More than 200 Tennessee Muslims turned out at the Legislative Plaza Tuesday to oppose an anti-terrorism bill that started out as a direct assault against Islam.
As first presented, the anti-terrorism bill made it a felony to follow Muslim Shariah law. Those references to a particular religion are to be amended out, according to sponsors Senator Bill Ketron and Representative Judd Matheny.
But Sabina Mohyuddin, a worker at a Nashville mosque, says the law is still unfair to whoever is targeted.
“When the bill had the Shariah, a lot of people wrote in, and when the Shariah was taken out, people were, like, it’s OK. but when Representative Matheny gave me the amended bill, and when you read through it, you realize, there was so much in it that could still violate due process.”
The rewritten bill allows the governor and the attorney general, without consulting any court, to name a group as being of “material support” to terrorists. The evidence doesn’t have to be made public.
State law enforcement officials haven’t taken a position on the bill.
The bill will be put off until next week in both the House and the Senate, according to the sponsors.
WEB EXTRA
The bill is HB 1353 Matheny/SB 1028 Ketron, an anti-terrorism act. Scheduling for the bill may be followed here.
The amendment would completely replace the existing language. Although the amendment hadn’t been posted on the state legislative web page at the time we filed this story, we published a draft with the following story:
Senator Converts Sharia Bill to Anti-Terrorist Measure
Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, says neither state police, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation nor the governor’s office have weighed in on the bill.
She says the federal government already has a law in place to designate terrorist entities and questioned what a state law would accomplish.
“So it would seem to be in the best interests of our state, that we put this bill on hold, and sit at a table together with law enforcement, to determine whether or not they even think it’s appropriate.”
Mohyuddin, who says she was born and grew up in Nashville, lives in Tullahoma and works with youth and other groups at the Nashville Mosque, says the Muslim community has been targeted by the bill.
“And Muslim community, we are not very big. We have one mosque and some activities going on. It’s not mega-mosque, mega-churches, or anything like that. This is the way we try to keep our faith. We are a minority here.”
Mohyuddin says the original bill was written by David Yerushalmi, an Arizona lawyer who has tried to get Shariah labeled as a “sect” bent on world domination.
The Anti-Defamation League’s mission is to fight anti-Semitism. But they have come in on the side of Muslims on this issue. The ADL profile of David Yerushalmi, the author of model anti-Shariah legislation, is here.
This link to David Yerushalmi’s law office web page includes a note on a “continuing education” course on foreign laws, including criticism of Shariah law.
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