Last week a committee in the Idaho Legislature agreed to introduce a bill designed to keep Shariah law and other foreign codes from becoming part of Idaho court decisions or government policies.
An Idaho State University instructor and a Pocatello doctor, both Muslims, have reservations about such legislation.
The bill was sponsored by Rep. Eric Redman, R-Athol, and it passed the Idaho House Ways and Means Committee on a partisan vote, with the three Democrats on the committee voting not to move the bill forward.
The Associated Press said Redmon’s bill must now be directed to a legislative panel for a hearing to move forward in the 2016 session.
Pocatello Dr. Fahim Rahim, a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, said state laws should not be considered if they damage the U.S. Constitution’s guarantees of freedom of religion.
“We live in the United States of America that has a constitution that has to be abided by,” Rahim said. “Bills based on fear shouldn’t impact those freedoms.”
Rahim also said no foreign laws or religious rules should erode the freedoms granted by the U.S. Constitution or the laws in this country.
Instructor at ISU’s Intensive English Institute, Azza Abugharsa said any laws regarding religion in this country need to be applied equally.
Abugharsa has been a Muslim-American for eight years and said she has never personally experienced discrimination because of her faith.
“If this law (the new Idaho House bill) is applied to all other religions, it’s OK,” she said. “If it’s only applied to Islam that’s not OK.”
Redman’s bill doesn’t specifically mention Islamic law, but the Associated Press reported that Redman circulated pictures of a severed hand and a man about to be beheaded to legislative leaders considering the proposal. The pictures were pasted in between definitions of Shariah law and accused the Prophet Muhammad of being a pedophile.
“This bill isn’t just about Shariah law, but Shariah law is a major concern,” Redman told the AP.
Abugharsa received her doctorate from Oklahoma State University. Oklahoma was one of the first states to pass anti-Shariah legislation that specifically targeted Islamic law. The Oklahoma law was immediately challenged by the Council for American-Islamic Relations and the American Civil Liberties Union.
The federal 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Oklahoma law unconstitutional in 2010.
In it’s decision, the court wrote: “Appellants do not identify any actual problem the challenged amendment seeks to solve. Indeed, they admitted . . . that they did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law or used the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, let alone that such applications or uses had resulted in concrete problems in Oklahoma.”
The AP reported that to date there have been no known cases in which an Idaho judge based a ruling on foreign or Islamic law.
The ACLU has a statement on its website addressing similar state legislation.
“Attempts to prevent courts from considering international or foreign law suffer from constitutional flaws and undermine the ability of courts to interpret laws and treaties regarding global business, international human rights and family law issues such as international marriages and adoptions,” the ACLU’s website states.
Under a link labeled “Islamaophobia,” the Islamic Society of Southeast Idaho website has posted information about similar anti-Shariah law legislation. The Society established a new mosque in Pocatello in 2014.
“Sharia is basically Islamic law and is the guiding rules and regulations to Muslims who practice their religion,” the website states. “Forbidding Shariah to Muslims would be similar to forbidding Jewish law to Jews.”
The site says 109 similar bills have been introduced in 32 states since 2010.