Muslims See ‘Foreign Law’ Bill as Attack on Shariah

A national drive against citing “foreign” laws in U.S. courts–one that critics say is a veiled attack on Islamic Shariah law–has reached the state with the nation’s largest concentration of Muslims.

The Michigan bill, which mirrors “American Laws for American Courts” legislation introduced in more than 20 other states, was introduced in June by state Rep. Dave Agema, Grandville Republican. He has argued that it has nothing to do with Islam or the faith’s Koran-based Shariah law, but is designed to stop anyone who seeks to invoke a foreign law in state courts.

Mr. Agema’s proposal has not made it out of committee, but still has raised cries of racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia from groups such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Michigan chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council of American-Islamic Relations, which have threatened to file a lawsuit if state lawmakers approve the measure.

“If anybody has a problem with this, that means they don’t agree with U.S. laws,” Mr. Agema told the Detroit News. “If they don’t want it passed, then they have an ulterior agenda. It shows the people accusing me of bigotry are guilty of it themselves.”

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Victor Begg, a Republican and senior adviser to the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan, calls the legislation “hogwash” and said it is clear there is an underlying agenda. He suggested that such measures moving through more than 20 states are part of an organized and well-funded “witch hunt” and that Islam and Muslim-Americans are the real targets.

“We are appalled that our elected officials would waste their time on something that is unnecessary,” Mr. Begg said, noting Michigan’s economic woes, including one of the nation’s highest jobless rates.

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Voters in Oklahoma overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in November that bans the use of Islamic law in court. In June, Tennessee enacted a law that, as originally written, would have empowered the state attorney general to designate Islamic groups suspected of terrorist activity as “Shariah organizations.”

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A study by the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., looked at 50 appellate cases from 23 states and found that Shariah law had been applied or formally recognized in court decisions.

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