Ben Cline, working hard, highlights his effort to save us all from Sharia law

Ben Cline, laser-focused on issues affecting his Sixth District constituents, is a proud charter member of something called the Sharia-Free America Caucus, an effort led by Chip Roy, who I’m ashamed to admit is a fellow 1994 UVA alum.

I stumbled upon this latest nonsense involving our MAGA congressman via his Twitter feed, which Cline used to highlight a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing held on Tuesday on the, quote, “implications tied to the infiltration of Sharia law in the U.S.,” as if there are any.

Seriously, how many tinfoil hats do you have to have hanging by the front door to believe that we’re on the verge of Sharia law being the law of the land?

“Any effort to impose Sharia law in the United States should be met with serious scrutiny and firm opposition. Importing extremist ideologies that conflict with our legal system poses a real national security concern,” Cline wrote on his socials.

I wish I was making this up.

The hearing was ostensibly held to examine the proposed “Preserving a Sharia-Free America Act,” which, according to one of the witnesses, Ilya Somin, a law professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University, would bar or deport all non-citizen Muslims by mandating that “(a)ny alien in the United States found to be an adherent of Sharia law by the Secretary of State, Secretary of Homeland Security, or Attorney General shall have any immigration benefit, immigration relief, or visa revoked, be considered inadmissible or deportable, and shall be removed from the United States.”

If you’re wondering why we’d need something like this on the books, you will still be wondering why after you read the explanations from the bill’s proponents.

“The principles of Sharia are at odds with the Constitution and the laws of the United States,” said Roy, a Texas MAGA congressman, which, OK, sure, go on.

“Sharia fails to include due process, treats non-Muslims as second-class citizens and prescribes barbaric punishments, all the while, polygamy, misguided corporal punishment for perceived violations of Islam and acts of violence and terrorism on behalf of Sharia are permitted by its adherents,” Roy said.

“Sharia encourages violence, silences dissent, rejects religious freedom and subjugates women and children. Let’s be clear, this is not about having the freedom of worshiping a religion of one’s choosing, such as Islam, but forcing a foreign legal code that is incompatible with our laws and legal system that provides unwanted consequences to the American people. It’s everything we’ve fought against for more than 250 years,” Roy said.

And this applies to the daily lives of non-Muslims … how, exactly?

“Freedom of religion does not mean freedom to impose a parallel legal system or undermine constitutional governance. No ideology religious or otherwise stands above the American law,” said another of these MAGA chuckers, Cory Mills, a congressman from Florida – hey, Florida Man sighting!

You’re still having trouble figuring out why there’s a need for this law, for this Sharia law caucus – I mean, other than the obvious.

“There is no real threat that Sharia law is somehow going to take over the U.S. legal system or that of the state of Texas (the focus of much of the testimony),” Somin wrote after the subcommittee hearing. “And it is no grave threat to American values if some Muslims plan to establish a private compound where they live in accordance with their religious laws, especially since it turns out the compound in question will not actually enforce Sharia law on residents. Other religious groups do similar things all the time.”

To Somin, the hearing wasn’t about the bill, which has no chance of even getting out of committee, much less past the full House and the Senate.

No doubt, Donald Trump would use his sharpie to sign it into law if it got that far.

“Some Muslims do indeed have awful, reprehensible beliefs on various issues,” Somin wrote. “But there are lots of ways to address any danger that poses, without resorting to censorship, discrimination on the basis of religion, mass deportation, and other unconstitutional and repressive policies. The most obvious solution is to simply enforce the First Amendment’s prohibitions on the establishment of religion, and persecution and discrimination on the basis of religious belief.”

Cline is one of three MAGA congressmen from Virginia that are charter members in the Sharia-Free American Caucus.

Morgan Griffith, down in the Ninth District, he’ll be OK in November – the Ninth is the 1 in the new 10-1 Virginia congressional map.

Then it’s Ben Cline in the Sixth, who is in a new leans-D district, and will lose in November to either Beth Macy or Tom Perriello.

John McGuire is in the Fifth; beware Shannon Taylor in that new leans-D district.

Pro tip: running so far to the far, far right that not even your Fox News-addicted 80-year-old great aunt knows what you’re talking about, not good strategy in leans-D districts.