(Editor’s Note: Readers see no need for a bill filed in the Legislature (HB 119) to prohibit Sharia law in Florida. The sponsor, Rep. Hillary Cassel of Dania Beach, is a former Democrat who became a Republican in 2024. Critics call the bill a stunt to exploit anti-Muslim bigotry.)
You have to be kidding me!
The powers that be in the Florida Legislature are even discussing Sharia law?
What is our country coming to?
Women, unite! Do we have to burn our bras again to make a statement?
Forty-one years ago, I got divorced and could not qualify for a credit card, despite the fact that I had a full-time job for years and owned another home. Why? Because I was a woman.
Black men in America got the right to vote in 1870 but women did not get the vote until 1920.
I can’t wait for Sun Sentinel columnist Pat Beall to do her thing on this one.
Sandra Hill, Tamarac
It’s of dubious legality
Suppose Rep. Hillary Cassel’s proposal to ban Sharia law in Florida were to get serious attention, even with its dubious constitutional and legal basis.
In that case, it should also be balanced by extending such bans to other theological law constructs such as Jewish Talmudic and Halachic law and Roman Catholic Canon law from any standing in Florida courts.
It’s only fair to keep all religious legal frameworks away from the secular sector.
Stephen Wertheimer, Boca Raton
No need for such a law
As the news article in the Sun Sentinel correctly noted, there is no need for a Florida law called a “No Sharia Act.”
Islamic laws regarding theft, blasphemy and adultery prescribe draconian punishments that would violate the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as cruel and inhuman punishment.
They include stonings, lashings and amputations. They restrict women’s and gay rights, call for death for same-sex behavior and are not used in civil or criminal law in the United States.
Sharia law would violate the U.S. Constitution.
Daniel Cohen, Boynton Beach
That ol’ bugaboo
There’s nothing like the bugaboo of sharia law for Republicans.
“No Sharia law” was the empty warning from them many years ago. It was empty because there never was any threat of it being imposed then, and there’s no threat now.
However, in the past few years, we have seen its equivalent, as conservative legislators such as state Rep. Hillary Cassel and our illustrious governor have limited our freedoms in terms of what we can read and what can be taught.
Maybe we have met the enemy, and it is us!
Sylvan Seidenman, Stone Mountain, Ga.
(Editor’s Note: Bills to ban sharia law in Florida have been filed for at least 15 years. An early version, by former Sen. Alan Hays and former Rep. Larry Metz, went nowhere in 2011.)
In this 2017 photo, a boy and his father meet “Mary,” the renowned elephant at the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford.
Ban elephant hunting, too
Why doesn’t the Legislature also ban elephant hunting in the Sunshine State?
It makes more sense than lawmakers pushing a No Sharia Act.
Rob Curran, Lauderdale Lakes
CONTACT REP. HILLARY CASSEL
To contact the sponsor of the “no sharia act,” send an email to hillary.cassel@myfloridahouse.gov or call her local office at 954-893-5030.
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