CAIR and ACLU: Court blocks anti-Sharia law in Oklahoma

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld a lower court's decision to block the implementation of an Oklahoma constitutional amendment that would prohibit courts from applying -- or even considering to apply -- "Sharia law" and "international law."

In response to a lawsuit filed in 2010 by Muneer Awad, the head of CAIR's Oklahoma office (CAIR-OK), the lower court blocked implementation of the "Save Our State Amendment" based on arguments that it would unconstitutionally disfavor an entire faith and deny Oklahoma's Muslims access to the judicial system on the same terms as every other citizen. The state had appealed that ruling saying the United States' U.S. Constitution is the law of the land. "We have a large number of Jews in the U.S. Have we ever used the Pentateuch or the Talmud in U.S. courts? Unlike Islamists, Jews never attempted to interject their law into U.S. jurisprudence," claims Mike Baker, a political strategist and attorney. "The stated goal by Islamists is the creation of a caliphate in the United States. And the Council on American-Islamic Relations is a Fifth Column for the Islamic terrorist groups," Baker added.

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While "international law" is included in the Oklahoma amendment, the court addressed primarily Sharia. Last year, CAIR and their partners at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a brief urging the circuit court to uphold the lower court's ruling blocking implementation of the amendment. The appeals court ruling indicates the judges heard the CAIR-ACLU cabal loud and clear when they ruled: "We conclude that Mr. Awad's allegation -- that the proposed state amendment expressly condemns his religion and exposes him and other Muslims in Oklahoma to disfavored treatment -- suffices to establish the kind of direct injury-in-fact necessary to create Establishment Clause standing. . . "Appellants do not identify any actual problem the challenged amendment seeks to solve. Indeed, they admitted at the preliminary injunction hearing that they did not know of even a single instance where an Oklahoma court had applied Sharia law or used the legal precepts of other nations or cultures, let alone that such applications or uses had resulted in concrete problems in Oklahoma." "Today's ruling is a victory for the Constitution and for the right of all Americans to freely practice their faith," said CAIR Staff Attorney Gadeir Abbas, who is co-counsel on the case. "This is an important reminder that the Constitution is the last line of defense against a rising tide of anti-Muslim bigotry in our society, and we are pleased that the appeals court recognized that fact," said CAIR-OK's Awad. Awad noted that Oklahoma's anti-Sharia amendment is just one of more than 20 similar pieces of legislation introduced in state legislatures nationwide. In 2007, the Justice Department labeled CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terrorist finance case in U.S. history. That’s when the organization changed its name to the Council on American-Islamic Relations Action Network. * Searches on the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs web site for the name "Council on American-Islamic Relations" produce no results * " * CAIR" isn't just a convenient shortening of the name. In its suit against popular radio host Michael Savage, its attorneys appeared separately for CAIR and for CAIR Action Network, or (CAIR-AN) * U * Under D.C. code, when a nonprofit corporation's articles of incorporation are revoked for failure to comply with certain reporting rules, "then all powers conferred on it are inoperative and it must cease all business activities ... except for those activities necessary for winding up its affairs." IR Re Recently, CAIR had called for an independent investigation of the FBI. On January 13, 2010, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder to request that the civil rights division investigate both the October shooting of a radical Imam, and whether the FBI violated the Constitution by using informants in mosques. "I'm not surprised that Congressman Conyers would side with his big campaign contributors in defending radical killers and terrorists," said former NYPD detective and military intelligence officer Mike Snopes. "And they have the perfect prosecutor in Attorney General [Eric Holder] who's law firm often defends terrorist thugs," he added. "We welcome the decision to open a civil rights investigation of the imam's death and thank Representative Conyers for his leadership in ensuring that all the facts in this troubling case come out," said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad. The Investigative Project on Terrorism's Steven Emerson has noted in several studies the questionable associations and actions by many of CAIR's leaders that cast serious doubt on its claims of moderation and restraint. Some have committed criminal acts themselves; others have ties to organizations with connections to Islamic extremism. Those convicted of direct criminal activity include Ghassan Elashi, a founding board member of CAIR-Texas; Randall (Ismail) Royer, once a communications specialist for the national group, and Bassam Khafagi, the organization's one-time director of community relations, according to Emerson.