Politico’s Alice Miranda Ollstein and Josh Gerstein reported this week that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told conservative Christian faith leaders on a private call that he was preparing to take action to roll back abortion access nationwide.
“Todd Blanche’s promise to anti-abortion extremists to make Dobbs ‘permanent in every state’ is an open declaration of his intention to use the Justice Department to stop the delivery of abortion medication through telehealth and attack existing shield law protections,” said Nourbese Flint, President of All* Above All in a news release. “The lie they told us in the aftermath of Dobbs was that it was about sending abortion law back to the states, but we have known all along that anti-abortion zealots like Todd Blanche would not stop until they could restrict our bodily autonomy to the furthest degree. Combined with his willingness to revisit the Justice Department’s interpretation of the Comstock Act, his pledge to protect clinic harassers from prosecution under the FACE Act, and his promise that changes to medication abortion access are coming ‘soon,’ it is clear that he intends to use the Justice Department to further criminalize pregnancy and abortion care. Further, his willingness to use the power of the Department to advance Donald Trump’s dangerous political agenda is a threat to the very function of our democracy.”
The now-deleted video of Blanche was posted by Washington D.C.-based nonprofit Intercessors for America (IFA). Founded in 1973 by Derek Prince and John Beckett, the group boasts that it “has informed, connected, and mobilized a growing number of people praying and fasting for the nation.”
Co-founder Prince, a Charismatic Christian, was a pioneer of “deliverance ministry,” the kind of exorcism popular with gubernatorial candidate Victor Marx, among man4y others. Prince was also a leader in the Shepherding movement, also called the discipleship movement or the Christian Growth Movement, an effort to provide meaning and order through house churches and cell groups to address a lack of spiritual maturity of the Charismatic believers in the 1970s and early 1980s. Like many Charismatic groups, critics noted that it quickly deteriorated into a cult-like environment.
IFA’s website identifies four key areas of activism: religious freedom, gender and sexuality, life, and marriage and family. In addition to hosting prayer calls with the acting U.S. Attorney General, IFA has protested events held by the Satanic Temple, and was one of the presenters at the 2026 Western Conservative Summit at Colorado Christian University. IFA CEO Dave Kubal led a ceremony dedicating Colorado to God, and IFA Chief Program Officer Kris Kubal led an hour and a half-long breakout session titled “The Sharia Threat in America.”
Concerns about sharia law — the body of Islamic religious law based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and hadith — have become increasingly common talking points on the political right. Controversy erupted in Plano over the East Plano Islamic Center’s (EPIC) plan for a 400-acre development. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched a campaign against what he called the “sharia city.” Abbott, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a number of investigations against EPIC while using their social media reach to regularly speak out against the mosque’s efforts.
“The leaders behind EPIC City have engaged in a radical plot to destroy hundreds of acres of beautiful Texas land and line their own pockets,” said Paxton in a Dec. 5, 2025 news release. “I will relentlessly bring the full force of the law against anyone who thinks they can ignore the rules and hurt Texans. The unlawful land project known as EPIC City will be stopped, and those responsible will be barred from ever creating another fraudulent operation like this again.”
Representatives from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) condemned the remarks and actions from Texas politicians.
“The governor’s rhetoric is fueling anti-Muslim bigotry and putting Texas Muslims at risk,” said Mustafaa Carroll, executive director of CAIR’s Dallas-Fort Worth chapter, in a Sept. 13, 2025 news release. “To single out Islamic practices as uniquely threatening undermines the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This approach sets a dangerous precedent, suggesting the government can discriminate against religious minorities based on popular misconceptions or political expediency.”
In December, Jake Lang, a pardoned Jan. 6 rioter who was recently arrested for vandalism in Minnesota, organized a protest in Plano where he held a severed pig’s head and led a small crowd around Plano with a banner reading “Americans against Islamification.”
Community Capital Partners, the group behind the development, now called “The Meadow,” released a January news release pushing back against the claims made by Abbott, Paxton, and others. “The Meadow is a proposed 400-acre master-planned community designed to serve families at every stage of life,” they wrote. “Plans include homes, parks and green space, schools, healthcare facilities, retail, senior living options, and houses of worship, including a mosque. The plan allows for multiple houses of worship, reflecting the community’s open and inclusive design. From the outset, the project has been open to anyone who chooses to live there and is being developed in full compliance with all local, state, and federal laws … The Meadow is about building a connected, multigenerational community rooted in neighborliness, dignity, and opportunity. It is about inclusion, shared civic values, and building a community where people of all backgrounds can live, connect, and thrive. Claims suggesting otherwise, including references to ‘sharia law,’ are false. No religious practice or private belief supersedes local, state, or federal law, and The Meadow is being planned entirely within those legal frameworks.”
A proposed mosque in the undeveloped area just outside of Colorado Springs city limits, has drawn protesters and led to a series of classes from Act for America at Rep. Scott Bottoms’ (R-Colorado Springs) Church at Briargate. According to the Islamic Society of Colorado Springs, the mosque will consist of a 14,680-square-foot facility on 5 acres.
Kubal’s breakout session at the Western Conservative Summit was packed nearly to capacity, and among the audience was Ted Mische, the public/private partnership liaison for Education ReEnvisioned BOCES who trains conservative school boards. The presentation itself was essentially “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” but for Muslims. According to Kubal, Muslims are literally demonic and in league with Satan. Kubal compared the preparation of halal food to animal sacrifices, described “immigration as jihad,” and claimed Muslims take part in “man boy love Thursdays.”
The 2026 Western Conservative Summit also featured appearances from Senators Barb Kirkmeyer (R-Weld County), Lisa Frizell (R-Castle Rock), and John Carson (R-Highlands Ranch) and Representatives Jarvis Caldwell (R-Monument) and Anthony Hartsook (R-Parker), a keynote address from former Vice President Mike Pence, and speakers from the Daniels Fund, the El Pomar Foundation, the Anschutz Foundation, and the Coors Foundation.
