The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) announced that on MOnday, it was scheduled to have hosted a Capitol Hill forum titled “A Solution in Search of a Problem: The Impact of Anti-Sharia Bills in America.” According to the announcement:
The Muslim Public Affairs Council today announced it will host a Capitol Hill forum on “A Solution in Search of a Problem: The Impact of Anti-Sharia Bills in America” on Monday, June 20, to discuss the impact of state-level bills on various faith communities and the Constitutional guarantee to freedom of religion. “Sharia has become an inflammatory buzzword that is getting thrown about and used to craft pre-emptive legislation with little to no understanding of what it is and isn’t,” said Haris Tarin, Director of MPAC’s Washington, DC, Office. “In the face of a wave of anti-sharia bills cropping up all over the country, it’s time for a level-headed adult conversation on the issue.” With the emergence of 40 anti-sharia bills in at least 20 states, the topic of Islamic jurisprudence in the United States is now becoming a source of heated – and confused – debate. This panel of experts will analyze what impact anti-sharia bills are having across our nation.
The MPAC announcement also indicated that the following speakers were scheduled:
- Noha A. Bakr – Commissioner of the Montgomery (MD) County Commission for Women.
- Daniel Mach – Director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief
- Rabbi Gerry Serotta – Executive Director, Clergy Beyond Borders
- Haris Tarin (Moderator) – Director of the Washington, DC Office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council
MPAC, headquartered in Southern California, was established initially in 1986 as the Political Action Committee of the Islamic Center of Southern California whose key leaders likely had their origins in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Since that time, MPAC has functioned as the political lobbying arm of the U.S. Brotherhood. MPAC has opposed virtually every count-terror initiative undertaken or proposed by the U.S. government. At times this opposition was said to be on civil-rights grounds but, just as often, MPAC claimed that U.S. counter-terror efforts were aimed at the U.S. Muslim community itself. MPAC has consistently supported and facilitated terrorism by supporting terrorist organizations and, more broadly, constructing an elaborate ideology defending the use of violence by Islamists and Islamist organizations. More than any other U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organization, MPAC has developed extensive relationships with the U.S. government which have included numerous meetings with the Department of Justice and the FBI.