Is Sharia Really Benign? Wake up.
by Robert Spencer (more by this author)
Posted 06/21/2011 ET

Now that 20 states are considering legislation to outlaw Islamic law (Sharia), Islamic supremacist advocacy groups in the U.S—particularly the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)—have launched an energetic media campaign to whitewash Sharia and gull Americans into believing that it is as benign as a game of dominoes.

To that end, Nezar Hamze, executive director of the South Florida chapter of CAIR, published a piece in the Miami Herald assuring us that Sharia was as American as baseball and fishing—and conveniently leaving out everything about Sharia that makes people believe it is a threat in the first place.

Hamze attributed concern about Islamic law to those who “claim that 'Moozlims' are trying to replace the U.S. Constitution with the Sharia” and are ready to “run out with pitchforks and protest signs.”

“Moozlims.” “Pitchforks.” Hamze was semaphoring that the only people who could possibly be concerned about Sharia are ignorant racist yahoos. This is just a smear tactic, but it works insofar as it warns unreflective and uninformed leftists (i.e., virtually all leftists) not to dare to oppose Sharia: We wouldn’t want to align with rednecks, now, would we?

Hamze quoted Florida politician Adam Hasner as saying that “today there is an enemy, and that enemy is Sharia-compliant Islam.” Then Hamze commented: “This statement is ridiculous. When I wash before praying, this is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I offer a greeting to someone, this is Sharia-compliant Islam. What in the world is Hasner talking about?”

Hamze left out a few details. When I cut out a woman’s clitoris, this is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I forbid non-Muslims to practice their faith openly, this is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I count a non-Muslim’s life as less valuable than a Muslim’s, that is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I brutally lash a woman, this is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I smash musicians’ instruments and threaten them, saying they better not play music again or else, this is Sharia-compliant Islam. When I wage war against and subjugate unbelievers, this is Sharia-compliant Islam.

And so the same question Hamze asks should be asked of him: What in the world is Hamze talking about? Does he really expect us to believe that Hasner is upset about washing before prayers and greeting people?

Hamze insists that while his opponents “claim that the ‘Moozlims’ are trying to infiltrate our court systems and replace our Constitution,” in reality “not one Muslim has introduced anything to any legislative body calling for Sharia to replace the Constitution or for the Sharia to replace the law of the land.”

In fact, Sharia has been involved in court cases in 23 states. And while “not one Muslim has introduced anything to any legislative body calling for Sharia to replace the Constitution or for the Sharia to replace the law of the land,” that is only because they are not fools: To do such a thing would be very close to open sedition, and would draw upon the Muslims involved a torrent of popular disapproval and law enforcement scrutiny. Better to work behind the scenes. Remember Imam Musa al-Sadr, the Washington, D.C., imam who wants to establish an “Islamic State of North America no later than 2050.” Remember the Muslim Brotherhood’s program in the U.S. of “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”

Hamze criticized Rep. Allen West (R.-Fla.), charging him with saying during his campaign that “we are at war with Islam” and “Islam is not a religion.” West even had the audacity to claim, according to Hamze, “that the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 were doing exactly what the Koran told them.”

Yet the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 stated explicitly that they were doing exactly what the Koran told them. And many Muslims say that Islam is at war with us. I believe Islam is a religion, but also more than a religion: a political system, and one that is repressive and authoritarian. We ignore or deny this at our own peril.

Hamze concluded by telling Americans: “Educate yourself on Islam.” I strongly recommend that. Americans who do so will see through Hamze’s deceptive rhetoric, and see the usefulness of anti-Sharia legislation.

The internet is a funny little invention...it allows the powerless knuckle draggers in the real world to sound off with a cloak of anonymity, under the pretense that they are educated and are who they say they are.

At this stage I don't bother reading Mehdi's Islam articles anymore, instead I scroll down to the comments section to be entertained and to shake my head.

And give it a rest Julia Harris, you're clearly a guy living with his parents. You certainly don't have children (you wouldn't be posting countless times on here) and you definitely don't have MasterS!! degrees, let alone an undergraduate degree. You might want learn the difference between 'they're, there and their' (doubly so if you're American) before trying to fool people.

The Jews learned tolerance in the West.
#
The fierce intolerant Middle Eastern monotheism Jews passed on to the West, called by us Christianity after the notably egoistic and intolerant man who founded it (he claimed to be both God AND the son of God!) , gave Jews the Holocaust.

But the inheritance of Greek tolerance we call the Enlightenment gave the Jews freedom of thought.

KEIR:

You are sanitising Christianity.

In its actual precepts the Koran is actually LESS violent than the Bible.

Christ threatened eternal damnation in Hell for anyone who dared to question him. Me or Hell was his reasoning.

He also built anti-semitism into his religion by obsessively focusing it on the idea of Jewish betrayal. This led in the end to the Holocaust. Islam is not traditionally anti-semitic, by contrast.

The reason why the West is tolerant and the Muslims are not is that the West has in efffect abandoned Christianity, while the Muslims kept Islam.

Once you get Moses - a man who imposed a ruthless monotheism that beleved the religious inheritance of NO other people had value, and a strict detailed set of rules for daily life - you get Jesus.

He - or rather Paul, his successor- spread the Jewish totalitarian monotheism to non-Jews. Along comes Mohammed, inevitably, with a severe call to purify that monotheism and reimpose the set of minute rules for daily life the Christians had let lapse a bit.

It's logical and inevitable.

If you buy the Middle Eastern religion in any form, you end up with Islam.

gerry: I don't know if these viewpoints that you mention are 'extremist'. In my mind extreme views are ones that lead to suicide bombers .. and there is very few of them.

Just because someone thinks that women should dress more modestly isn't really extreme. Many Christian people think the same way and you can't call them extreme. They are just different to what you think.