Is North Carolina Turning Into an Islamic State?

A loose, funny opening on The Smith and Rowland Show quickly turned into a sharp warning about North Carolina, Ramadan, and the silence many Christians feel around public faith. If you heard the title and wondered what the hosts were actually reacting to, their concern was not small or symbolic in their eyes.

Jeff Rowland and Alan Smith treated a North Carolina Ramadan proclamation as a serious sign of where the culture is moving, and they tied it to a larger call for the local church to wake up. Their argument was blunt, emotional, and rooted in spiritual warfare.

A joking start turned into a serious warning

The episode opened with the kind of banter longtime listeners would expect. The hosts joked about being tired, fumbled a fake sponsor read for "Sleep Aid," and wandered into a running bit about CPAP machines. One line summed up the mood early on: "All you need is a good CPAP machine. You'll dream like you're a pilot flying an airplane."

They kept the bit going with jokes about not researching their "sponsor" and even teased a made-up AI product called "Chat Redneck AI." That light start mattered because it made the shift in tone stand out even more. Within minutes, laughter gave way to anger.

A few of the opening gags set the stage:

• They joked they were "sponsored by your local sleep aid."
• They admitted the whole sponsor setup was based on hearsay.
• They turned the conversation into a bit about building their own AI tool.

Then the mood changed. Rowland said he was upset, not in a vague way, but in a way that had been building. Smith agreed. What followed was not casual political talk. It was a warning from two men who believe government language about religion matters, and that Christians should stop treating public declarations as harmless background noise.

That sharp turn is one reason the episode lands hard. The humor makes the urgency feel more real, because it is clear the hosts were not looking for a fight that day. They felt they had found one.

Why the North Carolina Ramadan proclamation hit so hard

The heart of the episode was a proclamation from North Carolina Governor Josh Stein recognizing Ramadan from February 17 through March 19, 2026. Rowland said he had only recently learned about it, and that the discovery hit him with force. He also said the previous governor, Roy Cooper, had made a similar proclamation, which made the issue feel less like a one-time gesture and more like a pattern.

That reaction was tied to something else happening closer to home. Rowland spoke at length about a recent visit from a woman from Iran who had spoken at New Life Church, including a women's gathering the day before. He said he felt an immediate spiritual confirmation when he first heard she might come. He did not know her personally, but he believed her visit was meaningful and timed by God.

In his view, that church visit and the governor's proclamation belonged in the same conversation. He saw both as signs that a local church in his area was being confronted with a clear choice. Either it would recognize a spiritual assignment, or it would stay passive.

Rowland also said he later learned that 66 other cities in America had made similar proclamations. That widened the issue for him. He argued that many public figures object when the name of Jesus enters the public square, often using the phrase "separation of church and state," yet seem comfortable recognizing Islamic observance in formal government language.

He connected that tension to a broader concern about America itself. He traced it back decades, even mentioning Ronald Reagan-era immigration amnesty, and framed it as a long-term cultural and spiritual shift rather than a sudden event.

Why this troubles the hosts as Christians

For Rowland, the biggest problem was not only the proclamation itself. It was what he believes the proclamation reveals about the spiritual condition of the state and the nation.

He quoted Psalm 11:3:

"If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

That verse became the lens for the rest of his argument. He had just seen three young people, roughly ages 8 to 14, give their hearts to Christ in a Bible study. So his concern became personal. What kind of state will those children grow up in if the church keeps quiet? What kind of public life will they inherit if Christians treat every warning sign as someone else's problem?

What the official proclamation says

Smith read through the proclamation on air and treated the language as the key issue. He and Rowland were not reacting to a rumor. They were reacting to a signed state document.

The main points are easy to summarize in one view:

Smith and Rowland said the language goes beyond simple acknowledgment. Their concern centered on the line that commends the observance of Ramadan to all residents. They also focused on the mention of the Quran and its teachings. Smith said a proclamation may not be law, but he still saw it as serious because public declarations from government carry moral and cultural weight.

Rowland compared that kind of declaration to the way kings made proclamations in the Old Testament. He was clear that this is not law in the same sense, but he argued that formal public recognition still shapes what a state honors.

The hosts also brought in larger religious population numbers. Smith said AI had given him figures of about 2 billion Muslims worldwide and about 2.6 billion Christians worldwide, with Christians broken into major groups such as Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox believers. He used those numbers to push back on optimistic views that expect Christianity to steadily overtake the world before Christ returns. In his mind, those numbers point to a harder spiritual reality.

They also made a stronger claim during the episode, saying the Quran teaches violence toward infidels and citing Quran 2:9 as part of that concern. That reference was part of their broader argument that recommending Islamic observance is not neutral language in a Christian nation.

Why they see local churches as front-line churches

One of the strongest themes in the episode was not politics. It was the role of the local church. Rowland kept returning to that point because, in his view, every area has a church with a mandate to confront darkness head-on.

He said he believes New Life Church is that church in his local area. He tied that belief to the visit from the Iranian woman and to what he saw as a direct invitation from the Holy Spirit. He also widened the idea beyond his own county. He mentioned Dearborn, Michigan, a city often associated with a large Muslim population, and said he believes there is a church there too that is called to speak truth and proclaim the gospel without fear.

That belief shaped his next step. He said he planned to rally people in his Sunday night Bible study to pray and intercede for New Life. He was not calling for vague support. He was calling for focused prayer around a church he believes has been summoned into battle.

A key line summed up the whole section:

"This is wartime."

Rowland argued that many believers still act as if the church is in practice mode, or worse, in entertainment mode. He said the church is in a spiritual war and needs people who know how to stand, pray, and work together under pressure.

His military story sharpened the point. When he joined the military in the early 1980s, he chose the 82nd Airborne because, as he put it, if war came, he wanted to be with people who knew what they were doing. He used that story as an analogy for the church. In spiritual warfare, he said, believers cannot afford confusion, passivity, or betrayal from inside the ranks.

Why they reject passivity and fence-sitting

Rowland tied the church's passivity to Romans 13:11, "knowing the time." He said many Christians do not understand the season they are living in. Because of that, they waste time, soften their language, and hope the pressure will pass.

He also described much of the modern church in terms of apostasy. Smith agreed. They spoke of people who think they are rich, secure, and in need of nothing, yet cannot hear a trumpet when it sounds. For them, spiritual deafness is one of the central problems of the hour.

Rowland even made a provocative comparison. He said Muslims who are not radicalized are not fully Muslim in any meaningful sense, just as Christians who are not radical about Jesus are not truly Christian. Whether a listener agrees with that line or not, it shows how strongly he rejects comfortable, low-cost faith.

The Prince of Persia and the spiritual warfare frame behind the episode

The most intense part of the conversation came when Smith widened the frame from North Carolina politics to biblical geography and spiritual conflict. He spoke about the "prince of Persia" from the book of Daniel and treated that figure as a living spiritual reality, not only an ancient text reference.

He walked through the scene in Daniel where a messenger is delayed while Daniel fasts and prays for 21 days, until Michael is sent to help. For Smith, that story shows the scale of the battle attached to Persia. Rowland agreed and pushed the point harder, saying he believes the prince of Persia is among the highest-ranking evil powers opposing God's purposes.

Smith then mapped that biblical conflict onto the modern Middle East. He described the region around Iran and Iraq, near the upper end of the Persian Gulf, as ground that has been spiritually contested since the beginning. He referenced the traditional view that the Garden of Eden was in that area, noted Babylon's place nearby, and said evil has fought the word of God from that region since Eden, Daniel, and beyond.

That was the framework behind several other claims in the episode. Smith said Iran has fueled most modern terrorism through oil money and training. He also said he believes the Antichrist will come from that world, likely as a Syrian or Arab Muslim figure. Those statements are part of the hosts' prophetic reading of current events, and they shape how they interpret even a state-level proclamation in North Carolina.

Rowland then brought in Chuck Missler, whose teaching he said he listens to often. He referenced Missler's warning that America could face the "abandonment wrath of God," meaning God does not need to destroy the nation actively. He would only need to remove His hand of protection.

Why they think evil is closer to America now

Smith used a vivid image to describe what he thinks is happening. He compared the moment to hot lava rolling downhill after a volcano erupts. It may move slowly, but once it reaches you, it destroys everything in its path.

That image captured their sense of timing. They do not think the danger is theoretical or distant. They think it is already moving.

They also spoke of America as a nation born under biblical influence about 250 years ago and preserved through repeated acts of divine mercy. Smith said he believes America once had so much prayer, and so much spiritual resistance, that certain dark powers could not gain the same foothold here. Now, he believes those barriers are weaker.

For both men, the Ramadan proclamation is not the whole story. It is a sign that something larger has reached the doorstep.

The warning ends with a call to use spiritual weapons

By the end of the episode, the political issue had become a church issue, and the church issue had become a warfare issue. Rowland said believers need to use every spiritual weapon God has given them. He referenced the biblical line that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

That was his answer to the fear and frustration running through the conversation. He was not calling for panic. He was calling for clarity, prayer, courage, and a refusal to waste time.

He also stressed that New Life is not the only church that matters. In his view, every community has churches that make up the body of Christ together. Yet he still believes certain congregations receive a distinct assignment for a certain hour. When that call comes, a church has to decide whether it will receive it or reject it.

Final thoughts

The question raised in this episode was larger than a single proclamation. Smith and Rowland treated it as a test of whether Christians still recognize when public life, spiritual conflict, and church responsibility collide.

Their strongest point was also their simplest one: passivity has a cost. If the church cannot hear the trumpet now, it will struggle to stand when the pressure grows.