Which specific states have passed anti-Sharia bills since 2010?

1. The Competing Lists: Who’s on Which Roster and Why It Matters

One cluster of sources identifies a core group of states—Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas—as having enacted laws that explicitly or functionally restrict Sharia or foreign religious law since 2010 ^[1]. Another compilation expands that roster to include Alabama, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming, bringing the total to as many as sixteen states ^[2]. The diverging lists reflect different counting rules: some trackers include any statute that mentions “foreign law” or requires courts to apply only rights consistent with U.S. and state constitutions, while others require explicit reference to “Sharia.” The methodological choice shifts the headline number dramatically and underlies most apparent contradictions among the sources ^{[1] [2]}.

2. The Legal Aftermath: Enjoined Laws and Narrowed Reach Change the Picture

A second axis of disagreement concerns whether laws later blocked by courts or narrowed by litigation should be treated as enacted anti‑Sharia laws. Analyses note that Oklahoma’s 2010 law was quickly challenged and blocked in federal court, diminishing its practical effect even as it remained on books in various forms elsewhere ^[1]. Other statutes survived legal scrutiny or avoided high‑profile challenges and thus remained enforceable in those states. Counting only statutes that remain enforceable at a given date produces a smaller list; counting all enacted measures regardless of later judicial outcomes produces a larger one. Legal status and judicial rulings therefore materially affect any definitive count ^{[1] [3]}.

3. Tracking Activity Versus Passage: Many Bills, Fewer Laws

Databases and reporting agree that anti‑Sharia proposals were widespread legislatively: one database found 216 introductions across at least 43 state legislatures since 2010, with Texas and Mississippi among the most active ^[3]. That legislative activity translated into far fewer enacted laws. Some states saw repeated proposals without passage; others enacted statutes that used generic “foreign law” language rather than naming Sharia, complicating whether they appear on lists that focus on explicit anti‑Sharia wording. The distinction between bills introduced and laws enacted clarifies why different sources report substantially different totals ^{[3] [5]}.

4. Who’s Driving the Legislation and What They Say They Want

Investigations trace many of these bills to model text and advocacy networks, including conservative advocacy groups and think tanks that framed the measures as protecting constitutional supremacy and uniform rights ^[6]. Advocates present the laws as neutral safeguards against foreign laws that might undermine U.S. constitutional guarantees. Civil‑rights organizations and academic databases characterize the same laws as targeted at Muslim Americans and part of an Islamophobia‑driven policy agenda. Identifying these divergent frames explains why sources describing legislative intent and civil‑society impact can appear to tell different stories about the same statutes ^{[6] [4]}.

5. Reconciling the Records: A Practical, Source‑Aware Answer

If one uses the narrow criterion of explicit mentions of “Sharia” plus surviving legal effect, a commonly cited core list includes Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma (enjoined but enacted), South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas ^{[1] [7]}. Broader criteria that count statutes banning “foreign law” applications or include states with enacted but legally contested statutes produce larger tallies—up to about sixteen states in some compilations ^[2]. The practical takeaway is that the precise number depends on definitional and legal choices; any authoritative answer must state those choices up front. ^{[1] [2] [3]}