A bill pending before the General Assembly has drawn the ire of Muslim rights advocates who say it’s a thinly disguised effort to stigmatize Muslims and undermine their religious traditions.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations on Friday claimed that legislation by freshman Del. Rick Morris, an Isle of Wight Republican, would prevent courts from applying religious traditions to proceedings, such as the execution of a will, and is based on a template created by anti-Muslim extremists.
As written, Morris’ HB631 would prohibit courts from relying on foreign law in their rulings if doing so would violate a citizen’s federal or state constitutional rights.
It would also apply to mediators, administrative agencies and other “enforcement” authorities making binding adjudicative decisions.
Gadeir Abbas, the council’s attorney, said that language is intended to prevent the use of Shariah law, the Muslim religious code. He said it would also prohibit the application of the Catholic equivalent, canon law, and other religious guidelines.
But the man sponsoring the bills says critics have it all wrong.
“It’s definitely not an anti-Muslim bill,” Morris said in a brief phone interview Friday.
He said his goal is to make it clear that Virginia judges can rely only on state and federal law in their rulings, something he said state code currently is silent on.
The suddenly controversial bill is scheduled to be heard by a House subcommittee Monday.
But Morris plans to ask colleagues to defer action while he refines the proposal whose purpose, he said, is to apply American laws to family situations such as custody disputes, premarital agreements, divorce and the division of assets.
Abbas said the bill would stop a judge from dispersing a Muslim’s assets according to his or her will if it was based on Shariah law.
He also noted there are language echoes between the version of Morris’ bill listed on the Virginia legislative website and model legislation that CAIR says has been circulated by an anti-Muslim activist.
Morris has enlisted fellow first-term Del. David Ramadan, a Northern Virginia Republican and native of Lebanon, to advocate for the bill.
Ramadan said he and Morris have a shared vision to “make sure this is not a bill against anybody in particular” but rather is about “protecting U.S. laws, first and foremost.”