There is no plan to bring or implement sharia law in Florida but state Rep. Hillary Cassel of Broward has introduced legislation to prevent it anyway.
The objective of her proposed “No Sharia Act,” Cassel said, is “to make one thing crystal clear: Florida will never submit to foreign law, including sharia law, in any form, at any time, under any circumstance.”
The measure, which is being co-sponsored by half a dozen other Florida lawmakers, was described as unnecessary and denounced as a bigoted anti-Muslim political stunt by the Council on American-Islamic Relations — and by a South Florida rabbi who’s widely known for his interfaith efforts.
“It’s appealing to the hatred of Muslims,” said Rabbi Mark Winer of Boca Raton.
Winer is president of FAITH: the Foundation to Advance Interfaith Trust and Harmony.
In the past, he has served as president of the National Council of Synagogues and director of the Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Studies of St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens.
“It’s absolutely preposterous,” Winer said about the bill. “It’s so absurd it’s laughable — except it’s infuriating.”
CAIR, the Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, and its Florida chapter said the legislation is “rooted in lies, fearmongering and political distraction” and that it is drawn from “Islamophobic playbook” and is “designed to stigmatize Muslims.”
Cassel wasn’t available to answer questions about House Bill 119, which she introduced in early October, and didn’t respond to questions via email including whether there is a problem occurring or looming with the use of sharia law in Florida or elsewhere. In recent days, Cassel reposted supportive social media comments about the legislation.
In a statement posted to multiple social media platforms earlier this month, Cassel’s description of the legislation was diametrically opposed to Winer’s assessment.
“As a Jewish woman, I know exactly what’s at stake when hatred and extremism are allowed to creep into our society,” Cassel wrote. “This bill is not a reaction — it is prevention. This legislation ensures that sharia 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.”
Sharia law
Sharia law isn’t a thing that is “law” the way many non-Muslims in the U.S. may believe, said Junaid Akther, president of the Baitul Mukarram mosque west of Lake Worth Beach. It’s more a set of principles that guide people in their lives, he said.
The Baitul Mukarram mosque has a congregation of 400 to 500 people, most of whom are Bangladeshi Americans. Akther has lived in Palm Beach County — in what he calls “the best country in the world” — since 1984.
“There is no such thing per se that is sharia law,” Atker said. Applying the principles of sharia would encourage Muslims to follow the laws of Florida or wherever they live, he said. “This is a term used to structure the thought process. Sharia law is to obey the law of the land.”
The Council on Foreign Relations, the prominent nonpartisan policy and research organization, explains that sharia, which means the “correct path” in Arabic, is based on the Quran and teachings attributed to the Prophet Mohammed.
Most Muslim-majority countries have laws that reference sharia, CFR reports, with restrictions on lives of women and minority groups that draw intense attention and criticism in Western countries.
Islamic law, which CFR said is based on interpretations of sharia, can in some cases “significantly restrict women’s rights” and call for death for same-sex behavior. “For certain crimes, such as theft, blasphemy, and adultery, traditional interpretations of Islamic law prescribe punishments that are considered draconian compared with those in most modern legal systems… includ(ing) stoning, lashing, and amputation.”
Sharia law is not used in civil or criminal law in the United States, and legal scholars have said it couldn’t be because it would violate the Constitution, Winer said.
“Nobody’s proposing” sharia law in Florida or the U.S, he said. “It’s just an absurd thing, which is nothing but an Islamophobic, anti-Muslim thing.”
Legislation
About 15 years ago, many states considered, and some passed, laws to ban “any foreign law, legal code or legal system” that doesn’t grant the same rights and privileges as state and U.S. constitutions.
Since 2010, 233 anti-sharia bills have been introduced in legislatures, and 20 have been enacted into law in 13 states, according to a 2024 article in Human Rights Magazine published by the Civil Rights and Social Justice Section of the American Bar Association.
Not all the laws specifically mentioned sharia. Describing a continuation of “the anti-sharia movement,” an article in the Harvard Law School’s Journal of Islamic Law cited a 2017 Florida law that “prevents courts from recognizing or enforcing foreign laws if they conflict with Florida’s ‘strong public policy.’”
Cassel’s legislation, introduced for the 2026 session, calls it the “No Sharia Act” and declares “certain rulings, decisions, or contractual provisions are void & unenforceable” if they “allow application of sharia or certain foreign laws, legal codes, or systems.”
Political landscape
There is a political subtext. The specter of sharia law has been used at times to appeal to anti-Muslim worries of some voters. About 1% of adults in Florida and the U.S. identify as Muslim, according to the Pew Research Center’s 2023-24 Religious Landscape Study. Pew found 3% of Florida adults and 2% nationally are Jewish.
The Florida House of Representatives district Cassel represents — all or parts of Dania Beach, Davie, Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale Beach and Hollywood — includes neighborhoods that are home to many Jewish voters.
Cassel was twice elected to the Florida House as a Democrat, but switched her party affiliation and became a Republican weeks after the 2024 election. The registered voters in her 101st House District are 36.8% Democratic, 33.7% no party affiliation/independent, 26.9% Republican and 2.6% minor parties.
But voting in the district is becoming more Republican, according to an analysis of presidential results by Democratic data analyst Matthew Isbell. In 2012 and 2016, the territory in the district was “solidly blue.” In 2020, former President Joe Biden won it with 56.7% of the vote. In 2024, President Donald Trump won it with 50.6% of the vote.
Isbell’s analysis noted the darkest red (meaning heavily for Trump) precinct in a map of the 2024 results was “home to a sizable Orthodox Jewish community.”
Cassel wasn’t immediately embraced by everyone in the Republican Party. Gov. Ron DeSantis, for example, questioned the sincerity of her party switch. “They brought into the party a liberal Democrat from down in South Florida. She switches parties to be Republican even though she’s very, very liberal and opposed us on everything for six years,” DeSantis said in April.
The governor seems supportive of Cassel’s bill. “Sharia law has no place in the USA and is incompatible with the Constitution,” DeSantis wrote on social media, reposting a description of the legislation that mentioned her by name.
Cassel has embraced the Republican Party. In recent days she posted an image from the White House that depicted the president and Vice President JD Vance as kings wearing crowns, and the Democratic congressional leaders wearing sombreros. And she declared that “this is the free state of Florida — and I intend to keep it that way,” invoking the political catchphrase popularized by DeSantis in her discussion of the “No Sharia Act.”
Democrats, Republicans
Views of the proposed Florida legislation don’t fall neatly along party lines.
Of the six co-sponsors, five are Republicans. Another co-sponsor is state Rep. Debra Tendrich, who is the only Democrat and only Palm Beach County lawmaker who has signed on in support. She wasn’t available to discuss the legislation, her office said.
Besides Cassel and Tendrich, none of the other representatives is from Broward or Palm Beach counties.
Opponents Winer and Akther are both Democrats. Winer is former president of the Florida Democratic Party Jewish Caucus. Akther is a state Democratic committeeman for Palm Beach County.
Todd Delmay, the Democratic candidate in the 101’s House District, said the legislation is a distraction from important issues.
Delmay said in a statement that Cassel “knows that there’s already a constitutional separation between church and state, and she even admitted in her own press release that no one is proposing sharia saw in Florida. This is purely grandstanding. Instead of political posturing, she should get to work on the property insurance crisis, which is hurting families in our community every day.”
State Rep. Michael Gottlieb said he understands the reason for legislation, at least in some form. The Broward Democrat is his party’s top member on the Judiciary Committee, one of the committees where the bill has been assigned for consideration, and is chair of the Florida Jewish Legislative Caucus, which includes Democrats and Republicans.
“I think that we have seen in certain jurisdictions throughout the United States and even throughout the world a movement where sharia law has become or (has) been enacted. I understand that to many this may seem as an Islamophobia type of bill. I don’t see it that way,” he said. “I do think that it’s important that we assert that the United States follows our constitutional law.”
Gottlieb said “there is no doubt” that Florida law, not sharia law, governs Florida. But, he added, that does not mean a state law addressing sharia isn’t necessary. “We pass a lot of laws where they say that there’s no doubt — such as it’s illegal to murder somebody. There’s no doubt … but we still have a law on the books that condemns it. I think there’s a lot that goes out without saying but needs to be said.”
Moving forward
Prospects are uncertain. And the measure may change if it moves forward.
Gottlieb, who said he has heard “concern” from “Islamic community members about the bill,” said he has spoken with Cassel about the legislation.
“My understanding is that the bill is going to be amended to reflect — and I don’t have the exact terminology — that Florida respects Florida law and United States law only. And that there are to be no other laws municipally or statewide that are to be followed,” he said. “So it won’t specifically say ‘sharia law.’”
Political writer Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.