participants will include faith
leaders and representatives from the (CAIR), the
(ACLU), the , and the
(TIRRC).
"This
clearly unconstitutional and un-American legislation would make it illegal to
be a Muslim in the state of Tennessee," said , who will
take part in Tuesday's news conference. "Consideration of this
legislation, which completely disregards equality before the law, would send
the unfortunate message that Tennessee is an intolerant state."
He
called the legislation a "gross violation of both the Establishment and
Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment."
Abbas
said identical bills (House Bill 1353/) introduced earlier this
month in the Tennessee House and Senate would criminalize "Shariah
organizations," which in the language of the proposed legislation includes
two or more individuals who support any "rule, precept, instruction, or
edict arising directly from the extant rulings of any of the authoritative
schools of Islamic jurisprudence."??"What this bill ominously calls 'Shariah' is nothing more than
the religious traditions that all Muslims use to guide the practice of their
faith," said Abbas.
The
newspaper notes that the legislation "had been drafted by ,"
head of the anti-Islam hate group Society of Americans for National Existence
(SANE).
On
its now password-protected website, SANE offered a policy proposal that would
make "adherence to Islam" punishable by 20 years in prison, called
for the immediate deportation of all non-citizen Muslims and urged Congress to
declare war on the "Muslim Nation," which SANE defined as "all
Muslims."
SANE's
mission statement included white supremacist language such as: "America
was the handiwork of faithful Christians, mostly men, and almost entirely
white." Another online SANE article stated: "There is a reason the
founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote."
Yerushalmi
is also staff attorney for Frank Gaffney, president of the Washington-based
Center for Security Policy. Gaffney was a key witness for the plaintiffs in a
controversial lawsuit against a mosque being built in Tennessee.
Last
year, CAIR's Oklahoma chapter was successful in blocking certification of an
anti-Shariah amendment to that state's constitution. Other anti-Shariah bills
have been introduced or passed in more than a dozen states. The language of
many of those bills is modeled on David Yerushalmi's draft anti-Islam
legislation.
