Missouri is now the latest state seeking to ban its courts from consulting Sharia law. A bill introduced on Tuesday by State Rep. Paul Curtman (R) would bar courts from taking any foreign law, legal code or system into consideration when deciding cases.
Category Archives: State Oppression
Tennessee: faith and civil liberties groups call for withdrawal of anti-sharia bill
Local Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders and representatives from the national Council on American-Islamic Relations gathered near the Tennessee Capitol this afternoon to ask an anti-Shariah bill be withdrawn. They fear that the law would make it illegal to be Muslim in Tennessee.
“All of a sudden, I pray using the Koran or the Sunnas of the Prophet, and it’s a crime,” said Imam Yusuf Abdullah of Masjid Al-Islam in Nashville. “What kind of bill is that?”
The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, and in the House by Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma. Supporters say it only applies to terrorists, and one section says, “This part neither targets, nor incidentally prohibits or inhibits, the peaceful practice of any religion, and in particular, the practice of Islam by its adherents.”
However, the bill also claims that Shariah law demands the overthrow of the U.S. Constitution: “The knowing adherence to sharia and to foreign sharia authorities is prima facie evidence of an act in support of the overthrow of the United States government….”
It gives the state attorney general the right to say who is practicing any kind of Shariah law – which includes prayers, marriage and dietary restrictions – and who is in support of it. Those convicted would be guilty of a Class B felony punishable by a fine, not less than 15 years in prison or both.
German president defends school veil ban
German President Christian Wulff wrapped up a trip to the Gulf states on Monday, with a question-and-answer session at the University of Doha in Qatar. Wulff answered a veiled student’s question with a defense of a ban on burqas in German schools.
“The conscious decision to cover yourself up clashes with the duty of the state to educate its children,” he said. “Showing your face is part of a free society.”
A person wearing a burqa in Europe appeared to be calling into question the equality between men and women, Wulff said. “But we don’t want to question this equality.”
Lawsuit alleges FBI violated Muslims’ freedom of religion
An FBI informant who infiltrated a California mosque violated the constitutional rights of hundreds of Muslims by targeting them for surveillance because of their religion, the ACLU and a Muslim group said in a lawsuit Tuesday.
The lawsuit, filed against the FBI and seven of its agents and supervisors, focuses on the actions several years ago of Craig Monteilh, a paid FBI informant. Monteilh has said he was instructed to spy on worshipers at an Irvine mosque in a quest for potential terrorists, allegations that prompted fierce criticism of the FBI from some Muslims in Southern California and nationwide.
The lawsuit alleges that Monteilh was ordered by his FBI handlers to conduct “indiscriminate surveillance” of Muslims, violating their First Amendment right to freedom of religion. Filed on behalf of three Muslim plaintiffs, the 64-page document seeks class action status, unspecified damages and a court order instructing the FBI to destroy or return the information Monteilh collected.
“The FBI should be spending its time and resources investigating actual threats, not spying on every American who happens to worship at a mosque,” said Peter Bibring, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Southern California, which filed the complaint along with the Los Angeles office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
Washington Post, 22 February 2011
See also “Lawsuit contends FBI violated rights of hundreds of Muslim Americans”, L.A. Now, 22 February 2011
Dutch senator’s call for ban on sharia law is enthusiastically welcomed by Wilders
Christian Union Senator Roel Kuiper wants to amend the Dutch constitution to include a ban on Sharia, Islamic law. Senator Kuiper made his statement in an interview with newspaper Trouw.
The Christian Union politician wants to ban Islamic law because it is “not rooted in principles which form part of Dutch culture. Our rights, the way we treat each other, our norms of good and evil have all been molded by Christianity.”
Mr Kuiper argues that Islamic law is still grounded in retaliation, while the laws of a democratic constitutional state are geared toward forgiveness, correction and reconciliation. “Our laws are not based on ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’. Our legal system applies the law, but knows reconciliation must follow.” Senator Kuiper also wants to regulate the flow of money from Arab countries to Dutch mosques. The Christian Union politician says these measures are necessary “to take the Islam debate in the Netherlands a step forward”.
Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders has enthusiastically welcomed Senator Kuiper’s proposal. “Sharia is based on the Qur’an. So this means an end to head scarves, halal food, the Qur’an etc.”
Zakir Naik doesn’t preach hate shock
Controversial Islamic preacher Dr Zakir Naik addressed the Oxford Union on Friday despite the exclusion order against him entering the UK.
Naik gave a speech and answered questions via video link from India to a crowd of students and other onlookers at the event, organised by the famous debating society.
In his speech, Naik blamed the “virulent propaganda” in the media for the “misconception of Islam” and for his own ban on entry to the UK. He claimed the media printed portions of his speeches “out of context” and so portrayed him as a “preacher of hate”.
Home Secretary Theresa May excluded Naik from the UK last June after his “unacceptable behaviour”, referring to comments he made in speeches, which were then posted as YouTube videos. Naik defended himself during his address, declaring himself on a “mission is to spread peace”.
“Unfortunately today the media portrays Islam as a religion which promotes terrorism”, Naik said. “The media picks up on the black sheep of the Muslim community and portrays them as though they are exemplary Muslims.”
Despite the ban – a decision made as Naik’s presence in the UK “might not be conducive to the public good”, according to the Home Secretary – the controversial preacher was confident it would be temporary. “I have full faith that very shortly this exclusion order will be reversed”, he said. “I hope that I will have the chance to meet the Home Secretary personally and explain to her the peaceful message of Islam.”
During the hour-long talk, Naik referenced the Koran and Islam’s message of peace, and declared: “The only solution to the problem of humanity is peace. Irrespective of the differences, one common factor between all the people of the world is that all want peace.”
Naik was blunt in his statement that “Islam and I, too, condemn all forms of terrorism” and said: “Islam condemns the killing of any human being irrespective of caste colour or race, irrespective of nationality.”
Oxford Student, 17 February 2011
Cf. “Ofcom investigation into Peace TV”, Jewish Chronicle, 17 February 2011
Sarkozy tries to outflank Front National by reigniting ‘debate’ on Islam
Just days after saying that multiculturalism had failed in France, President Sarkozy is launching a debate on religion and the secular state, asking what limits should be placed on Islam.
Speaking to his UMP MPs at the Élysée, he said he wanted concrete measures on the place of Islam in France and its compatibility with the country’s secular laws.
He said the French had “paid dear” for their blindness towards immigration during the 1980s, when debate was taboo. “There was a growing disruption between the concerns of the media and the concerns of ordinary French people. The racists of yesterday are today’s populists.”
With the Martine Le Pen’s Front National rising in the polls, Mr Sarkozy adopted one of Ms Le Pen’s own themes last year, and expressed disapproval of the sight of Muslim street preachers, saying: “We had a debate on the burqa and it was well done. Now we should have a debate on street preachers. In a secular country, there’s no reason to have calls to prayer.”
Mr Sarkozy hopes to pull the rug from under the feet of the Front National by making radical Islam incompatible with the values of France.
He has made it one of the priorities for 2011 in the run-up to next year’s presidential election, echoing his words in last week’s televised talk with French citizens: “The truth is that in all our democracies we have been too preoccupied with the identity of those who arrived and not enough with the identity of the country that welcomed them.”
The Connexion, 17 February 2011
See also FaithWorld, 17 February 2011
British Muslim stranded in Canada because his name’s on US no-fly list
A British man says he’s stranded in Canada after being denied permission to fly home because he’s on the U.S. no-fly list.
Dawood Hepplewhite of Sheffield, England, turned up at Pearson Airport in Toronto on Sunday only to be told by an Air Transat official he couldn’t board the plane. “I got really upset at him – ‘How can you tell me I’m not allowed to go to my own country?'” Hepplewhite said late Tuesday in an interview.
An Air Transat spokesman did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
Hepplewhite, 30, divides his time between Sheffield and Toronto, where his Canadian wife Farhia and their three children reside. All five were planning to head back to England for an extended stay.
Hepplewhite says Air Canada and British Airways also refused to let him fly to England on Monday.
Airlines that operate from Canada have been known to reject passengers whose names are on the U.S. no-fly list. That’s because many flights pass over American airspace or may be forced to land at a U.S. airport in the event of an emergency.
Hepplewhite says he’s no security threat, but suspects he is on the no-fly list because he’s a white Muslim and attended a job interview in Yemen for a position teaching English a few years ago. “And when I came back to England I got pulled aside by the police.” But Hepplewhite abandoned any idea of working in the Middle-Eastern country and has been to Canada several times since that incident.
He was told this week to use the U.S. Transportation Security Administration’s redress process to try to get his name removed from the U.S. no-fly roster – a process that can take between 45 to 60 days.
Toronto Star, 16 February 2011
Update: See “British man on U.S. no-fly list headed home after delay in Canada”, Vacouver Sun, 16 February 2011
Further update: See “Ban strands family”, The Star, 18 February 2011
Canada: Conservative MP wants to ban veiled voting
OTTAWA — A Quebec Conservative MP introduced a private member’s bill Friday that would require Canadians to show their faces before they vote, reviving a debate first sparked more than three years ago.
Steven Blaney, who represents the Quebec riding of Levis-Bellechasse, said the bill would fix a “gap” in the electoral system and is not meant to discriminate against religious groups, such as Muslims. “For me it is important that we all share this transparency,” he said.
“We are all proud to live in this country, we are all proud to share (its) basic principles. I think one of these basic principles is transparency through our election and democratic process, so that’s why I’m presenting this bill and it is applying to everybody and treating everybody in the same way.”
Dutch government rejects headscarf ban in schools
Religious schools in the Netherlands may not ban Muslim pupils from wearing headscarves simply if it contradicts their core values, the cabinet said on Tuesday in answer to questions from the anti-Islam PVV.
In addition, the argument that the wearing of headscarves shows a lack of equality between men and women gets equally short-shrift from the ministers. “Fashion dictates all sorts of differences between the way men and woman dress,” the ministers said.
Meanwhile, a Muslim girl at the centre of a row over her headscarf at a Catholic school in Volendam has agreed to cover her head in the assembly hall and in school corridors only, the Telegraaf reports.