'Sharia-Free America' caucus formed in U.S. Congress

A poster against Sharia law in America. Photo: aljazeera

A group of Republicans in the United States has announced the formation of a new House caucus called “Sharia-Free America,” which aims to counter the growing influence of Islamic law in the country, Religion News reports.

The caucus leaders say the growing number of mosques and increasing activity of Muslim communities are a cause for concern and require legislative action.

The caucus is led by Republican Reps. Chip Roy and Keith Self of Texas and includes 36 lawmakers from 18 states. At a hearing of a House Judiciary subcommittee, they argued that Sharia is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.

“Some of you might think of Shariah as a 2010s buzzword. That is wrong,” Roy, the subcommittee chair, said in his opening statement. “Over the last few years, efforts to impose Shariah on American communities have taken off, and nowhere more than in my home state of Texas.”

In particular, the No Shari’a Act was introduced, prohibiting American courts from enforcing judgments based on Islamic law or other foreign legal systems that violate the Constitution.

House Representative from Illinois Mary Miller previously stated that she joined the caucus to “firmly oppose this radical ideology that seeks to eradicate the constitutional principles and Christian values on which our country was founded.”

Similar initiatives are also emerging at the state level. In Oklahoma, lawmakers have introduced a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would ban Sharia and other foreign legal codes. A similar measure was adopted in 2010 but was blocked by a federal court on the grounds that it violated religious freedom protections.

Democrats subjected the initiative to harsh criticism. Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Pennsylvania Democrat who is not a member of the caucus, said the hearing was meant to stoke suspicion of American Muslims and “a cynical political ploy driven by the Texas Republican primary.”

As the UOJ wrote, the new mayor of New York took the oath on the Quran.

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