Janelle Bowles, a member of the Peoria Unified School District governing board, is in hot water, but no one is saying exactly why. No one dares, but everyone agrees that she said something awful, positively unacceptable, about the left’s favored religion: Islam. The only question is what to do about it now.
None of the available reports spell out exactly what Janelle Bowles said. That is in keeping with the ridiculous nanny state mentality that prevails everywhere today: the public cannot be trusted to see what Bowles said, as people will immediately grab torches and go burn down the local mosque, or threaten the friendly halal butcher who always has a smile for everyone. The Arizona Republic can’t risk the consequences that could come from reporting accurately on the news. If it prints “hate,” hateful people will run with it, don’t you see? The public can’t be trusted to make a sober and informed decision of its own.
The Arizona Republic reported the sad story on Saturday, noting that “over a dozen community members demanded action against what they described as Islamophobic comments made by a Peoria Unified School District governing board member.” It seems that “during a June 9 district board meeting, speakers said Janelle Bowles had shared posts on social media rejecting Islam as a religion, claimed Muslim families indoctrinate their children and suggested the religion would take over the country.”
For that, “several district staff and parents asked for her resignation or the governing board to formally censure her.” It seems that “Bowles’ comments made Muslim students feel unsafe in their own schools and normalized prejudice against them.” Students also “cited concerns of the rise in Islamophobia, as seen by a recent local attack on Phoenix mosque during Ramadan.” Bowles said she would agree to a meeting, but only if certain individuals and groups that might threaten her safety were not included.
Assa Abuseif, executive director of the Arizona chapter of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), was enraged, saying: “It is deeply troubling that after hearing concerns from Muslim families and community members, Board Member Bowles responded by exploring whether certain individuals or organizations could be banned from future meetings.”
CAIR lawyer Martin Quezada added fuel to the fire, mentioning the recent attack at a San Diego mosque and saying: “That attack didn’t happen in a vacuum. It happened in a climate where Islamophobia is being normalized, from social media, to Congress, to state legislators, and sadly, to school board seats. These are not harmless opinions, these are Islamophobia from someone who is supposed to be a trusted adult for every child in this district.”
All this because Bowles “had shared posts on social media rejecting Islam as a religion, claimed Muslim families indoctrinate their children and suggested the religion would take over the country.”
Islam is indeed a religion, as it does what all religions do: claim to relate human beings to the divine. But those who say that Islam is not a religion are attempting to emphasize a fact that has been completely ignored in American public discourse: that Islam is more than a religion in the Western sense. It is a total way of life, and includes a political system that is authoritarian, supremacist, violent, and expansionist. Bowles seems to have been drawing attention to that fact, as she “suggested the religion would take over the country.”
Now, Janelle Bowles is facing calls for her resignation for stating that Islam “would take over the country,” but what about all the Muslims who have boasted about exactly that? Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, preached on Feb. 2, 2024 that America was on its way out, and that the world had to prepare accordingly: “America has grown old. It is old. It is on the verge of retirement. It is about to be admitted into a nursing home.” The solution for America as well as for the rest of the world, said Salah, was the religion of Muhammad. He even claimed that Muhammad himself had prophesied an Islamic America: “The Prophet Muhammad has said: ‘A small army of Muslims will conquer the white house, the house of Kisar [the Persian ruler].’” In case any of his listeners missed his point, he continued, “Ever since the days of Adam and to day—this is 2024—we have never known of any house that was built and named ‘the White House,’ except for the ‘White House’ in Washington.” He didn’t bother to disclose to his audience why a Persian ruler was occupying America’s Executive Mansion. Instead, Salah drove home the point that Islam was in America’s future: “Perhaps this hadith is clear evidence that the future caliphate [that will follow] the ways of the prophets will lead to the spreading of Islam, and Islam will enter every home in every continent without exception, including every home in America.”
This is a more common view than most non-Muslims realize. a Muslim speaker told a large crowd in New York City at a rally in Feb. 2026: “Oh, don’t scare them, brothers! Relax! They’re over here on purpose to be like, ‘Oh my God!’ Who’s seen those videos where they’re like, ‘Oh my God, the Muslims are taking over New York City!’ Seen those? You seen those? Let them know that we are taking over New York City! Takbir!” The crowd responded with enthusiastic screams of “Allahu akbar.”
Related: What One Illinois Speaker Said About Islam and America Has People Talking
This also recalled a video that surfaced back in Dec. 2025, in which a young Somali Muslim in the U.S. holds a large photo of President Donald Trump and says: “My biggest fear in life is that this man may never witness our full takeover. Yes, he may never wi— witness that. He already witnessed our partial takeover, our little success, in America…. So. He’s old and sick, I know, he may not witness our full takeover. But I promise you that his sons will witness.”
On May 27, 2026 at the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, the imam Esam Omeish said: “The best thing we can do to America is help guide it with the guidance of Islam, and help guide it with the ability to rid itself of these illnesses that our Prophet Muhammad has described and has given us the prescription for.”
But Janelle Bowles is under fire for saying that Islam would take over the country. And the Arizona Republic publishes the outrage against her as if it were legitimate. This is what happens whenever anyone calls attention to the dangers of the spread of Sharia in the U.S.: the media assumes that Sharia is entirely private and benign, and that the person sounding the warning is a dangerous “Islamophobic” who must be publicly shamed. This is not how a free people survives as a free people, and as long as it keeps up, we won’t.
