The man behind the anti-sharia state law push

The New York Times' Andrea Elliot tracked down the man behind a spate of state laws banning the use of sharia, or Islamic law, in U.S. courthouses.

Fifty-six year-old David Yerushalmi, a Hasidic Jewish lawyer living in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, worked with conservative political activists in drafting the model legislation that Oklahoma, Tennessee and Louisiana have enacted to ban sharia.

Yerushalmi represents the controversial "Atlas Shrugs" blogger Pamela Geller, and received funding from Frank Gaffney, who runs the blog "Jihad Watch" and the think tank the Center for Security Policy. Yerushalmi authored Gaffney's report, "Shariah: The Threat to America," that sparked conservative interest in the topic, and is also the Center for Security Policy's chief counsel.

A federal judge temporarily blocked Oklahoma's law after a Muslim civil rights group sued, saying the legislation violates Muslims' freedom of religion. The lead plaintiff in the suit, Muneer Awad--who directs the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations--argued that his will would not be recognized under the new law, because he mentions Islamic principles in it, while Christian and Jewish wills would not face the same treatment.

According to Elliot, Yerushalmi met with federal security and finance officials in 2008, who found his concerns about the threat of sharia unconvincing. "If you can't move policy at the federal level, well, where do you go?" Yershalmi said. "You go to the states."

Interestingly, all three state statutes make corporations exempt from their bans on sharia or foreign law, since business lobbyists expressed concern that corporations would be unable to form contracts with foreign businesses as a result.

You can read the whole story here.