Advocates for Muslim groups in Florida — along with Democrats — are blasting the Florida Senate this week for targeting their community in approving a bill that would give top state officials the authority to designate a group as a “domestic terrorist organization.”
They also are critical of another provision of the bill, HB 1471, that would allow the state to withhold voucher funds from schools deemed to have ties to a foreign or domestic terrorist organization. The measure would also ban any Florida court from enforcing Sharia law and would expel college students who "promoted a terrorist organization."
"There's no question this bill is targeting Muslim Floridians," Khurrum Wahid, founder and national chairperson for Emgage Action, a nonprofit advocacy group for Muslim Americans.
Wahid, a practicing attorney, said he's "confident" legal challenges to the law will arise as soon as the first organization or individual is designated a "terrorist."
"I'm also pretty confident that the First Amendment will win," Wahid said, and "this law will be found unconstitutional."
Under the bill the state’s Chief of Domestic Security could designate a domestic or foreign terrorist organization. The Governor and the Cabinet would have to approve the designation.
The Senate bill passed on a 25-11 vote along mostly party lines, with Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, and Sen. Alexis Calatayud, R-Miami, the only two Republicans voting against it. Sen. Jason Pizzo, a former Democrat who left the party to be an independent member last year, voted for it.
The House previously passed the bill but because it was amended it now heads back to that chamber for another vote before it can go to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk for his signature.
State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, said Florida already has criminal laws to prosecute terrorism, and the state doesn’t need to give the executive branch more political control.
“It’s going to have a chilling effect on speech, on advocacy, on participation,” Smith said.
“I think this is a dangerous slippery slope, and I hope we don’t go down it,” said state Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton.
State Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, said the First Amendment is a priority, but threats to safety should be taken seriously.
The Senate vote on Thursday comes a day after a federal judge in Florida temporarily blocked the enforcement of an executive order issued last year by DeSantis that designates two Muslim groups as foreign terrorist organizations.
U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker wrote in his preliminary injunction that the First Amendment bars the governor from continuing the troubling trend of using an executive office to make a political statement at the expense of others’ constitutional rights.
The governor’s order targeted the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood. CAIR-Florida is the state’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization.
In a statement earlier this year, Hiba Rahim, Interim Executive Director at CAIR-FL, said the bill will "create a dangerous system where the state can label our mosques and charities as ‘terrorist organizations’ using secret evidence that we are barred from seeing or challenging in court."
READ MORE: School vouchers row: Local Islamic leaders hit back at Uthmeier's 'Sharia law' claim
Targeting higher education
The executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Bacardi Jackson, said the bill “threatens academic freedom and campus expression."
"Students could be expelled and stripped of financial aid for exercising their First Amendment rights, based on undefined standards that invite uneven enforcement," Jackson said. "That is not how due process works."
“The First Amendment protects the right to speak, to organize, and to challenge those in power," she added. "When the government gives itself authority to designate groups and penalize people based on loosely defined concepts like ‘promotion’ or association, it risks chilling lawful advocacy and civic participation across this state.
“History shows us that laws enacted in the name of security are too often applied in ways that suppress dissent and disproportionately impact Black, brown, Muslim, immigrant, and politically marginalized communities," she said.
Voucher row
Islamic schools receiving school choice scholarship money could also be targeted if the bill becomes law.
Last year, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier claimed that tax-payer funded vouchers for private Islamic schools violate Florida law and pose a national security threat.
"Sharia law seeks to destroy and supplant the pillars of our republican form of government and is incompatible with the Western tradition," Uthmeier posted on social media last November.
He and two other Florida Cabinet members raised questions about whether two Tampa-area Islamic schools were eligible to receive state voucher dollars.
Neither of the schools — Hifz Academy and Bayaan Academy — name Sharia law on their websites.
Last year, more than 2,000 private schools accepted vouchers and 61% of private schools identified as religious, according to data from Step Up For Students, the state's largest scholarship funding organization. Catholic schools are the single largest religious recipients.
Affects all Floridians
"The societal impact is that the fear mongering has only amplified with the government taking these steps," said Azhar Subedar, the development director of the South Florida Muslim Federation. "It only amplifies. The rhetoric and makes the hate more real for people who are common, average Americans."
Subedar is an Islamic scholar and spiritual leader who says he has taken on a mission to bring together multiple communities of faith for open dialogue and discussion, hoping to foster a deeper understanding, interfaith alliance and disarm fear. He sees this bill law not only as concerning for Muslims, but for all Floridians.
The bill "doesn't put anyone in a good position because that freedom is no longer freedom," he told WLRN.
The News Service of Florida and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
