Backers Promote Bills Banning Sharia, Foreign Laws
LANSING (AP) - Supporters are turning up the heat to try and move legislation that would ban the implementation of foreign laws such as Islamic Sharia law in Michigan.
About 150 people gathered Thursday near the state Capitol to hear advocates for House and Senate bills modeled after a proposal dubbed
"American Laws for American Courts" that was written for a group called the American Public Policy Alliance.
Similar legislation has been proposed in about two dozen states and approved in three.
The bills don't specifically mention Sharia, which broadly refers to codes within the Islamic legal system. But Sharia was frequently cited as a concern by speakers and attendees of the event.
The Michigan Catholic Conference and Council on American-Islamic Relations' Michigan chapter are among the groups who oppose the legislation.
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