In the last few years, we’ve seen a rash of “anti-Sharia” bills pop up in state legislatures across the country. Lawmakers from Alaska to Texas to South Carolina have introduced legislation to combat the fictitious threat of Sharia law taking over the American judicial system.

This trend has been propagated by a small handful of anti-Muslim misinformation experts discussed in the Center for American Progress’ new report, “Fear, Inc.: The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America”. In chapter 2, we took a closer look at these various state bills and found remarkable similarity between them — with good reason.

Instead of state legislators around the country determining independently that Sharia law was somehow a threat to their state, they have largely been acting at the behest of a single anti-Islam activist: David Yerushalmi. The Brooklyn lawyer produced model “anti-Sharia” legislation — you can read it here — which has been slightly tailored and introduced in more than a dozen states.

One particularly egregious example is Texas. In April, state Rep. Leo Berman (R) introduced anti-Sharia legislation, not because it was an issue he had considered for some time and cared about deeply, but rather because he “heard it on a radio station here on [his] way in to the Capitol one day.” Berman went on to explain that he also heard Sharia law is accepted in Dearborn, Michigan and asked, “Isn’t that true?” (It is not true.)

The bill Berman introduced, HB 911, is a near carbon-copy to Yerushalmi’s model legislation. Here are a few examples of language that Berman lifted from Yerushalmi:

Section 1 of Berman’s bill:

In this chapter, “foreign law” means a law, rule, or legal code of a jurisdiction outside of the states and territories of the United States. [...]

Section 1 of Yerushalmi’s bill:

As used in this act, “foreign law, legal code, or system” means any law, legal code, or system of a jurisdiction outside of any state or territory of the United States, [...]

Section 3 of Berman’s bill:

A contract provision providing that a foreign law is to govern a dispute arising under the contract is void [...]

Section 3 of Yerushalmi’s bill:

A contract or contractual provision (if capable of segregation) which provides for the choice of a law, legal code or system to govern some or all of the disputes [...] shall violate the public policy of this State and be void [...]

Berman’s bill as a whole reads like a duplicate of Yerushalmi’s legislation with eraser marks here and there to tailor it to pre-existing Texas statutes. Were he in school, Berman would be accused of plagiarism. On page 40 of CAP’s report, you can find more instances of legislators using Yerushalmi’s model bill in their particular states.

The problem here is two-fold. First, David Yerushalmi did not register as a lobbyist in Texas, despite being the author of anti-Sharia legislation used by Berman. Were it not for investigations by outlets like ThinkProgress and Mother Jones, the public might never have known the true source of the bill.

But the larger issue is that when state legislators like Berman introduce anti-Sharia legislation, observers would naturally assume that this is being done in response to some particular threat in their state. In reality, the legislation is being fed to them by Yerushalmi and national anti-Muslim groups like ACT! for America as part of a larger Islamophobic effort.

This is precisely why we’ve seen anti-Sharia legislation pop up across the country. There is no “threat of Sharia,” but rather a small number of anti-Muslim misinformation experts who have demagogued the issue. State legislators like Leo Berman, who know little more about the issue than what they heard on the radio driving to work, mask the fact that individuals like Yerushalmi are the real players behind the anti-Sharia push.

During the August recess, a number of conservative members of Congress have gone to great lengths to avoid being questioned by their constituents or holding town halls altogether. In Ohio, Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) even had video cameras confiscated from his constituents so that they could not film what their congressman was saying.

Now, Rep. Jim Renacci (R-OH) is following Chabot’s lead. The Ohio congressman’s staff barred a cameraman from the Democratic-allied American Bridge organization from filming a town hall in his district that took place yesterday:

Despite a nationwide controversy that erupted last week after Cincinnati GOP Rep. Steve Chabot refused to allow video cameras at a town hall meeting, organizers of a public meeting last night with Wadsworth GOP Rep. Jim Renacci followed suit by barring a Democratic organization’s cameraman from recording the event. The newly-established American Bridge 21st Century Super PAC has recorded speeches by public officials and political candidates around the nation, including events held by GOP U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Coughlin of Cuyahoga Falls, and Urbana area GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the House Republican Study Committee. “We are making sure politicians are held to account for their record and the comments they make to their constituents,” said the group’s spokesman, Matthew Thornton.

While Renacci stopped American Bridge’s cameraman from filming, his staff did allow a woman to film at the event on behalf of him. The footage recorded by her shows Renacci’s staff stopping the American Bridge cameraman from using his video camera. Watch it:

After a recent trip to China, Republican Rep. Mike Coffman (CO) came across what he saw as a shocking number of government-funded Americans wasting taxpayer money on a Chinese demographic already flush with funds. These Americans, Coffman said, are “symbolic of the arrogance and carelessness in how our tax dollars have been handled by Congress and the Obama administration.” These Americans, incidentally, are Peace Corps volunteers.

Aghast to find Peace Corps volunteers teaching English in Chinese universities, Coffman is now demanding that the government suspend the Peace Corps program in China as it is “an insult to every American taxpayer and to so many of our manufacturing workers who have lost their jobs to China”:

“Having the Peace Corps in China, where we have to borrow money from the Chinese to fund it, is an insult to every American taxpayer and to so many of our manufacturing workers who have lost their jobs to China,” he said.

Coffman is gathering congressional signatures to send a letter to President Barack Obama demanding that the government immediately suspend the Peace Corps program in China.

In the letter, Coffman said the U.S. government is short of money to fund its higher-education system while funding a Peace Corps program in China that defrays that country’s higher-education costs.

There are about 140 volunteers in the Peace Corps program to China. The program costs $2.9 million or 0.5 percent of the Peace Corps total budget in 2011. What’s more, the Chinese government pays for the housing of all the American volunteers. However, Coffman insisted that taxpayers are subsidizing China’s state-run education system and declared that if Obama fails to suspend the program, he will offer an amendment “that will eliminate funding for it.”

As ThinkProgress reported Thursday, a Richmond, Virginia-area Holiday Inn abruptly canceled room and event ballroom reservations made by progressive groups that had planned to hold a “jobs rally” countering House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s (R-VA) event at the same hotel Wednesday evening. After they were removed, the groups held a protest outside the hotel. Holiday Inn’s corporate owner, Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG), did not comment on the incident before publication yesterday, but today IHG responded, saying the protesters were removed from Holiday Inn property out of concerns for employee and guest safety:

IHG is aware of the protest that occurred at the Holiday Inn Richmond Koger South Conference Center. This hotel is independently owned and operated. IHG does not dictate local hotel operating policy for such franchised properties other than to require all hotels bearing its trademarks to comply with all federal, state and local laws, including laws regarding peaceful protests. The group in question was asked to leave the hotel due to concerns for the safety and security of hotel guests and employees. When the group returned to lead a protest, the hotel cooperated with authorities, who requested that the protestors leave the hotel property. All further inquiries should be directed to the Chesterfield County Police Department.

Unfortunately, the statement fails to address why or how the groups’ reservations were a threat to public safety. The groups’ rally was planned for a ballroom in a separate portion of the hotel, and they planned to invite Cantor to speak to the group and listen to their concerns. After they were removed, the protesters assembled out of the hotel’s sight range, across the street and a shopping center parking lot from where the hotel is located. Upon marching to the hotel, they appeared to comply with law enforcement requests throughout the protest. According to police, there were no arrests made during the protests.

When ThinkProgress asked IHG to comment further on how the protesters were a safety threat, whether it had heard specific claims from employees or guests concerning their safety, or whether it had spoken with Cantor’s office or campaign before removing the protesters, the company declined to comment, saying only, “At this time, this is the extent of the information we are able to provide. All further questions should be directed to the Chesterfield County Police Department.”

The Varet and Rosenwald family’s philanthropy — led by Elizabeth Varet, a director at American Securities Management and a granddaughter of Sears Roebuck founder Julius Rosenwald, David Steinmann and Nina Rosenwald — are identified in the Center for American Progress’ new report Fear Inc., as one of the top donors to the U.S. Islamophobia network. Their family foundations, the Anchorage Charitable Fund and William Rosenwald Family Fund, contributed $2.818 million dollars to organizations which fan the flames of Islamophobia.

The Varet family helps fund: Steve Emerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism ($10,000); Counterterrorism & Security Education and Research Foundation ($15,000); Daniel Pipes’ Middle East Forum ($2,320,229.33); Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy ($437,000); the Clarion Fund ($25,000); David Horowitz’s Freedom Center ($11,000) and Brigitte Gabriel’s American Congress for Truth ($125,000).

David Steinmann — also a director at American Securities Management, a trustee for the Anchorage Charitable Fund and president of the William Rosenwald Family Fund, sits as a board member at Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy.

Nina Rosenwald, co-chair of the board at American Securities Management and a vice-president at the William Rosenwald Family Fund, is: chairwoman of of the board at the Middle East Media and Research Institute (MEMRI); vice president of the Jewish Institute of National Security Affairs (JINSA) and sits on the board of the Hudson Institute. She also serves on the board at the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC); Human Rights in China, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP) and served as a delegate at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.

According to a 2007 New York Jewish Week article, Elizabeth Varet, who chairs the Anchorage Charitable Fund and serves as vice-president at the William Rosenwald Family Fund, gained inspiration for her philanthropy from her father, William Rosenwald, who she says:

…was driven by an empathy for people at risk — people who were suffering — “and a feeling of ‘there but for the grace of God go I.’ And he believed in acting on it.”

Indeed, the Anchorage Fund engages in a broad array of philanthropy to various right-wing institutions such as the: Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD); Hoover Institution; Hudson Institute, America Enterprise Institute; and the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

Additional board members of the Anchorage Charitable Fund include Michael A. Varet, Sarah R. Varet, David R. Varet, and Joseph R. Varet.

In the 2008 tax year, the Anchorage Fund “suffered a complete loss of its investment through PJ Administrator LLC,” according to its 2008 tax filings. PJ Administrator was a client of Bernie Madoff, whose Ponzi scheme collapsed in 2008.

Charitable activity from both Varet related foundations has significantly decreased since 2008 but it’s safe to say that the Islamophobia network described in Fear Inc., wouldn’t have become such a formidable force without the deep-pocketed support of family foundations like the ones operated by the heirs to Julius Rosenwald’s Sears Roebuck fortune.