State Rep. Rex Duncan (R) believes that the Muslim legal code known as Sharia Law is a clear danger and wanted to prevent it from ever taking root in his home state of Oklahoma. Admittedly, Sharia Law has been used to deny women the right to vote, apply for a driver’s license, obtain an education, own property in their own name, and obtain gainful employment. It has also been used to deny people their freedom of religion and impose a death sentence upon any Muslim who converts to another faith such as Christianity.
So Duncan sponsored a constitutional amendment called the “Save Our State Amendment” that would prevent Oklahoma from using Sharia Law. The measure was challenged in federal court by the local chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on the grounds that it favored one religion over another.
Ultimately, the amendment was overturned. The decision was appealed to the US 10th Circuit Court of Appeals which also concurred. The state was also ordered to pay the legal costs incurred by CAIR during the four-year legal challenge dating back to 2010. The legal fees amount to $300,000. There was never any credible threat that the Oklahoma judiciary was ever considering adopting Sharia Law.
However well-intentioned the law might have been, it crossed the line in violating a person’s individual freedom and targeting a single religion. In the end, the ‘Save Our State Amendment” proved to be nothing more than a costly intellectual exercise with money that would have been better spent elsewhere. At least, Oklahoma didn’t pour billions into green technology companies that would produce no profit and later go bankrupt.