Anti-sharia legislation frames Islam as a foreign political conspiracy warranting criminalization

Evidence

The original bill allowed the attorney general to designate groups as sharia organizations if they consisted of “two or more persons acting in concert in support of, sharia or imposition of sharia” and they committed a terrorist act. Material support for terrorists is included in the list of acts that qualifies as terrorism. A person found knowingly supporting a sharia organization would be guilty of a criminal offense punishable by fifteen years in prison. In effect, the original bill banned Islam and made its practice a criminal offense. Attending a “sharia-adherent” mosque — which is every mosque — could carry a fifteen-year jail term. This version of the bill was amended in such a way as to excise all mention of sharia because of the obvious First Amendment violation. The resulting enacted bill simply restates laws already in place. Although the scrubbed bill is superfluous, the intent of the original bill to redefine Islam from a religion to an alien and violent political ideology is clear. — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 284 (#expands, via linked claim)

Although perpetrators of anti-Muslim hate crimes and discrimination may support religious freedom, US government action and elected officials’ rhetoric assures them that suspecting Muslims is not un-American because Muslims adhere to a political ideology, not a legitimate religion. Indeed, by 2018, approximately 50 percent of Americans believed that Islam is a false religion. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 864 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Anti-sharia legislation aimed to recategorize Islam from religion to political ideology — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 284; Anti-sharia bills sought to criminalize mosque attendance by defining Islam as ideology; Anti-sharia legislation weaponizes real social problems into paranoid fantasy — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 48 (+12 more)

Broader Connections

• Anti-sharia legislation aimed to recategorize Islam from religion to political ideology #expands (0.95) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 284
• Anti-sharia bills sought to criminalize mosque attendance by defining Islam as ideology #expands (0.90)
• Anti-sharia legislation sought to criminalize all mosque attendance as terrorism #expands (0.85)
• Official rhetoric framing Islam as ideology licensed anti-Muslim suspicion #corroborates (0.85) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 864
• Funded think tanks drafted template anti-Sharia laws making belief a felony #exemplifies (0.82) — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 622
• Anti-terror and immigration policies become conflated in framing Muslims as foreign enemies #corroborates (0.80) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 580
• Anti-Sharia rhetoric frames Muslim legal practice as inherently subordinating and anti-Constitutional #expands (0.80) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 375
• Anti-Shari’a bills converted private Islamophobia into state structural policy #expands (0.80) — Khaled A. Beydoun, American Islamophobia_ Understanding…, 306
• Muslim identity is criminalized by national security policies #corroborates (0.80) — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 874
• Opponents framed Muslim proponents of sharia as terrorists through guilt by distant association. #exemplifies (0.78) — Sherene Razack, Casting Out, 387
• U.S. lawmakers framed devout Muslim practice as treasonous grounds for military exclusion #corroborates (0.78) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 285
• Anti-sharia legislation itself performed the reduction of religion to race #qualifies (0.78) — Cyra Akila Choudhury, Racecraft and Identity in the Emergence…, 280
• Anti-sharia legislation weaponizes real social problems into paranoid fantasy #qualifies (0.75) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 48
• A fabricated statistic about mosques seeded two hundred anti-Sharia state bills #exemplifies (0.75)
• Anti-sharia legislation covertly targets Muslim women through paranoid fantasy. #complicates (0.72) — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 48