Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
The Republican Party has descended on Tampa, Florida for the coronation of Mitt Romney as their presidential candidate, and will meet this week to pass an extreme platform. The GOP platform will likely include a plank that opposes “foreign law” being used in courts–a position that takes aim at the imaginary threat of sharia law in the U.S and stokes anti-Muslim sentiment.
Last week, Talking Points Memo’s Ryan Reilly reported on the inclusion of this plank. Kris Kobach, an anti-immigrant activist and the Secretary of State in Kansas, explained in Tampa that “in cases involving either spousal abuse or assault or other crimes against persons, sometimes defenses are raised that are based in Sharia law…I think it’s important for us to say foreign sources of law should not be used as part of common law decisions or statutory interpretations by judges in the lower state courts as well.”
Video of Kobach’s remarks posted by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) shows that Kobach’s suggested amendment was included and was not opposed by anyone working on the platform. The exact language of the platform has yet to be released, though Politico posted portions of it (sans the foreign law amendment). Watch Kobach’s remarks:
The Republican Party will pass their platform this week during the convention. CAIR is calling on the GOP to “reject a newly-adopted platform plank that includes a section supporting a ban on foreign law, which its sponsor admits targets the religious principles of American Muslims.”
“It’s really, in many ways, a smokescreen for anti-Islam sentiment. That’s all there is to it,” said Corey Saylor, CAIR’s national legislative director, in a phone interview.
There is no push to institute sharia law in the U.S., as anti-Muslim activists assert. The term sharia refers to a complex set of moral codes based on Islam, and is interpreted differently around the world. Courts in the U.S. have considered sharia law in a variety of cases, just as they have done with Jewish (halakhic) law. But as CAIR government affairs coordinator Robert McCaw said in a statement, “the plank is irrelevant, since the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause ensures that no foreign law can replace it.”
The inclusion of the anti-sharia plank in the party platform comes after a years-long push to institute statewide bans targeting Islamic law. According to CAIR, “in 2011 and 2012, 78 bills or amendments aimed at interfering with Islamic religious practices were considered in 31 states and the U.S. Congress.” The Kobach amendment is similar to a bill passed in Kansas that did not explicitly mention Islam, though a Kansas City Republican said that proponents of the foreign law ban “presented this as protecting us against Sharia law. Despite the fact that this doesn’t mention Sharia, that’s how this whole issue was presented.” That’s likely the tact the GOP will take if they include Kobach’s plank in their platform.
The push against Islamic law in the U.S. can be largely traced back to one man, David Yerushalmi (pdf profile of him here), a lawyer and a far-right Hasidic Jewish anti-Muslim activist who is allied with Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer and Frank Gaffney. Yerushalmi’s organization, the Society of Americans for a National Existence, advocates for criminalizing the practice of Islam. He wrote a model bill, titled “American Laws for American Courts,” that has influenced many of the attempts to target Islamic law in the country. Yerushalmi once lived in the Jerusalem-area settlement of Ma’ale Adumim, and is an ardent right-wing Zionist. He also once wrote that “there is a reason the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote.”
“It’s disturbing that the work of a notorious Islamophobe is making its way into the GOP platform,” said CAIR’s Saylor, referring to Yerushalmi. “Why the GOP wants to have anything to do with that is a serious question that needs serious answers at the top.”
But the top of the GOP–Mitt Romney–could have stopped the bigoted amendment from being introduced. The Romney campaign has played a role in crafting the Republican Party platform. For example, the Romney campaign ensured that the platform would include a plank voicing support for the two-state solution in Israel/Palestine.
There’s a reason why the Republican Party and the Romney campaign isn’t bothering to hide its animus towards Muslims: it plays well with their base. A recently released Arab American Institute poll makes clear the extent of the antipathy towards Muslims within the GOP. About 47% of Republicans view both Arab and Muslim Americans unfavorably, with the unfavorable rating going into the 50s when the question is asked without the “American” term included.
When I read “GOP platform plank” I first thought the term referred to Romney.
Speaking of the Islamophobic right.
Europe has it’s own version and it has been courted by pro-Israel forces assiduously.
Everyone knew that nutbags like Pamela Geller and the like supported these people.
What I didn’t know was that even major Jewish organizations like the ADL have funded them, or so this article strongly hints:
link to timesofisrael.com
Note that the article clearly states that Zionist organizations ‘cheered’ as Wilders was elected, but now they are in panic as circumcision is in the crosshairs!
Don’t be surprised if the ADL, which funded/coddled Wilders’ rise to power, purely on the basis of his fanatical pro-Likud zeal, now starts to voice the concern about ‘xenophobia’ and starts reaching out to muslim groups.
Abe Foxman and the lot are truly odious characters. ‘Civil rights activist’ my ass.
Yeah the Muslims and Jews have common ground in fighting against a rational approach to routine male baby boy circumcision, although the Muslim religious circumcision occurs when the boy is no longer a baby. This hot button issue is on the front burner in Germany (one of all the EU nations who, unlike the USA, have long ago killed the custom of routine baby boy circumcision, with much benefit to the baby boys and no health detriment at all, not to mention, again unlike USA, no governmental funds are involved), but the issue is coming to the USA, having already started in California, where even the abuse by this practice of baby boys of Christian or secular background is heavily defended by Jews in the name of their religion, a religion not shared by most Americans. I say, ban this barbaric custom for all but the Jews and Muslims who want it for religious reasons, and let the the religious nuts pay for it themselves.
Citizen, you’re missing the forest for the trees here. The issue isn’t circumcision(a minor issue to begin with).
It’s that a massive organization like ADL is funding (or at least advising/supporting) a neo-facist like Wilders. ADL is in company with ZOA – a far right organization.
The islamophobic arc stretches across the ocean and belies the notion that it’s funded/supported merely a few wealthy loons like Adelson.
It’s systematic and it reaches deep.
@ Krauss,
No, I’m not. I agree with completely with what you’ve said about the huge mass and width of the organized islamophobic movement. We must stop this base appeal. But it’s also time to end routine male baby boy circumcision in American hospitals.
“I say, ban this barbaric custom for all but the Jews and Muslims who want it for religious reasons, and let the the religious nuts pay for it themselves.”
I disagree with this. This is a barbaric practice, for sure, but there is no justification for permitting this mutilation to be made on any child. When the child reaches 18, then he can make the decision as to whether to have the skin hacked off for religious reasons. Doing it before that is child abuse.
@ Woody Tanaka
I personally agree with you that there is no justification for routine baby boy circumcision–that’s why Europe ended the custom a long time ago. For most Americans it’s not even a matter of religious belief so it’s hard to see why congress has not acted in this matter in the best interest of the child. It’s been like pulling teeth to get the medical establishment to not support it, which it no longer does, and as a result more and more Americans are informed and no longer allow it since the mid-70s.
The Jewish establishment always reacts sharply, attacking any legislative move to ban the practice, and they use freedom of religion as their spear. This spear can be easily avoided by what I recommended in my first comment above, and that would save most baby boys and would afford equal protection for them–female mutiilation, even a mere symbolic pinprick to the clitoris hood is outlawed in the USA (which still apparently allows Jehovah’s Witness parents to refuse blood transfusions for their kids in medical need).
The opinion page of Haaretz yesterday described the “secret” behind the broad and increasingly vocal opposition by Israeli defense establishment leaders to an Israeli attack against Iran before the US election. According to the piece, an Israeli attack would only slow Iran by about a year, so Israeli hawks want the United States to attack Iran and crush it with its superpower might.
Haaretz:
“The problem, Netanyahu says, is that the U.S. administration is not willing to do so.
“The solution is simple. A moment before the U.S. presidential elections, when Mitt Romney – the candidate of Netanyahu’s patron, Sheldon Adelson – is breathing down Barack Obama’s neck, and in the wake of the large number of casualties and the extensive damage that the Iranian response is likely to cause in the region and particularly in Israel, the American president will have no choice but to order his armed forces to join in the war.
“Netanyahu is gambling that if Obama does not do so, he will lose the elections. Then Romney will replace him and, as a token of gratitude, will complete the military work. And if the gamble fails? For that there is no backup plan.”
This is the key dynamic in the US presidential election: can unbalanced right-wingers at the controls in Israel – who have been describing Iran’s nuclear program as an existential threat barely a year or two from fruition for over 20 years – go all in based on their perceived ability to manipulate the US into a new war, and thereby destroy Iran?
The US media’s failure to cover this dynamic fully and objectively is disgraceful.
Doppler what I find disgraceful is that you fall hook line and sinker for the same old psychological propaganda the Israeli’s have been pumping for years now – all to increase sanctions and pressure on the U.S.
Haaretz isn’t immune to running false stories in order to hurt Iran and/or build pressure for even more sanctions. Why would it?
The entire liberal intelligencia inside the States were pro-war when it came to Iraq, why would Haaretz be against war with Iran? So far the coverage of the build-up from them has been neutral to slightly favourable.
And finally, David, think hard on this one.
Do you really think that the Israeli war plans would be leaked onto the op-ed pages of Haaretz – weeks and weeks in advance – so that Iran would be warned?
I’m not acusing you of being stupid – I hope you’re not – but naïve to the utter extreme is a more appropriate term.
It’s quite stunning how easy it is to fool people, even those who are ostensibly intelligent and literate. No wonder the Israelis try the same trick over and over again, it has worked so far. Except that the U.S. defence establishment saw through their mirage long ago.
That’s why you’re only seeing these desperate stories in the Israeli press. The U.S. media know it’s all a sham. Israel can’t and won’t attack Iran alone. It’s far too weak.
An Iranian operation isn’t just bombing. It’s also about keeping the strait of Hormuz open. Israel’s navy isn’t even close to doing that properly. Therefore it knows that it can’t attack Iran alone because the U.S. navy would get involved into the fightning at the Gulf since Israel is so weak.
I think that if Israel truly had the capacity to attack Iran with strong force and keep the Strait open without problems as well as beat back the Iran-proxies close to the border, it would have struck long, long ago.
In the meantime, the Israeli press is continually filled with ‘scoops’ that claim to know not only exactly what Bibi is planning, but even when, down to weeks and days, the strike will come too, all in convenient advance so that the Iranians can prepare.
If one keeps a close eye on these stories over time, one will notice that these ‘scoops’ have a tendency to change shape every 3 months or so and the timeline is pushed forward all the time, (even if sanctions stay the same).
Yet some people keep swallowing the bait, hook, line and sinker.
Well, Krauss, I hope you are right that it is all bluff. You call me naive, but I disagree that the concerted effort by Netanyahu and his allies to start a war in Iran, and to get America to do the heavy lifting, with the American press only duly reporting the threat side of things, is so obviously a harmless bluff that only the naive bother even to notice it.
If it affects the US election, if it is intended to do so, it is worthy of discussion and analysis in the US press.
That is the story I’ve heard for the last few years. I do wonder though, what is the guarantee that Iran would indeed directly counter-attack US assets/interests if such an attack was indeed mounted by Israel?
What would happen, as a thought experiment, if the Iranians chose not to respond directly to the attack? Is it not possible that the Iranians might think it better to place themselves as the wounded martyrs who are the victims of an unjustified attack? I’m not sure that would have much impact on the views of the anti-Muslim crowd, but it would have an effect on those who are not so polarized.
LOL! So would these Republicans prefer a criminal trial or civil lawsuit under the US Alien Tort Statute or do they accept the final judgment entered by the Sharia Court in Pakistan against CIA contractor Raymond Davis?
– link to dawn.com
RE: “The push against Islamic law in the U.S. can be largely traced back to one man, David Yerushalmi. . . He also once wrote that ‘there is a reason the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote’.” ~ Alex Kane
MY COMMENT: This sounds like something that might have been said by one of Georgia’s most notorious ‘white supremacists’, J.B. Stoner! ! !
FROM WIKIPEDIA [J.B. Stoner]:
SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org
P.S. PHOTOS OF J.B. STONER:
• Stoner as chairman of the National States’ Rights Party - link to google.com
• “Don’t Tread on Me”, St. Augustine, FL (1964) - link to google.com
• “I thank God all the time for AIDS” - link to flickr.com
P.P.S. THE WAY WE WERE (CIRCA 1939); LEST WE FORGET – link to mondoweiss.net
• Nelson Eddy sings Shortnin Bread 13.09.1939.wmv (VIDEO, 02:39) – link to youtube.com
P.P.P.S. ALSO SEE: David Yerushalmi, Islam-Hating White Supremacist Inspires Anti-Sharia Bills Sweeping Tea Party Nation, by Richard Silverstein, Tikun Olam,
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to richardsilverstein.com