Anti-Sharia bill is attack on religion, Muslims assert
By Joel Davis (joeld@thedailytimes.com)
Even as Bill French brought his warning about the Islamic law to Blount County Tea Partiers, a First Amendment struggle involving Sharia is playing out in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Increasing media attention is focusing on Republican state lawmakers who have proposed a bill that would make following Sharia a felony punishable by 15 years in jail.
The bill, by state Rep. Judd Matheny of Tullahoma and state Sen. Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro, states that it exempts the peaceful practice of Islam, but it also labels any adherence to Sharia 1/21/2" which includes peaceful religious practices 1/21/2" as treasonous.
Amir Arain, spokesman for the Islamic Center of Nashville, said the bill is an attack on his ability to practice his religion: “Sharia basically means the principles by which we live our lives. Sharia means ‘the way to the waters’ by literal meaning. It is similar to what the Jewish law is or the canon law by which the Jews and Christians live their lives. It’s nothing more than that.
“This anti-Sharia bill that is being promoted is going to curtail our civil liberties, and we have concerns about it. They are going to demonize all our faith.”
Charles Haynes, a senior scholar at the First Amendment Center in Washington, D.C., said that Sharia is a complex body of religious dictates and advice with myriad interpretations. “Shariah is a term that covers all Islamic law. It’s first and foremost a set of general principles. Those principles have been interpreted through the centuries in various ways by different schools of thought within Islam and applied in different ways in different countries.”
Sharia, like any religious system, can be abused if taken to extremes, Haynes said. It has been used to justify harsh and barbaric behavior in some parts of the world.
“It is very true in some parts of the world Islamic law is interpreted by extremist or radicals in ways that are violent,” Haynes said. “There are many of these radical groups around the world. That’s why it is easy to frighten people. Most Muslims in the United States and around the world condemn these applications of Sharia law. Many Muslims believe Islam is compatible with democracy and freedom.”
Arain said that allegations that Islam as a whole promotes terrorism are untrue. “That’s completely out of the question. They’re just trying to demonize the faith. We have fundamentalists and terrorists in every faith. It doesn’t mean that the terrorists define the faith.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
