Legislation designed to battle terrorism really targets Muslims and could cause Tennessee leaders to designate a mosque near Murfreesboro as a terrorist supporter, a Nashville woman argued Tuesday at the State Capitol.

“With the anti-Islamic climate in Tennessee, because of the proposed Murfreesboro mosque, you can see how unfounded accusations may lead to political pressure on the attorney general and on the governor to use their extra judicial powers to make a designation,” Sabina Mohyuddin, youth coordinator for the Islamic Center of Nashville, told the House Judiciary Committee.

Mohyuddin was among some 250 to 300 members of Middle Tennessee’s Islamic community who packed the Legislative Plaza Tuesday to voice their opposition to a bill sponsored by Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, and Sen. Bill Ketron, a Murfreesboro Republican.

Members of the Murfreesboro mosque located in a former office building on Middle Tennessee Boulevard want to build a 53,000-square-foot facility on Veals Road off Bradyville Pike, but their efforts have met stiff resistance, including a lawsuit challenging the county’s site plan approval and contending that it will be a training center for Islamic radicals.

“Opponents of the Murfreesboro mosque will try to use their baseless accusations to get the mosque designated as a terrorist organization,” Mohyuddin said.

Once that designation is made, it will be “irrevocable,” she said, even if leaders of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro prove they don’t support terrorism.

Ketron and Matheny amended their bill to remove references to Islam and Shariah after it originally gave the attorney general authority to designate a “Shariah organization” as one intent on engaging in jihad through violence or criminal activity. The proposal would make it a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison and fines for anyone found to be supporting terrorism.

Matheny postponed consideration of the bill until Tuesday at 10 a.m. in the House Judiciary Committee, and the Senate version was postponed as well.

But Ketron said he plans to move forward with the legislation even though opponents asked Tuesday that it be withdrawn so law enforcement officials could meet with civil rights leaders and legislators over the summer to find compromise.

“I feel good about it. We feel like it meets constitutional muster,” Ketron said Tuesday, adding he has met Muslims from Tullahoma, Nashville and Murfreesboro on several occasions.

“They feel like it’s an attack. I don’t feel like it’s an attack,” Ketron said. “We’ve listened to them and removed all their concerns and when we put the first amendment on it they were OK with that, until the ACLU got involved and then they changed.”

ACLU Executive Director Hedy Weinberg also testified Tuesday before the Judiciary Committee, asking that law enforcement be brought to the table.

Ketron responded that he has spoken with law enforcement officials and that he doesn’t know what the Muslim community would negotiate.

“All they want to do is kill the bill,” said Ketron, adding Muslims have nothing to say other than “It’s a hate bill.”

Ossama Bahloul, imam of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, attended Tuesday’s House meeting and said later he believes the legislation targets Islam.

“I don’t think there’s any need for this bill when we have a federal act,” Bahloul said. “I think it’s a time for us in Tennessee to open doors and open dialogue.”

Bahloul said local Muslims support laws that will make the city, state and nation safe, but he believes this bill is “not doing anything but hurting the reputation of the state.”

When the House Judiciary took a recess Tuesday shortly before noon, state Rep. Rick Womick, a Murfreesboro Republican, confronted Daoud Abudiab, who spoke against the legislation, and asked him if he would publicly denounce Hezbollah and Hamas, two groups designated as terrorist organizations.

Abudiab, a member of the Islamic Center of Columbia, which was torched in 2008, said he would denounce those groups and anyone who is “a threat to our security.”

Womick responded he was satisfied with Abudiab’s answer but continued to press him, saying Islam is more than religion, it’s a political and social organization and groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim Student Association hold radical beliefs that Shariah law should replace U.S. constitutional law.

Abudiab told Womick he is opposed to any law, including Shariah, superseding U.S. law.

Source : The Daily News Journal