Texas legislator moves to stop Shariah
Targets constitutional abuses from Islam, immigration, presidential impostors
A Texas legislator has proposed a state constitutional amendment that would effectively bar courts in the Lone Star State from considering Islamic, or Shariah, law in deciding cases.
Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, earlier this month submitted House Joint Resolution No. 57, which would amend the Texas Constitution to read, "A court of this state shall uphold the laws of the Constitution of the United States, this Constitution, federal laws and laws of this state. A court of this state may not enforce, consider or apply any religious or cultural law."
Berman has been a controversial figure in Texas, repeatedly filing bills on today's hottest constitutional controversies:
* For example, Berman filed a bill that would nullify the national health-care legislation commonly called Obamacare in Texas as an unconstitutional overreach of federal authority;
* He filed a bill that would require candidates for president or vice president to show their birth certificates to the secretary of state before being allowed on the ballot;
* And he filed a bill asking his state to reconsider the constitutionality of allowing illegal immigrants to pay reduced, in-state tuition at public colleges and universities.
Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned Berman's latest bill, as well as similar measures in other states that would ban Shariah law from American courts. Hooper claims the constitutional amendment is an attack on the religious freedom of Muslims.
"What we are seeing is those that are trying to enact laws targeting the American Muslim community's constitutional rights realize they are not going to pass legal muster," Hooper told The American Independent. "So they are finding backdoor, roundabout ways to accomplish the same thing."
Thomas Kidd, a senior fellow at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, also criticized Berman's bill, calling its language an "ill-conceived" attempt to block Shariah in the U.S.
"In the end, this amendment implies that religion and culture cannot influence our law as Texans. The problem is that religion and culture inform all law," Kidd writes in a Houston Chronicle editorial. "Texans overwhelmingly approved a ban on same-sex marriage in 2005 – would anyone deny that much of the support for this amendment emerged from religious conviction? Let's not throw out the baby with the bathwater."
Berman, however, says American courts need to recognize they are bound by constitutional law alone, and not subject to the whims of men or multiculturalism.
"A lot of federal courts are referring to international courts and laws of other countries. We want to make sure our courts are not doing this, especially in regards to cultural laws," Berman told The American Independent. "If that includes Shariah law, then so be it."
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