More of Haslam at 1st Tuesday: Sharia law question.

 GOP Tennessee Governor Blasts Critics Of Muslim Adviser

By Hamed Aleaziz on Dec 5, 2012, Think Progress- Tennessee’s Republican Governor, Bill Haslam, has had it with attacks on an economic adviser, Samar Ali, a Muslim-American lawyer, who has been attacked by Republicans in the state and anti-Islam groups. Speaking at a Republican event, the governor was asked, according to the AP, whether “he was incorporating elements of Islamic law into state government” in having Ali a part of his staff. Haslam, incredulous, responded with a soaring defense of the accomplished Ali:

“Samar is somebody who quite frankly I think — and I know there are some people in this room who disagree with me — that I think has been incredibly unfairly maligned. We believe in people having the freedom in our country to exercise their religion as long as it doesn’t violate the Constitution, and that’s a big ‘as long as’.”

My Comment: The writer of the article was not there. The words quoted are accurate but I would have not described Haslam's comments as a "soaring defense."  Haslam, while serious did not appear angry and his tone of voice was calm and matter-of-fact.

After his answer to the question he got a big round of applause. 

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