Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules

This a major victory for Islamists wanting to impose Sharia law in America. If anything, the Oklahoma legeslature needs to change the wording from "Sharia law" to read "any religious law". Then the Islamists would have no standing.

FROM JEWISHWORLDREVIEW.COM:

Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules

By Stephen Ceasar

JewishWorldReview.com | (MCT) A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling that blocked the implementation of an Oklahoma law barring judges from considering international or Islamic law in their decisions.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling released Tuesday, affirmed an order by a district court judge in 2010 that halted the law from taking effect. The ruling also allows a Muslim community leader in Oklahoma City to continue his legal challenge of the law's constitutionality.

The measure, known as State Question 755, was approved with 70 percent of the vote in 2010. The law is an amendment to the state constitution and bars courts from considering the legal precepts of other nations or cultures. "Specifically, the courts shall not consider international law or Sharia law," the law reads.

The appellate court opinion pointed out that proponents of the law admitted to not knowing of a single instance in which an Oklahoma court applied Shariah law or the legal precepts of other countries.

"This serves as a reminder that these anti-Shariah laws are unconstitutional and that if politicians use fear-mongering and bigotry, the courts won't allow it to last for long," said Muneer Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahoma. Awad sued to block the law, contending that it infringed on his First Amendment rights.

Proponents of the law argued that it was intended to ban courts from considering all religious laws and that Shariah was simply used as an example. The appeals court, however, disagreed.

"That argument conflicts with the amendment's plain language, which mentions Shariah law in two places," the court opinion read.

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