Excerpt:
Gov. Bill Haslam's administration is responding to what it calls "confusion" about the role of a Muslim staffer and a council that has advised two state departments on Islamic affairs.
The Republican governor was criticized this summer by several GOP groups over what they perceived as the growing influence of a version of the Islamic code called Shariah in state government.
Claude Ramsey, the deputy to the governor, sent a letter distributed to the state GOP's executive committee last week seeking to quell those concerns.