Anti-sharia bills sought to criminalize mosque attendance by defining Islam as ideology

Evidence

Fear of Shari‘a law proliferated again in 2011, resulting in a series of bills being introduced in states across the country. Capitalizing on the intense Islamophobia spurred by debate over a possible Muslim community center near Ground Zero, the congressional hearings on “Islamic radicalization” called by Representative Peter King, and the extended war on terror, a number of states introduced legislation that sought to ban Shari‘a law. The proposed bills were not standalone or isolated, but part of a broader movement driven by a partnership between conservative think tanks and politicians, which looked to convert the private Islamophobia saturating the country into structural policies adopted on the state level. The movement to ban Shari‘a law, debated within and carried forward by state legislatures, illustrates how structural Islamophobia also unfolds beyond the federal level and within state governments. — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 306 (#expands, via linked claim)

Out of everyone in the above litany, David Yerushalmi (along with Islamophobic zealot Pamela Geller) has been the most outspoken advocate for anti-Sharia legislation in the United States. Thanks to his share of the forty-two million dollar Islamophobia pie, Yerushalmi was able to use his right-wing think tank—euphemistically named the Society of Americans for National Existence (with the hilarious acronym “SANE”)—to draft boilerplate template language for anti-Sharia legislation as early as 2007, making adherence to “Sharia” a felony punishable by up to twenty years in prison. — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 622 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: When believers cannot be visually identified, lawmakers criminalize the religion wholesale.; Anti-sharia testimony framed lawful Muslim practice as a seditious, lawless threat — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 402; Funded think tanks drafted template anti-Sharia laws making belief a felony — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 622 (+9 more)

Related

• Anti-sharia legislation sought to criminalize all mosque attendance as terrorism (similarity 0.91)
• Funded think tanks drafted template anti-Sharia laws making belief a felony (similarity 0.88)
• Anti-Shari’a bills converted private Islamophobia into state structural policy (similarity 0.85)
• At least 120 anti-Sharia bills have been introduced across 42 US states since 2010. (similarity 0.83)
• Anti-mosque opposition recasts Islam as a political movement to deny First Amendment protection (similarity 0.83)
• Anti-sharia litigation frames mosques as terrorist-breeding sites to justify exclusion. (similarity 0.83)
• Forty-seven anti-Shari’a bills appeared in twenty-one states by June 2011 (similarity 0.82)
• A single boilerplate template authored by David Yerushalmi underpins most US anti-Sharia bills. (similarity 0.82)
• Anti-Sharia legislation spread across 43 states via one network’s fabricated data (similarity 0.82)
• Official rhetoric framing Islam as ideology licensed anti-Muslim suspicion (similarity 0.82)
• Anti-Shari’a proponents misdefined the term as a totalitarian doctrine (similarity 0.81)
• A single template anti-Sharia bill was introduced 216 times in 43 states (similarity 0.81)
• A small network of model bills drove state anti-sharia and federal Muslim bans (similarity 0.81)
• When believers cannot be visually identified, lawmakers criminalize the religion wholesale. (similarity 0.80)
• A false 80 percent mosque statistic powered the anti-Sharia legislative campaign. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Anti-Shari’a bills converted private Islamophobia into state structural policy #expands (0.90) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 306
• Funded think tanks drafted template anti-Sharia laws making belief a felony #corroborates (0.85) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 622
• Mosque opponents argued Islam is not a First Amendment-protected religion. #corroborates (0.85)
• Anti-mosque opposition recasts Islam as a political movement to deny First Amendment protection #corroborates (0.82) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 28
• Islam is ideologically expelled from religion itself in its racialization #expands (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 872
• Official rhetoric framing Islam as ideology licensed anti-Muslim suspicion #complicates (0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 864
• A single template anti-Sharia bill was introduced 216 times in 43 states #expands (0.75) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 804
• Anti-sharia legislation weaponizes real social problems into paranoid fantasy #qualifies (0.70) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 48