My column today is on Tennessee's "anti-sharia" law, which would basically make it a crime to be a Muslim in the state. While other states have been content to try and prevent Sharia from being recognized in courts, which could interfere with the execution of wills, recognition of marriages, and even commercial transactions, the Tennessee law resembles federal anti-terrorism statutes criminalizing material support for terrorist groups:
There are already laws on the books criminalizing material support for terrorism. The Tennessee law would criminalize material support to "designated sharia organizations," and the state attorney general does the designating. In the bill, "sharia organizations," are defined as "two or more persons conspiring to support, or acting in concert in support of, Sharia or in furtherance of the imposition of sharia within any state or territory of the United States." The assets of those targeted could be frozen, much the same way the Treasury Department can freeze the assets of organizations it deems "terrorist organizations." Just as Arizona's SB 1070 preempted federal immigration laws, Tennessee would have its own counterterrorism policy.
The provision "appears to be modeled after the federal laws and regulations governing, identifying, and stopping terrorist groups," explains Dan Mach, Director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief. "There is absolutely no need for Tennessee to pass this law in the name of national security or public safety." Like SB 1070 though, the Tennessee bill goes beyond federal authority. "The federal scheme makes only foreign states, foreign entities, or foreign persons, objects of such designations," says University of Texas Law Professor Robert Chesney, a national security law expert. "It sure looks like this Tennessee bill would permit designating any two or more Americans who happen to be Muslims and who support sharia." The authority resembles that the president used to impose immediate sanctions on Libya last week.
Islamophobes on the right have tried to say there's no real distinction between being a Muslim and being a terrorist. This bill would give that perspective the force of law in the state of Tennessee.
