Anti-sharia laws proliferate as Trump strikes hostile tone toward Muslims

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Anti-sharia laws proliferate as Trump strikes hostile tone toward Muslims

Twenty-three bills have been introduced in 18 state legislatures this year to ban the practice of Islamic law – critics say the aim is to spread fear about Muslims

Ed Pilkington in New York
Sat 30 Dec ‘17 16.35 GMT

Anti-sharia legislation is spreading in state legislatures across the US, as Donald Trump’s hostile stance towards Muslims appears to be emboldening rightwing Islamaphobes.

In 2017 there were 23 new bills introduced in 18 states attempting to prohibit the practice of Islamic religious law, or sharia, in US courts. The rash of new bills brings the total number of such legislative efforts since 2010 to 217 in 43 states, according to the Haas Institute at UC Berkeley which monitors the anti-sharia movement.

Legal experts point out that the bills are superfluous, as the US constitution is the supreme law of the land and any foreign laws are subservient to it. Sharia itself is less a set of laws than religious guidelines, one of which requires Muslims to be law-abiding according to the rules of whichever country they find themselves.

But Elsadig Elsheikh, director of the global justice program at the Haas Institute that carried out the research, said the purpose of the bills was to spread fear about Muslims living in America and to portray them as untrustworthy and out of step with American values. “Even if these bills do not become law they help to subject Muslims to surveillance and other forms of exclusion and discrimination,” he said.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/30/anti-sharia-laws-trump-muslims

[virgogal]

1. I know virtually nothing about Sharia laws but

would like to know how they effect the lives of women.

[Voltaire2]

2. they have no legal standing in this country.

However religious communities frequently impose their religious laws on their members. For example, ultra-orthodox jewish communities are notorious in this respect. Technically adherence is voluntary, in reality it isn't.

Sharia law is a shit show of oppression, just like the religious laws of other fundamentalist religions.

[guillaumeb]

4. In a country where the judicial system is based on Sharia, that is one thing.

But there is no such system in this country. Roy Moore talked of Sharia law in Illinois. I live in Illinois, in an area with a large Muslim population, and Sharia based law is a right wing fear/fantasy.

[MineralMan]

3. Anti-Sharia laws in the US demonstrate the paucity of reason

on the far right. It's quite shocking, really.

[Pope George Ringo II]

5. Technically, wouldn't the First Amendment qualify as an anti-Sharia law?

Or are we only supposed to want laws which discriminate on which religions are considered more desirable than others?

[MineralMan]

6. I'm still waiting for the last of the Blue Laws

to disappear. They are the remnants of religions trying to dictate laws in the USA. Most, like laws making contraceptives illegal, are gone, but some remain, still.

I'm not worried about Islamic law, not in a country with less than 1% of the population being Muslims. I'm worried about the Christian Right trying to push biblical law on us all. Many have that as a goal. Fear what is most likely, not what is least.