Donald Trump’s choice for national security advisor, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (ret.), has made several speeches in the past year that promote conspiracy theories suggesting Islamic Sharia law is being pushed into the American court system.
What is Sharia Law?
Simply put, Sharia law is a set of religious and moral principles that direct the lives of those that follow Islam. It provides Muslims with guidelines into religious practices, daily living, crime, and financial dealings.
The False Claims
In a speech Flynn gave on August 23, he falsely claimed that Democratic state senators in Florida voted to impose Sharia law at the state and local level. While speaking in Texas, he made this claim yet again, saying:
“All 12 [Florida] Democrats voted to have Sharia law as part of the state judicial system in the state of Florida… it’s over 100 cases around the country”
PolitiFact called this claim “wildly wrong,” and in 2015 the Houston Chronicle dubbed all of the rumors regarding Sharia courts in America their hoax of the year.
What Was Flynn Referring To?
It seems that Trump’s future national security advisor confused rather normal, standard legislation with an effort to impose Sharia law across the state of Florida.
In a dispute between a Tampa Islamic center and a few of its ousted trustees, a circuit court judge cited Islamic law, causing an uproar from state conservatives.
In the fallout, two Republican state lawmakers announced they would create a bill to ban foreign law in Florida courts. This bill – SB 386 – passed in 2014 after much watering down, and much to the dismay of Florida Democrats who characterized it as an attack on Muslims.
The law allows judges in family law cases to apply foreign law under their discretion as long as it doesn’t contradict public policy in the United States. So if a couple that married in another country files for divorce, the judge can decide to cite their marriage license, prenuptial agreement, etc. from that country in his or her decision.
In the end, the bill didn’t actually change existing law, because judges were already allowed such discretion. It simply served as an anti-Muslim news story in the state, giving Republicans the Islamophobic airtime they desired.
But the main point is, nowhere in this situation was Sharia law ever brought up. Something that Flynn somehow failed to understand, yet spoke about publicly.
More Lies
During Flynn’s speech in Texas, he warned locals about their own state senators:
“There’s a bunch of them that would be willing to have Sharia law imposed in the state of Texas.”
Now, given that Lt. Gen. Flynn is originally from Rhode Island, I’m not sure how familiar he is with the people and politics of Texas. But anyone who claims that Islamic Sharia law has any chance of stepping a single toe into Texas is out of their damn mind.
I’ll end with what I think is a rather appropriate quote from Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, see if you can catch the irony:
“This divisiveness that exists, the political class of our country that has really failed to really give us the kinds of things that we expect which is just honesty. Just tell the truth.”
Watch this time-stamped video of his speech in Texas to hear his Islamophobic rhetoric.
Featured Image by Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain
