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CAIR Designating Anti-Sharia Caucus a ‘Hate Group’ Is the ‘American Equivalent of a Blasphemy Law,’ Muslim Reformer Says

Muslim reformer Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser on Feb. 24, 2017 in National Harbor, Maryland. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations, which bills itself as America’s premier Muslim civil rights group, has designated the Sharia Free America Caucus an “anti-Muslim hate group,” in what one Muslim reformer calls the “American equivalent of a blasphemy law.”

“Labeling a congressional caucus that represents millions of Americans a ‘hate group’ simply for addressing the threat of Sharia supremacism to Muslims and non-Muslims is not civil rights advocacy,” Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, founder of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy, told The Daily Signal in a statement Wednesday.

“It is the American equivalent of a blasphemy law — a tool to silence, stigmatize, and shut down legitimate constitutional debate.”

While Jasser noted that some of the caucus members’ statements could have benefited from more clarity, he claimed that “CAIR isn’t interested in nuance. They want total dominance of the conversation—where any public challenge to theocratic Islamism is branded as hatred and any critic is driven from the public square, whether Muslim or non-Muslim.”

“This is structurally identical to how clerical regimes in Muslim-majority countries use anti-blasphemy laws to crush Muslim dissent against theocrats,” he argued. “CAIR has never stood with reform-minded, freethinking Muslims—the dissidents, the secularists, the liberal reformers, the faithful who reject theocracy from within the Muslim community.”

Texas Republican Reps. Chip Roy and Keith Self launched the Sharia Free America Caucus in December, and it has since grown to include 59 members from 24 different states. CAIR announced the “hate group” designation last month, accusing the caucus of attempting to render the practice of the Islamic faith illegal.

“Congressmen Randy Fine, Chip Roy, Keith Self, and other members of this so-called caucus have appointed themselves as religious police with the power to tell Americans how to worship,” CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor said.

CAIR cited quotes from caucus members that it characterized as “dehumanizing” to Muslims, including the claims from Self that “Islam intends to dominate the West” and “while Western civilization has evolved, Islam has not.”

CAIR claims that the caucus’ bills to limit Sharia law would “effectively ban the practice of the world’s second largest religion in the United States.” CAIR compares the practice of sharia—Islamic rules for life—to Catholic canon law and Orthodox Jewish halacha.

The Other ‘Hate Groups’

CAIR does not usually designate “hate groups,” but it has repeatedly partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center in urging community foundations to stop funding organizations the SPLC brands “anti-Muslim hate groups.”

Critics claim the SPLC puts mainstream conservative and Christian groups on a “hate map” alongside Ku Klux Klan chapters, suggesting that a similar hatred drives them.

Neither CAIR nor the SPLC responded to The Daily Signal’s request for comment.

A Terrorist Organization?

“The fact that CAIR—an organization that multiple states have classified as a terrorist organization—has designated the Sharia Free America Caucus as a ‘hate group’ is absurd,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told The Daily Signal.

“Recent attacks in places like New York and Michigan are a reminder of the very real threat posed by violent ideologies and I’m glad my colleagues are looking at ways to prevent Sharia law and political Islam from taking hold in America,” he added.

When approached for comment, Rep. Self responded, “We don’t care about the opinion of a designated terrorist organization.”

Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, designated CAIR as a foreign terrorist organization on Nov. 18, and Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., followed suit in December. CAIR sued, and a federal judge issued a temporary injunction blocking DeSantis’ executive order.

Jasser, the Muslim reformer, told The Daily Signal that “there is a necessary and important distinction between personal pietistic Islamic practice—which deserves full constitutional protection—and many applications of Sharia that infringe on individual and human rights.”

“This includes not only overt political Sharia imposed through local governance, but Sharia-based practices that strip individuals—women, religious minorities, apostates, dissenters—of their fundamental rights and dignities, whether in the home, the community, or the public square,” he added.

The Caucus’ Distinction

“Sharia is a political and legal system that seeks supremacy over the U.S. Constitution,” Rep. Self told The Daily Signal. “As Dr. Zuhdi Jasser has rightly said, the real threat is political Islam and Sharia supremacism, not the personal faith of peaceful Muslims.”

“Our caucus is not banning ‘Islam,’” Self added. “We are simply insisting that America remains governed by one law—the Constitution—and that we reject any foreign legal system that demands to replace it. CAIR can call that ‘hate’ if they want. Americans call it common sense.”

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, told The Daily Signal that the debate isn’t “about freedom of religion—this is about the threat of political Islam that is antithetical to America’s foundation.” He said that immigrants should “assimilate to our culture, not impose third world ideals into our society.”

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