Against these events, Cassel wrote in part on social media:

“I filed legislation to make one thing crystal clear: Florida will never submit to foreign law, including Shari’a law, in any form, at any time, under any circumstance.

“As a Jewish woman, I know exactly what’s a stake when hatred and extremism are allowed to creep into our society. This bill draws a hard immovable line: Florida’s laws are written by Americans, for Americans — not by foreign ideologues who reject freedom and deny basic human rights. This bill is not a reaction — it is prevention. This legislation ensures that Shari’a law and any foreign legal codes that contradict our Constitution will be dead on arrival in this state. They won’t get a foothold, a platform or a second of legitimacy in Florida.

VoxPopuli checked in with board-certified government legal expert Clifford Shepard, founder and partner of Shepard, Smith, Hand & Brackins, who said that there is no need for preventive legislation to guard against the spread of Shari’a law in Florida or elsewhere in America. He said explained the American legal system is largely based on English common law, and Shari’a “would require a change in literally everything we do in this country from the top down.”

Essentially, Shepard said, this proposed legislation was a solution to a problem that did not exist.

“Where is this a threat? Where has anybody threatened to try to change the law to Sharia law anywhere?” he asked in a phone interview. “This is performative theater. It has no basis in reality. It has no basis in historical facts. It has no basis in anything whatsoever except people's built-in racism. If we got to the point of actually having somebody try to impose Shari’a law, it would mean we have already been overrun as a country, and whatever laws are on the books would be irrelevant.”

VoxPopuli reached out to Fatima Saied, executive director of the Muslim Women’s Organization in Orange County, for her take on how the proposed No Shari’a Act is being received in the Muslim community. There are an estimated 65,000 to 75,000 Muslims living in Orange County. Muslims are about 2 percent of the greater Orlando metro area, according to the 2023-2024 Religious Landscape Study by Pew Research. Jews account for 2 percent and Christians account for 60 percent, with evangelicals representing 21 percent of that number. About 6 percent are atheists.

Our interview has been edited.

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VoxPopuli: Fatima, what do you make of all this?

Fatima Saied:  First of all, thank you Norine, for the invitation. I really value it when people take the time to listen to our voices and hear different perspectives on things. So I really value what you're doing with VoxPopuli and all of your work, so thank you so much.  

 I think it's a very dangerous path to go down because it really is violating our right to practice our religion. This country is founded on freedom of religion, and what this act does is jeopardize that freedom for the Muslims in this country. When talk like this comes up, it's equivalent to saying that church marriages are not going to be tolerated or legal.

For us, what Shari’a means, it's just the ways we practice our faith, the legal rulings that exist for how to practice our faith. How do we pray? The laws for marriage and divorce? Just what are the rules and regulations that you live by? It's little things, you know.

[Shari’a] is not what it's made out to be. In Islam, Muslims have to abide by the law of the land. That is part of the Shari’a. You can’t break laws. That is not Islamic. If anybody is doing something in the name of religion that is illegal, then they have to deal with the consequences of this country’s laws. Nobody can overrule those laws because Oh, my religion said so. That’s just the way this country is built. You abide by the laws, but you can also believe what you believe and practice it.

The way that I’ve learned it, Shari’a is this understanding that God has a way that he wants us live. Like God wants us to be good, not harm people, take care of each other, be kind, be merciful, pray five times a day, fast, give charity. There are all of these things that are required of Muslims. And it’s codified by legal rulings. And by legal rulings, I’m talking about Islamic scholarly perspectives on all of these things. So when I want to learn how to pray, what are the rules about praying? That is all part of Shari’a. It’s part of our jurisprudence. So if they’re saying Shari’a law is dangerous, it’s going to be illegal, does that mean I can’t pray anymore? That I can’t access any resources to understand how to practice my faith? That I cannot get married to someone in the way that religiously I’m supposed to be doing it?

I  don't understand what they mean by this law. What are they trying to achieve and how are they going to implement it? I think it's all really drama. It’s just a way to demonize a group of people. All it's going to do is increase hatred and violence against a group of people — my people.

VoxPopuli: The way you describe Shari’a law sounds very much like Talmudic law. And I am not a Talmudic scholar by any stretch, so no one should think I’m trying to pass myself off as one. But having grown up Jewish, I can see some similarities. Observant Jews have rules for keeping kosher; for fast days; for covering the head and for Orthodox women, the hair; for what can and can’t be done on the Sabbath — drive, turn on lights or appliances. I swear I knew a guy in college who pre-tore toilet paper so he wouldn’t have to rip it off the roll on the Sabbath because that was “work” and Sabbath was a day of “rest.” My grandmother kept potted African violets on the window ledge above her kitchen sink so that when someone mistakenly grabbed a utensil meant for meat dishes and used it for a dairy dish, they could stick it in one of the flower pots. Jewish law says utensils need to be buried for a time when they get "contaminated."

My point is that these rules for observant Jews exist without anyone getting worked up that Talmudic law will replace American law. I haven’t seen a No Talmudic Law Act introduced in the Legislature.

Fatima Saied: It’s like if somebody Jewish decides they’re only going to eat kosher food, they’re abiding by Jewish law, right? But will anything labeled halal become illegal? Will I not have the right to go to a store selling halal food because halal is a Shari’a thing, and it’s no longer legal, but Jewish people can go to a store and get kosher food? There is inherent injustice and inequity in this law.

VoxPopuli: What’s the reaction been in the Muslim community to the filing of the No Shari’a Act?

Fatima Saied:  I don't think anybody is surprised. The political landscape in this state has not been friendly to Muslims. This is not the first time this has been tried. I do not think it will be the last time that it's going to be tried.

We're afraid ... I have felt afraid walking down the road with random people yelling things out of trucks. Those are things that as Muslims — especially women who are identifiably Muslim — those are things that we deal with, and we have been dealing with for a very, very long time.

This kind of rhetoric doesn't help at all. But at the same time, I still have to go out and work. My kids are still going to school. All of my kids went to public school throughout these years. One daughter was told by another kid in school over social media, Why don't you go back to where you came from and get raped!

These are things that my children have been told. It's not anything that is new to any of us, and I don't think it's going to get any better anytime soon because our elected officials do not care about us. Our police department is not protecting us. They're criminalizing, and they're causing harm.

There's nobody that we are gonna be turning to for help, right? All we can do is make sure that in our community we have friends, we have allies, we have people that may stand up for us when that inevitable time comes that they decide to make things worse. Because we have a history in this country of violence against different groups of people. The Japanese were put into internment camps. It's not out of the realm of possibility that our governor or a lawmaker decides all Muslims need to be rounded up and put in Alligator Alcatraz or something like that.

I think it's especially scary for those of us that look like we could be from somewhere else. Like, I've only ever lived in Florida. Literally, I have only ever lived in Florida. But looking at me, you wouldn't necessarily be able to tell, right? People will have an assumption based on how I dress, based on the color of my skin. They have an assumption about me and police officers even more so.

So I do not necessarily feel safe. I'm scared when I'm driving my car. Will I be pulled over? What will happen if I'm pulled over? You know, I'm scared because I'm part of an organization that doesn't necessarily stay quiet about everything. Am I in a system on a list somewhere, so when I do get pulled over for my speeding ticket, will I then be sent I don't know where? I don't know, but these things are crossing my mind. And I think as an organization also, we're thinking about these things. I have to talk to my board, like What if something happens to me? We have to have a plan. But at the same time, I'm not gonna stay quiet.

It's very easy to stay quiet, right? I do have that option. A lot of people do take that option, and I respect their right to do that because they have to protect themselves and stay safe. But if everybody did that, then I think those people who are trying to cause this harm, win.

VoxPopuli: All of this is about fear. The South Florida representative referenced the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and filed her bill on its second anniversary. Comparisons have been drawn to the Holocaust, which I believe cheapens the atrocities of the Holocaust. You mentioned that Muslims get broadly characterized for the violent acts of a handful of individuals in a way that others do not. Tell me more about that.  

Fatima Saied: One person or a small group of people may commit violence that is a reprehensible using Shari’a law or the religion as kind of an excuse. Their motivations are not anything that's founded in my faith, but they kind of hijack it to meet their own political purposes. That tiny minority is then used as Well, this is what all Muslims are and This is what all of them do and They hate us. The actions of a few are taken to mean All Muslims believe this. All Muslims are going do this. Muslims are bad.

I don't see that happening with other faith groups. It's something that happens to Muslims.

You don't see that happening if there is somebody who's using their Christianity as an excuse to commit violence. The KKK or whatever. You don't then call into question the whole Christian faith and the right for a church to exist or a Christian to get married in a Christian way. You don’t make this something that's about religion. You keep it about that small group of people that are doing that awful thing, and you separate them from the faith as a society. And people don't even want to try that with Muslims.

VoxPopuli:  Do you see a way forward? I mean, it shouldn’t be completely on the Muslim community but how do you see moving forward?

Fatima Saied:  My community is trying, right? They have been trying, they have not stopped trying. So many organizations, so many people are trying to take action through the proper channels, right? Civic engagement and all of those things. I don't think that is changing. They're just ramping it up and they keep trying to work within the system, following every law to do the right thing.

I have to remind myself, Florida was not always a red state. In my lifetime, it has been otherwise. So if it can become one thing, it can become something else. If enough people are outraged and care, and there are people out there and if you keep doing and sharing those stories, I think slowly that change can happen.

 All of our religious stories are about a people that were being oppressed that ultimately were victorious, right? I think that is really the power of a faith community. These stories should be our inspiration of how to be merciful, be compassionate, and still be just and stand up for people that are being oppressed and keep believing and don't lose hope.

I have to remind myself that I am not the first person to be going through oppression. I will not be the last person going through oppression. But I can model my behavior after the people that came before me and find inspiration in that.