Texas is among numerous states whose legislatures have given consideration to bills founded in bigotry and ignorance that seek to protect America's judicial system from the infiltration of Shariah (Islamic) law by barring courts, administrative agencies or arbitrators from applying, considering or enforcing Shariah or other religious law.

Directly targeting Shariah law or disguised in terms of protecting against the "application of foreign law," these offensive and completely unwarranted measures target a phantom threat. Such bills do not merely attack Islam, but rather they are an assault on all persons of faith because they hurt the free exercise rights of all Americans.

Anti-Shariah bills already have passed in Louisiana and Tennessee, and legislators from at least 11 other states have considered or are considering such legislation. A Texas version of the proposed anti-Shariah law was amended into House Bill 274, a tort reform bill. Fortunately, the Senate had the good sense to remove the amended language from the bill, and the House has thoughtfully concurred with that decision.

However, it is still prudent for all Texans to understand the xenophobic origins of this type of legislation. The ungrounded threat of the incursion of Shariah law into our courts has become an issue of much discussion on certain activists' agendas.

Many of these bills are based on model legislation issued by an organization called the American Public Policy Alliance. David Yerushalmi, an attorney who is involved with several anti-Muslim campaigns and groups, drafted APPA's model legislation, titled "American Laws for American Courts." The APPA website states that the legislation seeks to "protect American citizens' constitutional rights against the infiltration and incursion of foreign laws and foreign legal doctrines, especially Islamic Shariah Law."

In recent years, Yerushalmi has created a characterization of Shariah law that declares there are "hundreds of millions" of Muslims who are either "fully committed mujahideen" or "still dangerous but lesser committed jihad sympathizers" and who, because of Shariah law, would be willing to murder all nonbelievers unwilling to convert in order to "impose a worldwide political hegemony."

Indeed, Yerushalmi has vigorously opposed all perceived inroads of Shariah law in the United States, even entirely innocuous measures such as American financial institutions creating financing packages designed to be compatible with Islamic restrictions against loaning money at interest.

Stepping aside from biased origins of anti-Shariah bills, these measures are the proverbial solution in search of a problem. There simply is no documentation of unconstitutional application of religious law in our judicial system.

The separation of church and state embodied in the U.S. and state constitutions prohibits our courts from applying or considering religious law in any way that would constitute government advancement of or entanglement with religious law.

Anti-Shariah measures are redundant and wholly unnecessary. They are also harmful to religious freedom. For instance, Jewish beit din tribunals following the requirements of secular arbitration law arbitrate disputes ranging from divorce to multimillion-dollar claims. Christian religious panels such as the Peacemakers Ministries/Institute for Christian Conciliation function in a similar manner.

Operating within constitutional parameters, there are numerous cases where courts have enforced the arbitration decisions of Jewish and Christian tribunals or incorporated such tribunals' factual determinations into rulings. Anti-Shariah measures likely would prohibit this judicial practice. Furthermore, some of these measures would raise questions about statutes that take into consideration or reference religious laws, including prohibitions on false advertising of kosher food.

Anti-Shariah measures are nothing more than another example of politicians playing to bigotry and fear to score political points. Polarization, vitriol and fear must be replaced by reasoned and civil debate. An excellent place to start is proving to be right here in Texas, where legislators of good faith are rejecting this offensive and harmful anti-Shariah legislation.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.