Attacking Shariah, Attacking Religious Freedom

[cbayer]

http://www.thenation.com/article/169385/attacking-shariah-attacking-religious-freedom#

Dr. Zahid Bukhari August 14, 2012


This is the season of Ramadan, one of the holiest times of the year for practicing Muslims. For one month, we fast from dawn until dusk, increase our charity work and deepen our faith through the Quran. This year, as Ramadan comes to a close, I can’t help but reflect on the many ways this faith is being misrepresented.

Muslim Americans are in the midst of a profound crisis. Our faith is under assault. Radical groups abroad are using Islam as a justification for wanton violence, which is strictly forbidden in the Muslim faith. And at home in the United States, Islam is being criminalized, turned into an object of suspicion and threat. In New York City, the police department has made a practice of spying on Muslims in their restaurants, book stores and places of worship. Conspiracy theorists continue to “accuse” President Obama of being Muslim, as if this were a bad thing, capable of disqualifying him from leading the nation. And throughout the country, a movement to ban US courts from considering Shariah in their legal decisions has been sweeping the legislatures in one state after another.

This anti-Shariah movement is one of the most profound, and dangerous, expressions of the effort to criminalize Islam. Though it is often paired with the word “law,” Shariah is, in fact, a set of observances that guide all aspects of a Muslim’s day-to-day life such as moral codes of conduct, diet and the drafting of our wills. During Ramadan, it is Shariah that guides our prayer and daily activities. It is impossible to find a practicing Muslim who does not follow Shariah.

Sadly, Shariah has been reduced to an inflammatory term in this country. Preying on American’s unfamiliarity with the Muslim faith, politicians and racists alike have begun using the “threat” of Shariah to drum up fear and suspicion of Muslims. And the attacks are getting worse. Since 2010, when Oklahoma passed the nation’s first ban on “Shariah law,” the anti-Shariah movement has grown significantly. At this point, five states have passed laws outlawing Shariah or “foreign law,” including Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee, and some two dozen states have considered such legislation or are still considering it.

more at link

[msongs]

1. what goes around comes around nt

[cbayer]

2. Could you elaborate?

[msongs]

3. practitioners of both exclusionary religions have been doing this stuff for 1600 years nt

[cbayer]

4. It may be me, but I'm not sure I am getting your point.

Are you saying that it's ok for people to discriminate against shariah because Muslims have discriminated against others?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. It is the attempts by some muslims in the west to enforce shariah based practices on their unwilling

neighbors that causes much of this. You see this in part of France, England, and even the US. Add to that the international push by muslim nations to insist that which is holy to them be respected in totality by the rest of us who want no part of islam.

A key point is that after anyone reads the sharia and supporting commentaries in their entirety anyone who believes in basic human rights and equality should be very nervous.

[cbayer]

6. He seems to talking about a more private kind of following the shariah and how

it is being demonized and used as a tool to promote hatred towards Muslims.

Do you think that's a valid point?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Muslims have serious public perception issues in the US, much of it of their own making

from international sources.

Look at it from a risk management perspective. A openly gay person in the deepest part of the US bible belt may have a harder time finding an apartment than a straight person. However, in a seriously islamic nation, they would be stoned to death and the sharia is cited as the justification.. To someone who values and supports human rights, what is more of a risk, christianity or islam? Those who claim they are equal risk are clearly in denial or pushing their own agenda. Nobody has been stoned in the name of jesus for quite some time.

When there are public stonings done in the name of islam and the sharia, when women are persecuted, again in the name of the sharia, and when there are non-muslims being forced to conform to the sharia, is there any wonder that those who claim to to following it are looked at somewhat askance by those of us who value human rights, equality and freedom?

[cbayer]

8. No, it's not surprising, but is it right to look askance at those who follow sharia

and do not endorse some of the more radical aspects?

Or who have distanced themselves from those aspects?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. A fair question but how would one know?

Most xtians will tell you what denomination they are...unitarian, baptist, catholic, mormon, etc. which gives you some idea of where they stand. I have never been told by muslims I have introduced to or even known for a while if they are sufi, sunni, shi'ite, wahhabi etc.

The reality is that US muslims due to the activities of their international co-religionists have a serious cross to bear (yes I really said that).

Not sure how to deal with it equitably. Taking people one at a time is a good place to start.

[cbayer]

10. Agree. I thought the author did a good job of making the case for not letting

this be used as a tool to discriminate against Muslims and took a step towards understanding how some are taking the worst of Sharia and using it to broad brush all Muslims.

Thanks for responding. It's been good to talk to you.