Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Muslims worry proposed change to anti-Klan law targets them

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Advocates say a Georgia lawmaker appears to be targeting Muslim women with proposed changes to a 1951 state law passed to stop the Ku Klux Klan from wearing masks at public marches and rallies.

Groups are condemning the proposal by Republican state Rep. Jason Spencer as a veiled attempt to ban Muslim women from wearing scarves and other religious headgear that covers their faces in public — just as the law essentially forced Klan members to unmask themselves decades ago.

"It is a naked and despicable attempt to exploit the current wave of anti-Muslim sentiment by targeting Muslim women," said Heather Weaver, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington.

Spencer said Thursday that the bill he's introduced for next year's session of the Georgia Legislature would simply be "adding clarity" to a law passed decades ago to safeguard against what he calls "threats from masked terrorists."

"There is no intention of targeting a specific group," Spencer said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. He did not grant a request for a phone interview.

One thing neither side mentioned: Georgia's highest court has narrowly interpreted the law to apply only when one wears a mask to intimidate others.

Spencer's bill makes no mention of Islam or religious garments, but it clearly aims to apply to women. Although the existing law states that a person commits a misdemeanor "when he wears a mask" or other face-hiding garment on public property, Spencer's version would amend it to read "he or she."

The proposal also would ban people from wearing anything that conceals their faces in photographs used for Georgia driver's license and other official state IDs — something the Georgia Department of Driver Services already prohibits.

"It makes it clear the law is targeted at people of faith, especially women who wear face veils," said Edward Ahmed Mitchell, executive director of the Georgia chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations. "This is a slap in the face of Georgia Muslims."

Aisha Yaqoob, executive director of the Georgia Muslim Voter Project, said the lawmaker's proposal comes at a frightening time considering "the rhetoric we saw during the election season."

Known as the "Anti-Mask Act," the original law was approved 65 years ago when masked Klansmen used threats and violence to intimidate blacks and other minority groups in Georgia. Supporters of the law argued masked hoods allowed Klan members to terrorize in anonymity. Victims of Klan violence could rarely identify their attackers for prosecution.

That law has never been used to stop people from covering their heads or faces for religious reasons. And it doesn't look like that would be allowed even if Spencer's bill became law.

In 1990, the Georgia Supreme Court rejected a suing Klan member's argument that the anti-mask law "criminalizes a substantial amount of innocent behavior" such as wearing a ski mask in the winter or wearing sunglasses.

In upholding the anti-mask law, Georgia's high court ruled it applied "only to mask-wearing conduct" that "provokes a reasonable apprehension of intimidation, threats or violence."

Under the court's narrow interpretation, the lawmaker's proposed changes wouldn't apply to Muslim women "because they're not wearing their gear to intimidate anybody," said Michael Perry, a law professor at Emory University who specializes in constitutional law and religion.

"The only effect there of adding 'she' is it makes clear what was already known — that the law applies to female Klan members as well as male Klan members," Perry said.

Spencer's proposal to prohibit face-covering garb in driver's license photos is essentially redundant. The Georgia Department of Driver Services allows people to wear religious headgear in their photos — but its rules say any headscarves or other coverings must be adjusted to make the entire face visible.

If approved by the Legislature, the only real legal impact of Spencer's proposed changes would likely be to prohibit wearing masks or other face coverings while driving on public roads. But, in keeping with the state Supreme Court's ruling, that would apply only to drivers wearing masks to threaten or intimidate others.

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