A State Senator in Tennessee is trying to one-up Oklahoma in anti-Islam legislation. You’ll remember that after ruling it was likely to be found unconstitutional, a judge in Oklahoma had to halt the implementation of a law that would bar any courts from considering the Sharia law observed by some practicing Muslims.
The legislation proposed by Bill Ketron (SB 1028) goes so much further than Oklahoma’s, the issue isn’t really whether it’s unconstitutional; the issue is whether it’s the most clearly unconstitutional idea in recent memory when it comes to restrictions on religious freedom.
A proposed Tennessee law would make following the Islamic code known as Shariah law a felony, punishable by 15 years in jail.
State Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, and state Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, introduced the same bill in the Senate and House last week. It calls Shariah law a danger to homeland security and gives the attorney general authority to investigate complaints and decide who’s practicing it.
It exempts peaceful practice of Islam but labels any adherence to Shariah law — which includes religious practices such as feet washing and prayers — as treasonous. It claims Shariah adherents want to replace the Constitution with their religious law.
Voluntary adherence to religious tenets, principles, rules, procedures – from beards to diets, from feet washing to honoring the sabbath – are precisely the kinds of activities the First Amendment meant to protect in pronouncing the right to free exercise of religion.
No, this does not mean that folks can through their actions threaten the public health, or public safety, or the rights of other Americans, and claim it’s just part of their religious beliefs. Federal law already trumps religious law in any such conflict.
Ketron’s idea that he can preemptively outlaw those voluntary observances, just because he thinks some of the people who engage in them might be up to something is just astoundingly, outrageously ridiculous. Fear-based anti-Sharia provisions run counter to everything we believe in as Americans when it comes to religious liberty, none more so than this one proposed in Tennessee. Hopefully the legislature will see clear to bypass this bad idea.
