Hamas-linked CAIR and other Islamic supremacist groups claim that such laws infringe upon Muslims’ religious freedom. In reality, neither Alabama nor any other state would be contemplating anti-Sharia laws were it not for Sharia’s political and supremacist aspects, and its elements that are at variance with Constitutional freedoms — notably, its denial of the freedom of speech and the freedom of conscience, and of equality of rights for women and non-Muslims. But American judges rarely give the anti-Sharia side a fair hearing, and generally strike down such laws on the spurious grounds that they violate the First Amendment, without considering Sharia’s political, authoritarian or supremacist aspects in any way.
“Alabama Sharia Law 2014: Voters Approve Foreign Law Prohibition,” by Kathleen Caulderwood, International Business Times, November 4, 2014:
Alabama voters passed a constitutional amendment Tuesday to prohibit the use of foreign laws in state courts. Republican state Sen. Gerald Allen, who is also a Baptist deacon, sponsored the amendment. He proposed a similar measure in 2011. It never made the ballot since it made specific mention of Islamic Sharia law, which was deemed a violation of the Constitution. A similar measure was also rejected in Oklahoma last year for the same reason, though the judge who struck it down acknowledged that if the term “Sharia” was removed it could solve the problem.
Amendment One, or “American and Alabama Laws and Alabama Courts Amendment,” bars state courts from applying “any law, rule or legal code system used outside of the United States or by any other people, group or culture different from the people of the United States or the States of Alabama.” Sharia refers, in general, to moral code and religious laws of Islam, drawn from the Quran and Sunna. In recent years, dozens of states have proposed measures to keep judges from consulting this and other foreign laws, with varying degrees of success.
This time around, Allen’s new bill made no mention of the Islamic term specifically, and he was confident it would appeal to voters’ conservative values. “It took several times to rewrite the bill itself, to make sure it was correct and to make sure it would be constitutional,” Allen said on Alabama Public Radio last week. “We as a legislature felt like it’s important to bring this before the people of Alabama to let their voice be heard because we’re living in a changing world.”…