Whoops! Alabama Anti-Sharia Bill Lifted From Wikipedia
*snort, eyeroll* Our state legislators are now basing laws on info gleaned from Wikipedia? Way to go GOP—y’all keep working hard on those fiscal issues!
…this story from Alabama, via the Anniston Star, trumps everything. State senator Gerald Allen introduced a bill to ban Islamic law from state courts, making his state the 17th to consider such a proposal since the beginning of 2010. Just one problem:
[The] definition is the same, almost word for word, as wording in the Wikipedia entry on Shariah law as it appeared Thursday. Allen said the wording was drafted by Legislative staff. A source on the staff at the Legislature confirmed that the definition was in fact pulled from Wikipedia.
Allen could not readily define Shariah in an interview Thursday. “I don’t have my file in front of me,” he said. “I wish I could answer you better.”
Probably not by coincidence, something similar happened in 2005, when Allen attempted to ban schools and libraries from purchasing books by gay authors (actual quote from Allen: “I don’t think of it as censorship”).…
