The Week in Sharia: Mama Grizzly Edition

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Before it’s too late:

  • Legislators in Wyoming, South Carolina, and Arkansas introduced proposals to ban Islamic Law from state courts, bringing the total number of states that have moved on the issue to 11. Of note: State rep. Gerald Gay, who introduced the Wyoming measure, ran for office last fall on a platform of shooting abstract theories with high-powered weaponry; the Arkansas bill, meanwhile, was sponsored by state senator Cecile Bledsoe, who you may remember as one of Sarah Palin’s “Mama Grizzlies.”
  • Could you be eating meat sacrificed to idols and not even know it? Our friends at WorldNetDaily raise that exact concern in an article about halal foods that reprises last year’s freakout over Campbell’s Soup: “It could be on your pizza without you knowing it, or at your favorite restaurant. People don’t realize they could be eating meat sacrificed to idols!” Also on your pizza: Lots and lots of bugs.
  • Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), who has stated previously that Islam is not a religion, told a South Florida talk show that Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) “really does represent the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established”—but he won’t back down. “You’ve got to be able to defeat them intellectually in debate and discourse, and you just have to be able to challenge each and every one of their assertions very wisely and very forthright.” You can’t blink, Charlie!
  • The Temecula, California, city council gave a unanimous thumbs-up to a proposed Islamic community center in the city. Last summer, mosque opponents protested the project with dogs, because Muslims “hate dogs.”
  • and finally…we missed this last week, but Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, “terror baby” whistleblower, says he wants his House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security to hold hearings on the impending threat of Sharia law. Perhaps Steve Emerson, the anti-Islam activist spurned by Rep. Peter King‘s radicalization hearings, will have his moment in the spotlight after all?

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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