By By Humeira Kazmi.
Sharia Law — the punching bag, the best fear tactic our congressional lawmakers have at their disposal to steer all focus away from what’s actually wrong with the system to a non-existent threat.
Yes, non-existent and I deliberately say that because please tell me:
- How can Sharia Law be imposed under a constitution that specifically separates religious authority from state authority? You have read the Constitution, right? It starts at the First Amendment where this bit is written in.
- Exactly how can a minority, 1% of the entire population, that already live in constant fear of their lives from the majority ever do this, and
- Why would said 1% that are evidently one of the most educated, tax-paying and law-abiding minorities do something that not only the Constitution but also the Sharia they so hold dear explicitly prohibits (O you who believe, obey God and obey the Messenger and those in authority among you – Quran, 4:59)?
The American Muslims aren’t the ones making any militias here. They aren’t the ones stockpiling arms to be ready in case they have to lead a revolt. They aren’t the ones famous for their love of guns, nor do they thump their chests about beefing up the NRA no end, chanting about the Second Amendment as if it was the only amendment, 24/7.
They aren’t the ones yelling at total strangers telling them to speak or dress or look a certain way. They certainly aren’t the ones protesting at people’s funerals or establishments, telling them they’re the root of all evil, cause of all natural catastrophes and pain and wars, and will burn in hell for the way they live their life. They aren’t the ones getting private airtime to preach how supreme their brand of religion is and why everyone else is scum.
Any guesses on who fits that particular profile though in America? Not a Muslim.
[American Muslims] aren’t the ones famous for their love of guns, nor do they thump their chests about beefing up the NRA no end, chanting about the Second Amendment as if it was the only amendment, 24/7.
And yet, somehow, Sharia Law is the sole disease that everyone must gear up to fight. The fear of a ‘foreign religious law’ is so great that nine states have legislated to ban any such application in state courts. Meaning, if you’re up in Alabama, Arizona, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee, and you went to court appealing for help on grounds of your religious rights (Islamic, Jewish, Catholic, Whatever Else), you’ll be tossed out. So like, you can’t really have any gays or your cheating spouse stoned to death or anything. And just for kicks, I’d like to know exactly how many cases did these courts receive that actually demanded justice based on these divine injunctions, which by the way, happen to be more or less the same for all three Abrahamic religions. *Awkward!*
I’m sorry to burst your bubble but Sharia isn’t going to happen to you because of reasons stated above, and because Congress has already happened to you. You really need not worry about Sharia meddling with your freedom when your own democratically elected government is doing a pretty swell job of it all on its own.
Don’t believe me? Here is a list of a few – FEW – laws and bills and behaviors that envelope all the myths that Islamophobes spew about Islam and Sharia but in reality have zilch to do with either but everything to do with the American government today.
Treatment of Women
“I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything … I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women]—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” – Donald J. Trump
That, ladies and gentlemen, was your 45th President bragging about how he treats women. You still think it is Sharia, and not POTUS, endangering the sanctity of your women?
During the election season, Trump that Bitch tees and other merchandise mocking and degrading Hillary Clinton were for sale in places like Rhode Island and Indiana. Regardless of your stance on HRC, this is foul language and can never be used by anyone who claims to ‘respect women’ that many of the people claimed they did – while they wore those offensive tees. The irony was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Sexism, wife beating, sexual harassment, lewd behavior involving minors — I’d list all the congressional lawmakers, media personalities, all kinds of God-fearing-Sharia-hating hotshots who’ve been guilty of all this and more immorality if it wasn’t for the fact that it’ll needlessly lengthen this piece and, hey, the President trumps them all anyway. Also, you can Fox News Google.
Child Marriage
Islam gets a lot of flak for allowing this to happen as if this was a decree from God that which, if unfulfilled, would lead every believer to hellfire. It would not. And Muslims know that. But I do wonder how many Americans are really aware of laws allowing or, at the very least, facilitating child marriage in USA?
Out of all 50 states, only ten states and territories specifically criminalize forced marriage that includes child marriage. That means that 40 states do not.
That, ladies and gentlemen, was your 45th President bragging about how he treats women. You still think it is Sharia, and not POTUS, endangering the sanctity of your women?
The states and territories that have criminal statutes specifically on forced marriage are: California, District of Columbia, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, Virginia, Virgin Islands, and West Virginia.
Apart from Mississippi and Oklahoma, none of the states that banned foreign religious laws feature in this list. I suppose forced or child marriage ain’t all that “foreign” after all.
According to Pew Research Center, nearly five of every 1000, 15-to-17-year-olds are married annually. These marriages are conducted either by parental consent or judicial approval. You might blame it on immigrants and their non-American culture and norms that they drag along as they come but that’s neither the point nor the truth. Fact is that the immigrants didn’t make these laws. You did. The point is that the American judicial system facilitates such norms and not only for immigrants but for citizens as well who come in a variety of faiths including certain Christian denominations.
If you haven’t done a thing to undo this, maybe it’s time you did. You can read more on the subject here and here.
Love for Violence and Guns
America is a place right now where if everyone dressed the same, had the same job and qualification and social status, there would still be discrimination based on people’s looks. And that’s called racism. Racism is one of the biggest contributors to why there’s so much hate and violence in the U.S.
The Southern Poverty Law Center catalogued 1051 hate-related incidents in the first month of the Trump Presidency. It’s anyone’s guess that a major cause of this was undoubtedly the dangerous rhetoric against minorities and anyone that stood in opposition. Violence at Trump rallies was rampant and video evidence of that is littered all across the internet. Instead of curbing it, Trump always emboldened it.
“I’d like to punch him in the face.”
“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
“Hillary wants to abolish — essentially abolish the Second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick, if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know. But I tell you what, that will be a horrible day, if Hillary gets to put her judges in, right now we’re tied.”
“It was reported that NFL owners don’t want to pick him up because they don’t want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump.”
– Donald J. Trump
That’s the mindset of the highest office in this land, and people think that somehow a religion that has nothing to do with either these comments nor the person making them is the actual threat to their civil liberties, lives and freedom. *Facepalm!*
To this violence and culture of bullying, add our society’s love for guns that truly knows no bounds. The Senate made NRA’s dreams come even truer by repealing an Obama-era rule that curtailed sales of arms to persons with certain mental illnesses. The mental health conditions in question ranged from moderate intellectual disabilities to depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Then, the Mississippi Senate recently made it possible for churches to have their own police force that will be exempt from legal action if it uses its weapons.
If you think that Sharia Law is out to get you in any way, it’s time you paid more attention to the laws your own legislators are proposing and passing.
If that doesn’t sound like a militarized madrassah, I don’t know what does! Just a reminder, there are no Sharia-loving mullahs in either the Senate, the House or local governments who are secretly planning to form well-regulated militias or whatevz for any kind of takeover. So again, it’s not Sharia Law you should be fearing because it’s not Sharia or Muslims putting guns in hands they shouldn’t be in.
It’s your elected lawmakers.
Anti-Abortion and Anti-Birth Control
On literally the first day of his presidency, Donald Trump signed an executive action popularly known as the Global Gag Rule that denied funding to all healthcare servicing NGO’s around the world if they offered abortion services, counselling or mere referrals. The Senate and Vice President Pence, not lagging behind, happily voted to defund Planned Parenthood by repealing an Obama-era rule that prevented states from blocking funding for family planning clinics that also provided abortions.
Here’s a tiny slice of what some of the states have been up to:
- Iowa blocked abortions after 20 weeks into a pregnancy. This was a lenient step compared to the original ‘fetal heartbeat detection’ bill.
- Arkansas now requires physicians to investigate women seeking abortions to determine if they should or should not get one. A clause in the same law enables the ‘father of the child’ to sue the doctor to stop the abortion. The father of the child need not be husband to the mother of the child as well, and that will be a concern for rape, marital rape and incest victims.
- Missouri cut off funding to all organizations that provide abortions in the state, including hospitals.
- Everything’s bigger in Texas so it passed, not one, but two laws to fend off abortions. One would prevent parents from suing doctors if their baby is born with a birth defect. The other would require doctors to make sure a fetus is deceased before performing a certain type of abortion.
If it wasn’t for the epic debacle of the Repeal and Replace Obamacare bill, birth control wouldn’t have been free and every woman would’ve been diagnosed with the pre-existing condition of Being-a-Woman. Just like it was before 2010.
Please tell me again how is it Sharia and not your own American-made laws that are eating away at your rights to be a free and independent woman or supporter thereof?
Anti-Gay
First there was the controversial North Carolina bill that was all the rage but was finally repealed once the people elected a new governor. But no fear, the country is full of laws and bills and beliefs that will make life difficult for the LGBTQ community.
For one you have a Vice President who believes in conversion therapy. Secondly, there are the states.
Texas is trying to legalize discrimination by allowing private individuals employed in more than 65 licensed occupations to deny services to people based on their “sincerely held religious belief.” So, that baker — he wouldn’t be sued if this bill was passed.
Tennessee has a dream. It wants to ensure that marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman, and if the bill of Natural Marriage is passed, it’ll call for ignoring the SCOTUS ruling of marriage equality.
You might want to throw the verses of Quran in my face here and I’ll revere them all because here’s the thing — we’re not imposing anything on anyone. It isn’t Sharia Law that’s behind all the above-stated legislation. It’s the American public itself and its elected officials. It’s the not American Muslim.
If you think that Sharia Law is out to get you in any way, it’s time you paid more attention to the laws your own legislators are proposing and passing.
A very complicated article touching on the President and Shariah. I don’t get it?
I’m certain that it’s not the article’s fault…
This article does not say one word on how noble Shari – Law is. It states how other bad people are, that are not the whole to justify Sharia-Law is ok. Coward= hiding behind something to make their bad behaviour acceptable.
People stockpiling guns has nothing to do with Sharia Law. Nor does it make Sharia Law acceptable. Bringing up a few people purchasing guns with mental illness does not show how Sharia Law is good. There are many illegal guns on the streets. Mental illness is everywhere in every walks of life. Could it be Sharia Law was based on mental illness?
Trying to twist that our laws have already meddled in our freedom is no excuse for Sharia Law to try to force inhumane laws on us to cater to their believes hiding behind religion. Assimilate to our laws or go where your laws are acceptable.
Treatment of women- tries to justify Sharia Law by stating what some few bad people say or have done, but we do not allow the masses to make it ok. Nothing ever said about Sharia law not beating woman, almost making it like an excuse, to point fingers to justify their atrocities to woman. Look what he said so we can do what we want. No one is a slave.
Child marriage- Again dos not say how it is not allowed in Sharia Law but dignifies it be stating a few things that have happened, not based on the whole. Trying to say a 15 to 17 year old going through courts without the reasoning behind as to why the marriage, is that another smoke and mirror, so forced marriage of very young girls on a normal basis is ok? Never was it said how sharia law treats people with dignity, just seems looking for more justifying reasons to make inhumane controlling behavior ok.
Love for violence and guns- Author states racism ad point out a few things people have said, but we all know if we said whatever we thought on “allah” or “Mohammad”, then bullying would surely follow. Freedom of speech and freedom of thought. No case stating here what is good about sharia law, just scapegoating. No essence in this article. We are allowed to speak whether we like to hear it or not. There are many illegal guns in this country and people have their constitutional right to protect their own lives and homes, and again no relation to sharia law.
I can say no “God” would ever allow “ownership” of another or sale own daughter for marriage. So how is “Allah” a god to teach control and not freedom to live. Man chosses to follow these rules by bullying and hiding behind “it’s my religion, so I can break the law”. Sharia law is done on a whole. Yes there are bad people everywhere, but there is the choice for helping those from bulling and oppression in the U.S.
Sharia Law cannot exist and will not here. We have laws that do not allow for human trafficking, selling of children, wife beating, and those that break our laws should be arrested on our laws when done on our soil. Sharia Law does not apply to justify it. We do pay attention to our laws, you stop trying to enforce your laws here, in our schools and hiding behind its my religion so we need our special places to be inhumane and we do not like crosses etc so everyone else should bow down. NOT
Go to countries that practice taking away human rights to live that practice it.
We have spent many years working together to not to opresse each other, not going to go back to oppression because of some distorted written book on how things should be done.
Give an inch take a mile. It is not all about you.
It is our duty to help those that are being opressed in an inhumane manor, the ones that cannot do it on their own. There is no excuse for children being bought and forced into marriage, human trafficking, of any kind, I do not care if a religious book says so. It is not ROCKET SCIENCE.