thigh, fire in his eyes, sword out of his mouth, and he will destroy them and put down the enemies of God. Now, dude, here's what's insane.
Josh Howerton Video:It's using the names for those nations in the time that Ezekiel was written. Gog and Magog corresponds to to, primarily Russia and Central Asia, Mesheketubal, that's Turkey, Persia is Iran, Kush is Sudan, Put is Libya, Gomer is Turkey, and Beth Togarmah is also Turkey. All but one of those today are Islamic nations. And guess what? Is the fastest growing religion in the only one of those nations that is not yet an Islamic nation, Russia?
Josh Howerton Video:Islam. Wow.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Moving over to this McKinney space again. The council members, at least everything that I've read, said that the decision was essentially ministerial or procedural and whether the submitted site plan complied with its existing zoning and city ordinances rather than a discretionary vote on whether McKinney should permit Islam or a mosque generally. Are you familiar with who Sam Westrop is?
Rep. Keith Self:I am.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay, perfect. I'm glad that we have that there. What I did was I listened to a clip from Sam and I will play it for you now because I do think it's pretty relevant. And I ran a comparative analysis on all of the institutions and persons that he individually referenced, not in my interview with him that dropped on April 15, but on a separate one that was more recent from the end of July. So let's take a look at this if we can.
Sam Westrop Video:The history of Sharia finance in the West has important Texas roots. Yahya Abdulrahman, frequently described as the father of Islamic banking, moved to Dallas in 1971, where he began developing the contractual and institutional foundations for Sharia compliant mortgages. Subsequent development in the field was led by scholars associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Pakistan's Jamati Islami and Deyabandi movements, and financial bodies in the Arab Gulf and Malaysia, who developed religious rulings authorizing new mortgage and investment structures. Islamists sought to control this growing industry. One conference on the permissibility of Sharia home financing held in Detroit in 1999 was chaired by Sheikh Yusuf al Qaladawi, the late spiritual leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.
Sam Westrop Video:It was his last time in The United States. The federal government subsequently banned this Islamist leader, citing his open support for terrorism. Multiple clerics at that conference today sit on the advisory boards of Sharia finance companies operating here in Texas, where they sit alongside representatives of foreign extremist organizations. These include clerics associated with the dangerous Deobandi movement in South Asia, such as Taki Usmani, the top Sharia scholar of Pakistan. In his writings, Usmani declares that aggressive jihad must continue until the unbelievers are humbled or overpowered.
Sam Westrop Video:Over a dozen Sharia finance companies today openly solicit in mosques across the state, partnering with proxies and affiliates for the Muslim Brotherhood, Jamati Islami, Thayabandis, Salafis, and Islamist movements active and other Islamist movements active in The United States.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I wanted to show that to you because I ran a comparative analysis between persons that he'd mentioned, institutions he'd mentioned with ties up in McKinney. And there were some ties that I actually ran across, a documented institutional link was between the McKinney Islamic Association leadership and the broader American Sharia Finance Scholarly Network. This is where I know should your bill be passed there would be meaningful work and justice brought to said institutions. Were you able to outline whenever you were speaking in McKinney in footage that we did not see what those ties were?
Rep. Keith Self:No. I had two minutes. To actually, I thought I was going to have three, so I only had two, so I had to truncate my comments to begin with. So I tried to go through history because we have fourteen hundred years of history here that we cannot ignore. So I used my two minutes along those lines.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:So back to what the council members are saying. They're saying that defenders rejecting a compliant religious site plan solely because it's Muslim, that would create a huge First Amendment problem. So they're wanting to do what is lawful and legal. How can you respond to that?
Rep. Keith Self:Well, that is probably the key question that we are going to have to get at as Americans.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Rep. Keith Self:Because the First Amendment has five freedoms in it. It's going to be religion, speech, and assembly are the three that they are going to throw in our face. But we as Americans have to understand that to us, faith, religion, matters of conscience belong to the individual.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Rep. Keith Self:That's yours.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Rep. Keith Self:The government can't monitor those, can't tell you what to do. On the other hand, conduct under the law is governed. So when we talk about Sharia law, when we talk about Islam, I I have a trouble I have trouble finding the faith in the in the Sharia law to begin with.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Rep. Keith Self:Everything is commanded to include the five times a day, the prayer five times a day. Everything is a command. There is that I can find in my Western mind matters of faith. I have this ability to make a decision. It's lacking under Sharia law.
Rep. Keith Self:So it has a veneer of religion. And let's take the ultimate example. If someone wants to leave Islam, what is the punishment?
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Death.
Rep. Keith Self:It's death. That's right. That's the ultimate example. But there are other examples that we could go into. Right now, I also have a bill that that is sanctioning, it actually passed the house, the imams in Iran that have a fatwa against president Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.
Rep. Keith Self:But it it outlines a particularly horrific manner of death. It tortures before you die.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Rep. Keith Self:And that's those sorts of things we Americans have to understand because when somebody says religion to us, it means something. It's a matter of faith, that's yours individually. No one can tell you what you believe and how to believe. I find that lacking.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:What I did was I went back to Dearborn, Michigan and the majority MENA ancestry, so that's I think it says that 54.5% is where they exist there and for MENA it's the Middle Eastern or North African census, it was stating that this was from 2020. Let's call it 60,000 of Dearborn's, 109 back then 1,000 residents identified as MENA, Middle Eastern or North African. And then they break it down, right? Lebanese, Yemeni, Iraqi and then Arab. But then I found an additional supporting academic study from 2020 that says that recruiting from the Dearborn area, they found that 84.4% of its respondents identified as Muslim.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And the clips that I have seen coming out of Dearborn are frightening. They're frightening to me which is why I want to go there because I've gone back and seen different clips and I'm going to show you two of them. One is from a gentleman who was leading a protest in the streets and then I asked Shannon to go back and do an exact conversion of the lyrics which just say we're children of Iran, we're soldiers of Khomeini I guess who has recently died. We stand for our leader, we will not abound in our country, will defend Iran. And here's one of the clips from Dearborn.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And then the second one is the Dearborn mayor, who I know received some heat for this, but this is also pretty disturbing. I'm sure you've seen this, but for our viewers.
Video Narrator:Dearborn's Muslim mayor sparks outrage after debate with local.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And although you live here, I want you to know as mayor, you are not welcome here.
Video Narrator:The incident came after Ted Barham raised concerns about street signs honoring news publisher Osama Sablani who praised Hezbollah.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I feel like having that sign up there, it's almost like having, you know, name me a street, Hezbollah Street or Hamas Street.
Video Narrator:Well, if the man was hoping for dialogue, that's what he didn't get as Dearborn mayor Abdullah Hamud was quick to attack.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:You're an Islamophobe. And the day you move out of the city will be the day that I launch a parade celebrating the fact that you moved out of the city.
Video Narrator:These words caught on camera caused outrage in social media. Internet users said Hamud is unworthy of being mayor and should leave the position.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:So these are just two clips that I've recently seen in my feed from Dearborn. Can you help people piece together how the majority of the constituents there in Dearborn were able to navigate how they were able to navigate the legal framework of The United States and how you and the work that you're doing is in hopes and effort to fight against that becoming a possibility in Texas.
Rep. Keith Self:Yeah, it's probably to start, I think, at the bottom, at the beginning, we are too complacent. There has not been a generation in America since my mother's generation that grew up during the Great Depression and World War II. There was about a sixteen year period there from 1929 to 1945 that was they saw deprivation, true deprivation. Now, we've had incidents and trouble since then, but not true deprivation for the bulk of our citizens. Even COVID didn't match the Great Depression and World War II.
Rep. Keith Self:So we are too complacent. We think life can go on as it has gone on for the last sixty years.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:But
Rep. Keith Self:freedom must be maintained. So we have
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:to
Rep. Keith Self:understand Islam. We have to understand Sharia law. We have to understand that they are commanded to take over whatever culture they're in. The history is Lebanon, Syria, Egypt. They were all Christian for six hundred years or more.
Rep. Keith Self:And look at them now. 90 plus percent Muslim and Egypt is the only one that has a significant Christian population, 10% Coptic Christians, ethnic Christians. So, we have to understand what we're facing. They are commanded to take over and horrifically if they have to. Now, they've decided, and I can show you dozens of clips just like those too, where imams across America are openly preaching sedition.
Rep. Keith Self:So what they do is they get accommodated, just like McKinney is trying to do. That's first. And then they go to the intimidation phase when they reach a certain point. That they and I think across America, they think they've reached the tipping point. Why are they on the offense with all of these these seditious videos that they're making?
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yep.
Rep. Keith Self:And then they start taking power at school board, at the city council, at the county commissioner's court. There are 230 plus Muslims in office across America today.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Rep. Keith Self:And they are openly saying that we will change the White House and we will change Congress to be Muslim. So that's what people must understand. This is a long project. They think long term. And they're executing it well.
Rep. Keith Self:And McKinney is simply one very small local example of what's happening.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's exactly right. And one of my favorites right now is Brigitte Gabriel, and I know know who she is.
Rep. Keith Self:I do. I know her.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:You do.
Rep. Keith Self:She's spoken to the Sharia Free America Caucus. Beautiful.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And she is doing God's work in my opinion. But she is a woman. Her family was bombed, days had to stay hidden. Shannon, would you just play this clip that Bridget so elegantly, I think, states?
Brigitte Gabriel:There are 1,200,000,000 Muslims in the world today. Of course, not all of them are radicals. The majority of them are peaceful people. The radicals are estimated to be between 15 to 25% according to all intelligence services around the world. That leaves seventy five percent of them peaceful people.
Brigitte Gabriel:But when you look at 15 to 25% of the world Muslim population, you're looking at a 180,000,000 to 300,000,000 people dedicated to the destruction of Western civilization. That is as big of The United States. So why should we worry about the radicals 15 to 25%? Because it is the radicals that kill. Because it is the radicals that behead and massacre.
Brigitte Gabriel:When you look throughout history, when you look at all the lessons of history, most Germans were peaceful, yet the Nazis drove the agenda. And as a result, sixty million people died. Almost 14,000,000 in concentration camps. 6,000,000 were Jews. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
Brigitte Gabriel:On September 11 in The United States, we had 2,300,000 Arab Muslims living in The United States. It took 19 hijackers, 19 radicals to bring America down to its knees, destroy the World Trade Center, attack the Pentagon, and and kill almost 3,000 Americans that day. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Her words, her voice, her again, her life of experience is critical I believe for every single person in The United States to understand. I am not sure if my family who are Democrats see clips like hers in their feed. I'm not sure. And I love them. And I so desperately want them to understand why I am so passionate about this particular topic.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I am not trying to be divisive. I do not want that to happen in our country. What is it that drives you? If you want to expand upon your experience on maybe adding something to Bridget's comments. Do you have anything personal that is front and center when you reflect?
Rep. Keith Self:Go back and find the clip of the 19 Yazidi young women
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Okay.
Rep. Keith Self:That were burned in a cage because they refused to became become sex slaves to Muslims.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yep.
Rep. Keith Self:Let's say there are some secular Muslims in America that want to assimilate. Yes. They want to be Muslims, but they want to be Americans.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:The Mailees are great at that. Yep.
Rep. Keith Self:But let's when the jihadis take that power in the school board and the city council and the commissioner's court, and they start turning things into Dearborn, they will be given a choice. Yep. You will wear the garb. You will
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:hijab.
Rep. Keith Self:Yep. You will do all of the things that are commanded
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yep.
Rep. Keith Self:Under Sharia law. Mhmm. They will have a choice.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Yep.
Rep. Keith Self:And I believe that as well meaning as they might be Mhmm. When that day comes, they will choose to submit to Sharia law because Islam, the very word means submission. The very word Islam means submission. And that is the only choice they will have. So we're not only fighting for non Muslim Americans, we're also fighting for those Muslims that might want to
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Who are peaceful.
Rep. Keith Self:Assimilated into American society.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Rep. Keith Self:Because when the jihadis take control, they'll be given that choice. Submit or die.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's exactly right.
Rep. Keith Self:So this is and and look. Look at The UK. We just have to look at The UK. We don't have to look back to Lebanon, Syria, and Egypt. Look at The UK, 250,000 at a minimum that we know about.
Rep. Keith Self:Young Muslim, non Muslim girls abducted off of the street, passed around the gang members like chattel, like property, and then put back on the street. Rape is horrible, but it's also a symbol of the dominance that they intend to exercise over the British populace, and they are doing it. And here's the real key to that, is the police are not going after the rape gang members because they're afraid of being called racist or Islamophobe. They're going after the girls in some cases because of public drunkenness or whatever. So they are already turning Great Britain into an Islamic state.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Rep. Keith Self:So when you simply look at, again, the fourteen hundred years of history, you don't have to go back fourteen hundred years, go back to what's happening in Great Britain today.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Thank you for that because that perspective is clear, it's balanced, and it's factual. Thank you for that. You know, people constantly make this a right and left thing. And of course I vote conservative at this point in my life, I haven't always. I'm a Latina from El Paso, Texas.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:My biological mother was so poor she gave me up for adoption at birth. My parents, who are both now deceased, were in their 80s when they passed away last year in 2022. But they were Democrats to the day that they died, my parents. But they were also Catholic Christians and much more traditional in their way of thinking. And it wasn't until I was in college and then I had the wonderful gift of meeting my biological mother who instead of aborting me gave me up for adoption because she couldn't afford to feed me.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:They're all citizens now, my mother and my three siblings. Although we weren't raised together, we all vote similarly because my birth mother who gave me up for adoption, that woman has struggled. She has endured significant pain, hardship, depravity, war and she understands what it's like to suffer, to come to The United States legally. She had to give up one of her kids to come here. So although all of us had pretty difficult upbringings, myself and my two older siblings, my younger not as much, we understand what it looks like to live a life that does not always guarantee citizenship, freedom and what it means to be American.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:A true American who fights for our American way of life. And she suffered to come to The United States legally. So with that being said, I find clips of Obama and different politicians who make remarks about Christianity not being the sole religion and how Islam has always been part of the founding principles. And I'd like your response to this. Shannon, would you mind playing this part of the clip?
Video:We are no longer a Christian nation. We do not consider ourselves a Christian nation. The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Since our founding, American Muslims have enriched The United States. Islam has always been a part of America's story.
Video:There is a mosque in every state in our union and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. Let there be no doubt. Islam is a part of America.
@blakebozarth:Okay. So he does say something there that was really factual. But first off, America was roughly 98% Christian at our founding and effectively 0% Muslim. In fact, for the first two hundred years of a nation's history, we were 90 plus percent Christian. We have such profoundly Christian roots.
@blakebozarth:But what he did say that Islam has always been a part of America's story? That is actually true. Let's look at that story, though. Here's the history. So America is a fresh new nation, just won our independence from Great Britain.
@blakebozarth:We no longer have the protection of the British Royal Navy. And Muslim states, the Barbary states, start attacking our merchant ships. They start enslaving American sailors, and they start holding them for ransom. So much so that in one year, it added up to about 16% of the annual federal budget, how much they were extorting us for ransom. So Thomas Jefferson goes over to meet with the ambassador from those Muslim states, and here's what he said.
@blakebozarth:He gotta he gotta hear this. We took the liberty to make some inquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong nor had given us any provocation. The ambassador, the Muslim ambassador, answered us that it was founded on the laws of their prophet, that it was written in their Quran that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Muslim who should be slain in battle was sure to go to paradise. So the only real solution was to raise up a powerful navy that could beat back these Muslim states, and that's what we did. Almost every ex Muslim will tell you the same hard truth.
@blakebozarth:Their behavior looks really different when they don't have power versus when they do have power. People in The UK will tell you that same story. We should not be welcoming the spread of Islam in this nation because because Islam is fundamentally incompatible with Christian based Western civilization. Jesus is Lord in his time that America returns to our Christian roots.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:What do you have to say to those particular comments? Because you speak in a way that is not divisive and I've always appreciated and respected that about you. You are intelligent and you are experienced. What can you say with respect to those few clips and how politicians like Obama unfortunately, primarily Democratic and some conservative but right now we're just going to talk about the Democratic are being used by Qatar, by large financing operations to speak like this.
Rep. Keith Self:Let's go back to we do have religious freedom here. Look, every constitution says they have religious freedom. The Russian constitution says they have religious freedom. Doesn't mean anything. It does here in The United States.
Rep. Keith Self:We have religious freedom, so Muslims are free to come. Muslims are not free to supplant and actually destroy the US constitution. That's the difference. Because the and again, I don't know why, but in the last few years, the imams across The United States have gone on the offensive, preaching sedition against The United States. Now, lot of that is because of the money that you mentioned, the Qatari money, the Saudi money, the UAE money.
Rep. Keith Self:We know it is financing a lot of these compounds that are coming into America, particularly Texas. And here are some of the local compounds they know are being funded. I think UAE was the one funding the one in Kaufman County. They got stopped. So we know that a lot of the extraordinary sums of money that we see are coming from The Middle East.
Rep. Keith Self:So again, back to what he said, Muslims have not been a major part of The United States. We've always had a few. Now there are advertisements in The Middle East come to Dallas.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Thank you for that. And the interesting part to me is that the McKinney City Council representatives who voted unanimously in favor to approve this site, many of them, most of them, the majority are tied to Republican, conservative viewpoints. Mayor Bill Cox, strong evidence that he's Republican conservative. Rick Franklin, same thing. Feltis, I think, is more left leaning.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Beller, more Democratic from what I found. Ernest Lynch, some conservative support, can't really confirm his party, the non partisan affiliation and then Michael Jones, I'm not entirely sure. So I don't understand how people who state that they are conservative fundamentally vote in favor of this particular site. Can you give some background that I am just not understanding? Do they understand things that you and I are missing?
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:What is happening?
Rep. Keith Self:First of all, will say I see this a lot in Congress. And I say that there are people who are theoretically, philosophically conservative. They can give you the playbook line by line, verse by verse on the conservative playbook. They are operationally at least moderate, if not liberal. They cannot bring themselves to be conservative when they vote, when they actually meet an issue.
Rep. Keith Self:For instance, in South Carolina, Ralph Norman right now is in the runoff for US senator.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Rep. Keith Self:He has an a plus rating for the pro life group, and yet they endorsed the opponent. He has an a plus rating from the South Carolina pro life group, yet they endorsed the opponent who has no record. Okay. So let's get back to McKinney.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Uh-huh.
Rep. Keith Self:We have to understand that the developers have controlled McKinney for many years. And the developers are going to develop. That's where they make their money. It's early. It's in the development.
Rep. Keith Self:So George Fuller, former mayor of McKinney, is a developer. And I compare him to Vladimir Putin in Russia. Because Vladimir Putin, if you remember back a few years, he stepped down to the number two slot and let Medvedev take the top spot for a while. George is now on the McKinney Economic Development Corporation. He stepped down to a lower position, a subordinate position.
Rep. Keith Self:But if you see what's going on in this recall now, he is very much the leader of the opposition.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Absolutely.
Rep. Keith Self:So I think in my mind that's very reminiscent of Vladimir Putin tactically stepping down, but maintaining the power behind the throne.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And I believe, stated correct me if I'm wrong I think he even said petitioners, signers, names, and addresses become public records and that people should be prepared to stand behind their decision. I might be misquoting, misrepresenting, but I believe that is what I have seen on circulating videos. Is that true?
Rep. Keith Self:Absolutely. In writing as well. It's a threat. Is Yep. Public Public record.
Rep. Keith Self:But telling people they're going to have to own it is a threat. And we need to we just need to be very clear. The cabal that has run McKinney for a while is fighting back against this, which is just another indication of how courageous this was because the citizens basically said, enough. You didn't listen to us on this issue, this issue, this issue. So now they are saying, no mas.
Rep. Keith Self:It's we've had enough. So whether this is successful or not, this is how bullies and tyrants are taken down. People wake up and they say, oh yeah, maybe we ought to look at this. So if nothing else, that's how it gets started. So I'm applauding the McKinney citizens who started the recall effort if for no other reason to start to shine light on what's happening.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I agree with you. Kind of back over to your world of the airport. Can you also shed some light on how the constituents did not feel heard or were not heard with respect to that issue?
Rep. Keith Self:Absolutely. First of all, when I was the county judge, the Perots owned that land for a long time. So I went to them and I said, what was the vision for the McKinney Airport long term?
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And
Rep. Keith Self:I was told that originally it was meant to be the third passenger airport in the Metroplex. And at the time I was the county judge, the actual flying public of DFW lives along the county line between Collin and Dallas County, not over in Southlake, which you would think is the CEO sort of town, but it's there. So there is some and I frankly was a cheerleader for the airport while I was the county judge, but the citizens weren't there. Certainly, Fairview wasn't because of the noise, lineup of the runways. But McKinney wasn't either.
Rep. Keith Self:So twice the McKinney residents voted down bond elections for the airport. So I think the citizens were very clear. We're just not there yet. And when you look at the McKinney debt, fully a third of the McKinney budget goes to debt service. So I understand.
Rep. Keith Self:If the citizens are looking at that, they don't want to start then adding more debt on for the airport when they're already, I think it's 38% or something, is actually debt service of the entire McKinney budget. That's a lot.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:So
Rep. Keith Self:then the city council chopped it down, made it much smaller, took it out of the budget, and is building, is developing right now the terminal on the east side of the airport. And they do have an air airline. I've forgotten the name of it. That's going to fly a couple of flights a week to the resort destinations, Las Vegas and so forth. So that's kind of where it stands today.
Rep. Keith Self:But the citizens have been very clear. And again, the airport is only one in this list of this litany of issues that they have with the city council.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And these are issues that are happening across not just our metroplex at the council level everywhere, but across our entire country. What advice do you have for business leaders and for employees of large businesses, of constituents everywhere regarding how we and they can best stand together?
Rep. Keith Self:Get involved. I hear people ask me all the time, but what can I do? What can I as an individual citizen do? And I say, do something. Do something.
Rep. Keith Self:Certainly, without doubt, go to the school board meetings. In fact, as a matter of fact, school board meetings. Before COVID, nobody went to school board meetings. After COVID, when the parents realized what was happening to their children Yep. Everybody goes to school board meetings or or did for a while.
Rep. Keith Self:So go to school board meetings. Go to city council meetings. Hold your elected officials accountable. Go to your county commissioners court meetings. Know what's in the budget.
Rep. Keith Self:How many McKinney residents do you think know that 38% of their budget is debt service? That's darn close to 40% of the budget goes to debt. You know, so I mean, and and when you look at debt across The United States, we all focus on the $40,000,000,000,000 of national debt. That's huge. But when you look at state debt and local debt, it's truly frightening.
Rep. Keith Self:And who pays all of that? Families, businesses, ultimately consumers.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right. And do you have any words that you'd like to share with our state leadership as to how they can help your bill pass, help the particular issue that we initially discussed relating to Islamization. Any words there?
Rep. Keith Self:Yeah, I think the state has got to get involved because the counties and the cities are creations of the state. They answer to the state. The state must give county commissioners, courts, and city councils more authority to stop this because we have two world views on full throated view here. We have the world view that we are so suicidally empathetic that we will destroy the freedoms that we have if we allow this to metastasize. The other world view is Western civilization, which Churchill called Christian civilization, is worthy to be defended.
Rep. Keith Self:So the state, I think, has got to give more authority to the cities and the county commissioners' courts because right now they don't have it. So the citizens are going to have to demand that they exercise some discretion that the state law may not give them right now. But you have to defend, your your city, your county. You just have to. Because remember, the US constitution is in the state oath of office.
Rep. Keith Self:Yep. I looked it up. It's in the state oath of office. So The US constitution and Sharia law are absolutely totally incompatible. What does a city council member do?
Rep. Keith Self:What does a school board member do? What does a county commissioner do? The state needs to help them.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:And what about any words to our pastoral leadership? Our many different denominations, our multi denominational framework as Christians. Do you have any words to say to them?
Rep. Keith Self:Yeah, I've got a lot. Me too. I go back to the Revolutionary War. Do you know who the British blamed the Revolutionary War on? The black robed regiment.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:I'm not aware of this.
Rep. Keith Self:The pastors.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Uh-huh.
Rep. Keith Self:That's who the British blamed the revolutionary war on because they were full throated, we are we should be independent from the pulpit. Now the Johnson amendment, named after our Texan, says that you cannot preach politics from the pulpit. It's been tried once. Only once has it gone to court. The black pastors are very courageous in this area.
Rep. Keith Self:They preach from the pulpit.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right.
Rep. Keith Self:And nothing happens to them. It's our white pastors that exhibit this suicidal empathy. Yep. And I understand it. They want to stay inside the church family.
Rep. Keith Self:They want to stay preaching the gospel. They want people to know Jesus. I understand that. But we also are locked in spiritual war here against a political ideology that will destroy that very freedom that Christians enjoy today in America.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:That's right. And do you have any other words aside from the wonderful words of wisdom you've already shared?
Rep. Keith Self:We need Americans to understand this is an existential threat. We've got 57 Muslim nations across the world. Most of them were not conquered by conquest. They were infiltrated and they were beaten into submission over time. And that's what we see in America today.
Sarah Zubiate Bennett:Couldn't agree more with you. Thank you so much for your time. You so much for being here with me. And I look forward to seeing you again.
Rep. Keith Self:Thank you so much. Thank you.