By: Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida <\/p>\n
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill allowing the state to designate groups as \u201cdomestic terrorist organizations.\u201d It backs up an executive order he issued in December placing that label on two Islamic groups.<\/p>\n
The law, effective July 1, bars a court or other adjudicatory body from enforcing any provision of a religious or foreign law, with an emphasis against the Islamic code known as Sharia law.<\/p>\n
Another provision allows the state\u2019s Chief of Domestic Security \u2014 currently Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass \u2014 to designate a domestic or foreign terrorist organization. The Governor and the Cabinet would approve the designation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe legislation we\u2019ll sign today is the strongest action Florida has ever taken to protect its people from this influence,\u201d DeSantis said during a bill signing event at the University of South Florida\u2019s Gibbons Alumni Center in Tampa. \u201cAnd obviously, it spans finance, it spans political, it spans culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
The legislation (HB 1471) was filed in support of DeSantis\u2019 executive order classifying the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations.<\/p>\n
In March, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction against the order, writing that it violated CAIR\u2019s rights by targeting and threatening those providing the organization with material support.<\/p>\n
Criticizing the legislation DeSantis\u2019 office helped author as advancing \u201ca political agenda,\u201d CAIR-Florida Executive Director Hiba Rahim said in a statement on Monday the law jeopardizes student speech, freedom of religion and due process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not just about CAIR. This expanded and deeply flawed framework can attack any organization that dares to dissent,\u201d Rahim said in a statement. \u201cAs Floridians, together,\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0watch how this\u00a0unprecedented law\u00a0is\u00a0enforced, and whether\u00a0it\u00a0is\u00a0used or\u00a0abused.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
DeSantis acknowledged that Sharia law isn\u2019t going to be practiced in Florida courts, but the new state law is intended to get ahead of its \u201ccreep into different institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I see happening in Europe, I see a migration not to assimilate, but to displace the current cultures that are there,\u201d DeSantis said. \u201cWe obviously are not going to allow that to happen here in the state of Florida.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The measure also outlines rules for expelling students at state universities who \u201cpromote\u201d support for such groups.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If a student\u2019s actions can be \u201creasonably interpreted\u201d as an actual threat of violence; disrupt the learning environment; infringe upon the rights of others; or offer \u201cmaterial support for or the recruitment of members for such an organization,\u201d they can be expelled under the new law.<\/p>\n
Other parts of the bill bar schools affiliated with designated terrorist organizations from receiving state K-12 scholarship program money. Also, public universities and colleges are prohibited from spending state or federal funds to support programs or campus activities that promote a designated terrorist organization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The proposal was approved in the Republican-controlled Legislature by votes of 80-25 in the House and 25-11 in the Senate.<\/p>\n
While the legislation was debated, Democrats raised concerns the\u00a0bill\u00a0and a related public records exemption (HB 1473)\u00a0blocking documents showing how a \u201cterrorist\u201d designation is reached, would deprive any group hit with the label of due process.<\/p>\n
Opponents of the bill also expressed concerns over whether people, especially students on college campuses, could inadvertently be accused of being a member of a designated domestic terrorist organization and suffer consequences without a conviction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By: Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill allowing the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-221053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}