After a week in which state senator David Brown, R-Becker, was rebuked for speaking about SF1264 at an event described as anti-Muslim, four Minnesota House Republicans introduced HF2489 on Friday, the first day of recess "Introduction and First Reading of House Bills."
We've put together a side-by-side comparison of the language in the two bills. Download the comparison here.
The two bills aren't paired as companion bills, but they're fairly close in language. State representative Mark Anderson, R-Lake Shore, is the author of the new house bill; Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, Bob Dettmer, R-Forest Lake, and Cindy Pugh, R-Chanhassen, are co-authors.
UPDATE: Cindy Pugh spoke briefly at the Sharia 101 event in St. Cloud on January 26, according to a source who attended the event. [end update]
UPDATE #2 1/31/2016: The Star Tribune reports "The four legislators who attended Baumann’s speech were Sens. David M. Brown, R-Becker, and Bruce D. Anderson, R-Buffalo, and Reps. Jim Newberger, R-Becker, and Cindy Pugh, R-Chanhassen." At the time of this update, neither Anderson nor Newberger are co-authors of the bills in their respective chambers. [end update]
UPDATE: Anderson is retiring after one term. [end update]
As we reported in our late December 2015 post, Central Minnesota Tea Party Patriots to host Branstner refugee rabblerousing event, Anderson's campaign committee chair Bill Dian, organized former California Minuteman Civil Defense Corps member Ron Branstner's talk in Baxter, MN for the Central Minnesota Tea Party Patriots, based in Browerville.
The Shariah 101 Event
What's the rumpus? On Thursday, Minnesota Public Radio's Riham Feshir reported in Legislator rebuked for speaking at event described as anti-Muslim:
A state legislator is taking heat for attending a private Shariah law event in St. Cloud that critics are calling anti-Islam.
Sen. David Brown, R-Becker, said the backlash he's getting for speaking at the event, billed as "Shariah 101," is unfounded. . . .
Brown said he was simply there as a lawmaker invited to speak about a bill he introduced last session. That bill would ensure the supremacy of the U.S. Constitution over foreign law. That issue has come up in divorce proceedings, he said, and he cited the example of a Somali woman going through a divorce.
"Her husband wanted the judge to use Shariah law for him to get custody of the children," Brown said. "Fortunately the judge ruled in favor of the woman, based on her constitutional rights."
Elrashidi pointed out that Shariah legally does not supersede the laws of the United States.
"Shariah is simply divine law," he said. "It's no different than canon law or Talmudic law."
He and other critics objected to the event having been private and held at an undisclosed location. It lacked the opportunity for an open dialogue or factual information about Islam and Shariah law.
"That would've gone a long way, but instead it was very secretive," he said. "It was very much promoted in a way that fits with an intent to present a skewed perception." . . .
CAIR officials said they plan to meet with Brown and that he's been open to having more conversations about Islam.
New: Brief history of anti-Sharia laws
Baumann's ideas are original. We take a look in our January 31 post, St. Cloud disunity: where'd those MN lawmakers get that wild & crazy anti-Sharia bill anyway? Short answer: the first state anti-sharia measures in the United States in Oklahoma. We also look at the sources of Baumann's notion that Islam isn't a religion (a position that would strip Muslims of First Amendment protections.
At the St. Cloud Times, Kirsti Marohi sought answers from two legal scholars at the University of Minnesota for her Fact check: Is ban on Sharia law necessary? Short answer: No.
Pushback!
Twin Cities and St. Cloud activists--including the IWW General Defense Committee Local 14--called for Brown to withdraw from the event and reject his bill. One suggested script for callers to his office:
Hello my name is _______ I am calling out of concern for my Muslim friends, family and neighbors. During your term you have made it your mission to target the Muslim community by spreading fear and misinformation which fuels the racial and religious tension that racks our state. I strongly encourage you to retract defaming statements you have made about the Minnesota Muslim community, to stop pursuing an agenda of fear, and to retract your unnecessary and mean-spirited law targeted at the imagined threat of sharia law. In show of support we ask you specifically to withdraw your bill SF1264. We hope that the communities that are fighting against this fear and hatred, who strive to have of all races and religions live together in harmony and cooperation, are given your support.
Brown is not seeking re-election to the legislature in 2016, a decision he announced last year.
Baumann and Pugh Go Back To Tea Party Events
The Becker Republican's role in the event was as a sidebar to the main speaker: Jeffrey Baumann. The St. Cloud Times reported in Speaker to address Islamic law at St. Cloud event:
Minutes from an October 2011 Southwest Metro Tea Party Patriots meeting state that Baumann spoke on "The Threat of Shariah Law" and "painted a frightening picture of what is in store for the U.S. as deference to Islam continues to grow." The meeting minutes also state that Baumann was raised in Saudi Arabia. . . .
Representative Pugh, a co-author of the new bill, is one of the founders of the Southwest Metro Tea Party Patriots. Baumann spoke to the SW Metro Tea Party last in June 2015 (video here).
In 2011, City Pages' Mike Mullen reported in Plymouth residents freaking out over proposed mosque:
It sounds like not everyone wants to "hang out." Jeff Baumann, of Coon Rapids, said he was raised in Saudi Arabia and is "very, very informed about Islam." Baumann said he'd fought against Shariah mortgages and attended a board meeting of TiZA, the Islamic charter school.
As Baumann began to read from a book about Islam, he was interrupted, and again Commission Chairman Jim Davis tried to interject with the purpose of the meeting.
"Land use, aiding the enemy, is treason," Baumann said.
"These are not my enemies, sir," Davis said.
Baumann continued, and eventually Davis had his microphone cut, with several others in attendance yelling at Baumann, "Sit down!"
Pugh's own problematic past utterances
Representative Pugh brings her own anti-Muslim to the new bill hopper. in 2012, City Pages staff writer Gregory Pratt reported Cindy Pugh, candidate for state rep., compares Muslim women to garbage bags. Later that year, Bluestem broke the news that Cindy Pugh warns Tea Party about threat of illiterate, disengaged & lazy voters--and Muslims as explanation of how the DFL regained control of the Minnesota legislature.
Last summer, after that last lecture, Pugh fretted that SCOTUS that approved marriage equality will also like lead to sharia law, so we suspect that Baumann's lessons to the tea party leader about Islam might not be grounded in reality.
Perhaps Tea Party ties to anti-Muslim speakers have nothing to do with Anderson and Pugh signing on to this bill. Or maybe everything.
Images: Jeffrey Baumann (left) and Sen. David Brown (left), banner for Twin Cities IWW's Phone Blast – Demand Senator David Brown Publicly Remove His Support . . .(top). Flyers from Unite Cloud's post Our city, our problem.
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It's a matter of deep concern that our country is peppered with Phobes. In this case, Islamophobes. It is a matter of even deeper concern that some of those people made their way into our government. Obviously (?) their constituency is either okay with their reps' hate or unaware of it. Willful ignorance? I am a snarker of the first water. But there are some things that demand slack-jawed seriosity. Mr. Brown, you have unlovely principles.
Posted by: Barbara J Gilbertson | Jan 30, 2016 at 08:52 AM