Irving, TX is a notorious, rightwing cesspool of racist ignorance

[geek tragedy]

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20150319-dispute-on-islam-roils-irving.ece

IRVING — The intense national spotlight on Islam has shifted to Irving, where Mayor Beth Van Duyne has accused mosque leaders of creating separate laws for Muslims and the City Council voted Thursday to endorse a state bill that Muslims say targets their faith.


The dispute has made Van Duyne a hero among a fringe movement that believes Muslims — a tiny fraction of the U.S. population — are plotting to take over American culture and courts.

“It fuels anti-Islamic hysteria,” said Zia Sheikh, imam at the Islamic Center of Irving. “Her whole point was to rile up her supporters. ... The problem is we become the whipping boys.”

...
But it has led Van Duyne to back a bill by state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, that would forbid judges from using foreign law in their rulings.

While the bill does not mention religion, Leach has singled out the Islamic mediation panel as a “problem” it will solve. The wording is largely identical to that in a previous bill pitched by another lawmaker as a way to stop the influence of “large populations of Middle Easterners.”

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20150319-dispute-on-islam-roils-irving.ece

Hopefully Ahmed and his family will be able to escape that shithole.

[Downwinder]

1. Trying to distract from their quake problem?

[Takket]

2. Meanwhile... Kim Davis is a right wing hero

[octoberlib]

3. Why in the fuck would any US judge use foreign law in their rulings?

Jesus.

[geek tragedy]

4. there are times when US law is inconclusive, but realistically we're talking

about federal courts who would use such sourcing, the term of art being "persuasive authority."

[octoberlib]

5. I see. Thanks for the info

[cascadiance]

6. Perhaps some of the local businesses there can declare themselves "Muslim" or "Jewish"...

... the way the Supreme Court has given them the privilege of doing under corporate personhood with their Hobby Lobby decision.

Then that either of these religious businesses can tell its employees that they need to eat off site if they want to eat anything with pork in it, or that they need to eat off site during the day if they want to eat at all for the Muslim business during Ramadan.

I wonder if the local residents then would like entities like either businesses or government taking away their religious freedoms if they say religious rules of others are allowed to dictate their lives.