Victory! North Carolina Senate passes ‘Sharia law’ bill

Fight on, freedom lovers 🙂 The law stops judges from considering foreign law when it violates a citizen’s
constitutional rights (like this). 

"Critics derided the bill as sending a message of
intolerance and bigotry." You can't help but chuckle, eh? Sharia is the very definition of intolerance, oppression, subjugation, racism, bigotry and supremacism. Rock on, North Carolina. 

 NC Senate passes 'Sharia law' bill News & Observer, By Annalise Frank, July 19, 2013 

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RALEIGH — The state Senate on Friday passed a bill that would keep courts from recognizing Sharia law.

While
proponents of the legislation said it would keep people safe from
foreign laws, critics derided the bill as sending a message of
intolerance and bigotry to followers of Islam.

The Senate had
already approved the measure when it was attached to a controversial
measure that would impose stricter regulations on abortion providers in
the state. But the foreign law provision wasn’t sufficiently critiqued
because abortion overwhelmed the floor debate, said Sen. Floyd
McKissick, a Democrat from Durham.

Now called House Bill 522, the
provision’s contents haven’t changed. It reminds judges that the U.S.
and N.C. constitutions are the law of the land and no foreign law can
supersede them. Sometimes international laws are used in court as
evidence before a judge, or in written opinions. But this bill would
stop judges from considering foreign law when it violates a citizen’s
constitutional rights.

“Unfortunately we have judges from time to
time … that sometimes seem to forget what the supreme law of the land
is, and sometimes make improper rulings,” said Sen. E.S. “Buck” Newton, a
Wilson Republican and the legislation’s Senate sponsor.

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Though
the bill doesn’t specifically mention it, Newton was clear during
Friday’s session that the legislation targets Sharia law, a legal system
based on the religious and moral tenants of Islam. Few Muslim countries
apply the entire body of rules, instead choosing measures relevant to
them. More than 60 countries use at least part of Sharia law in their
governance.

Its improper use has “worked to deprive” U.S. citizens
and immigrants of their constitutional rights, Newton said. There have
been 27 reported cases around the country in which Sharia law has been
used, he added.

More than 20 states have introduced legislation
banning Sharia law or foreign law in state courts. Many bills –
including North Carolina’s – would apply only to cases in which the
application of foreign law would violate a person’s constitutional
rights.

Sen. Ellie Kinnaird of Chapel Hill, a Democrat, said she
thinks the bill’s sponsors don’t truly mean to inform judges that
foreign law is unacceptable, but rather the people of North Carolina.

“I think the audience is really wider,” Kinnaird said.

The
N.C. Bar Association opposed the bill in its former incarnation, House
Bill 695. The American Bar Association said in a resolution that the
passage of such bills will have a “widespread negative impact on
business, adversely affecting … economic development in the states in
which such a law is passed and in U.S. foreign commerce generally.”

The
danger doesn’t come from the legislation’s exact wording, said Omid
Safi, a professor of religious studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. He contends
this wave of anti-foreign-law legislation comes from a fundamental
misunderstanding of Sharia law and a “bigoted” perception of Muslims.

“We
would be delighted to have a conversation about what Sharia law
actually is and what it is not,” he said. “It would be important, if
we’re passing legislation on the topic, for (lawmakers who support the
bill) to actually benefit from the expertise of people who might
actually know something about the subject.”

The bill wouldn’t
affect only Sharia law. Jewish organizations have spoken out against
anti-foreign-law legislation across the United States because the
measures could negate the common Jewish practice of resolving disputes
according to their religious laws, Halacha.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/07/19/3042514/nc-senate-passes-sharia-law-bill.html#storylink=cpy