A proposed Tennessee law would make following the Islamic code known as Shariah law a felony, punishable by 15 years in jail.
State Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, and state Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, introduced the same bill in the Senate and House last week. It calls Shariah law a danger to homeland security and gives the attorney general authority to investigate complaints and decide who's practicing it.
The bill labels any adherence to Shariah law - which includes religious practices such as feet washing and prayers - as treasonous and goes on to claim Shariah adherents want to replace the Constitution with their religious law.
A dozen other states are considering anti-Shariah bills, and there's a federal lawsuit in Oklahoma over one at the moment.
The Attorney General's Office had no comment but as yet the President and his administration has refused to speak against these anti-Muslim measures.
Despite their being Political parties for legalizing pedophilia, incest and animal sex in many western countries it seems to advocate and call for laws to be drawn up in a form set by God is too much for Europeans as well as Americans and French, German, Belgian, Dutch and British political parties have all said Shariah can have no place in their respective nations.
State rep. Judd Matheny, the House speaker told the Tennessean newspaper he is concerned that aspects of Shariah law might conflict with the U.S. Constitution, but he does not intend to criminalize practices such as the preparations for prayer or dietary rules. He said he would consider amending the bill before asking the legislature to consider it.
"I'm still researching it," he said. "My intent is to educate and to look at it."
So despite not actually knowing what Shariah is, he intends to outlaw it anyway!
For State rep. Judd Matheny and others, Shariah is the code of practice that covers every aspect of a Muslims life, from how to dress, to eat, but also including issues relating to what in the west is considered civil law such as martial agreements, custody and inheritance.
It does also include a set penal code, but no one is putting that into practice even in most Muslim countries, thanks for americans threating to bomb people back to the stone age if they try but what Muslims practice in the west is the personal and civil code aspects of shariah law.
It is in these areas that non-binding arbitration panels have been set up, allowing some aspects of shariah law to be used in civil cases just as it is for Judaism in every western country.
Almost all anti-Shariah bills in US states would ban courts from citing Shariah law in such circumstances but yet are silent on the issue for Jews for some reason.
Oklahoma voters approved a referendum in November that banned state courts from using Shariah law in their rulings. Thankfully one federal judge had a some sense and has for now blocked the Oklahoma law from being implemented, pending a federal lawsuit claiming it is unconstitutional.
The Tennessee bill however goes much further by proposing criminal penalties for following Shariah in civil cases.
Matheny said the bill was model legislation, given to him by the Tennessean Eagle Forum, extreme right-wing conservative advocacy group and Bobbie Patray, state president of the Eagle Forum, confirmed that the law had been drafted by David Yerushalmi, a Chandler, Ariz.-based attorney.
Yerushalmi runs the Society of Americans for National Existence, a nonprofit organisation that says following Shariah is treasonous. He is also a Jew who seems to have no problem what so ever in Jews including himself using their own rules in arbitration over civil matters... apparently that is not trasonous.
Charles Haynes, a senior scholar with the First Amendment Center in Nashville, disagrees with the Tennessee bill against Shariah saying the bill is based on a complete misunderstanding of Shariah law, which he described as a set of voluntary religious rules, similar to Catholic canon law or Jewish religious law.
"The bill is wrongheaded, he said. "It's complete nonsense."
"Civil law and the Constitution of the United States trumps religious law," he said. "The government can't label religious laws as wrong or treasonous or evil. The government may not take sides in religion. It may not say what is a good religion or a bad religion."
Selah Sbenaty, a member of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, said state legislators have bigger problems to worry about than Shariah law. He wishes they would spend more time trying to fix the state's economy and less time worrying about Islam.
"I believe this bill is a waste of our tax dollars, and I am sure the bill will not pass," he said. "The people of Tennessee are good, loving, hospitable, and do not tolerate bigotry."
We hope Selah Sbenaty is correct, because for Muslims living in the US and western europe we are increasingly feeling like another oppressed minority from not so long ago who faced increasing bigotry, then legal measures before finally expulsion and extermination.
This cannot be undone and I am sure it will be greatly appreciated.
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