Charles W. Dunn is Distinguished Professor of Government at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va. He edited The Future of Religion in American Politics (2009).

At the website of The New Republic, James Downie critiques that view in a Sept. 3, 2010, post.

This Sept. 2, 2010, essay at the website of the Heritage Foundation sounded the alarm about a New Jersey case that author Cully Stimson argued is evidence that “Sharia-loving extremists are determined to establish an Islamic Caliphate around the world, especially in America.”

In September 2010 the Center for Security Policy released this report that called Islamic law “the preeminent totalitarian threat of our time.”

Read an Oct. 12, 2010, column by Reza Aslan at The Daily Beast about the push to ban Shariah.

Read the Oct. 13, 2010, story by CBS News.

Susan B. Hansen is a political science professor at the University of Pittsburgh and the author of Religion and Reaction: The Secular Political Challenge to the Religious Right (2011).

The Tennessean published a package of stories on Oct. 24, 2010, related to mistrust of Muslims in the state. Shariah law plays a part in that concern and is an issue in a lawsuit to block construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

Read an Oct. 19, 2010, Council on Foreign Relations interview with John C. Green of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, who says that although voters are primarily concerned about jobs and the economy, they may also feel growing anxiety about Islam and the cultural and ethnic changes in the country.