Americans United Welcomes Appeals Court Decision Blocking Oklahoma Anti-Sharia Amendment

Americans United Welcomes Appeals Court Decision Blocking Oklahoma Anti-Sharia Amendment

Church-State Watchdog Group Says First Amendment Is All We Need To Protect Against Religious Law

http://au.org/media/press-releases/americans-united-welcomes-appeals-court-decision-blocking-oklahoma-anti-sharia

January 10, 2012

Americans United for Separation of Church and State today hailed a federal appellate court ruling against an Oklahoma constitutional amendment that bars Islamic law in the state.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s ruling issuing an injunction blocking implementation of the so-called “Save Our State” amendment. The amendment was approved by 70 percent of Oklahoma voters in 2010, even though there is no drive to impose sharia in the state.
“This amendment is divisive, unnecessary and dangerous,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case. “I’m glad to see it go.”

A lawsuit against the amendment was filed by Muneer Awad, executive director of the Oklahoma Council for American-Islamic Relations, along with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Americans United signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief, drafted by the American Jewish Committee, arguing that the amendment is unconstitutional because it singles out Muslims for derogatory treatment. The Anti-Defamation League, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, the Center for Islamic Pluralism, the Interfaith Alliance and the Union for Reform Judaism joined AU on the brief.
A three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled unanimously against the amendment.

“Appellants do not identify any actual problem the challenged amendment seeks to solve,” wrote Judge Scott M. Matheson for the unanimous court. “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.”

AU’s Lynn said the court made the right call in the Awad v. Ziriax case.

“The First Amendment protects Americans from government imposition of religious law, whether it be Islamic, Christian or something else,” Lynn said. “This amendment is simply an excuse for Islam bashing, and it’s an embarrassment to the state.”

Americans United is a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1947, the organization educates Americans about the importance of church-state separation in safeguarding religious freedom.