NASHVILLE, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- The owners of the Hutton Hotel in Nashville canceled a contract to hold an anti-Shariah conference Nov. 11 and offered to refund more than $7,000 in deposits.
Senior Vice President Steve Eckley of Amerimar Enterprises told The (Nashville) Tennessean the Hutton Hotel backed out of the Preserving Freedom conference after learning more about it.
"If this group had let us know what kind of program they were planning and who was involved, we wouldn't have booked it," Eckley said.
Conference chairman William Murray said so far organizers have had no luck finding an alternate site.
Murray said some 100 people have registered for the event.
"This is not some local anti-Muslim group," Murray said. "This was a responsible organization of national organizations meeting to discuss the issue of Shariah law."
Sponsors of the conference include the American Center for Law and Justice and the Liberty Counsel, two Christian legal groups, along with the conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.
"This is blatant oppression of free speech," Murray said.
Shariah law is the religious law of Islam derived from the precepts set forth in the Koran and examples set by the Prophet Mohammed.
