The Sharia-Ban Map

The map below is adapted from Mother Jones, of all places. It charts the attempts to ban sharia from state law in the USA.

The original map was quite low-quality, so I created a new one that might be a bit more readable in a blog-post format. The Mother Jones piece was published on February 11, so this list may be somewhat out of date:

Passed: Both Tennessee and Louisiana passed variations of the American Public Policy Alliance’s “American Law for American Courts” legislation in 2010.

Working on it: Alaska; Arkansas; Arizona; Georgia; Indiana; Kansas; Nebraska; Oklahoma; South Carolina; South Dakota; Texas; Wyoming.

Tried but Failed: Florida; Mississippi; Utah.

The distribution of sharia-opposing states is interesting. Sad to say, my own state is not included among those that are at least attempting to ban sharia.

With the exception of Indiana — how did it get in there? — and the libertarian-minded states of the far northern Midwest, which are mysteriously absent, the Islamophobic states seem to cluster in the heart of red-state America.

Bear in mind that the most effective sharia ban — one that won’t get overturned by the nearest panel of federal judges — is one that never mentions Islam or sharia. “A body of foreign law that is contrary to the Constitution of the United States of America” — that’s the sort of wording we need.

Here’s what Tim Murphy at Mother Jones had to say about all this:

Earlier this week, a Georgia legislator introduced the “American Laws for Georgia Courts Act,” a bill designed to block the implementation of Islamic law in state courts. As state rep. Mike Jacobs told the Fulton County Daily Report, he couldn’t think of any specific instance of Sharia law affecting Georgia’s justice system, but the government needed to take action. It’s a familiar pattern: While actual Islamic law is virtually non-existent in the United States, efforts to combat the scourge of Islamic law are becoming increasingly common.

Just how common? According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 13 states have introduced legislation to prevent courts from using foreign or religious law in their decisions. But that’s just in the last two months; if you include last year’s efforts—including Arizona’s inspired attempt to ban karma —it goes all the way up to 16.

Hat tip: AC.