Shariah's Threat to The United States
By Fred Grandy
NewsMax.com
There is a great deal of misinformation circulating
with regard to shariah and the threat it poses to
America and western civilization.
Some misinformed observers and members of the Muslim
Brotherhood liken concerns over shariah to prejudice
and bigotry, but the facts say otherwise.
Terrorism experts in the law enforcement, military
and intelligence communities have cited shariah as
the jihadists’ enemy threat doctrine in an intensive
study called “Shariah: The Threat to America,” a
scholarly, 352-page book based on authoritative
sources of shariah, or Islamic law. While shariah
does include “prayer and fasting” and “worship” as
Thomas cites, it is also an all-encompassing legal
and political code that covers aspects of life that
have nothing to do with religion.
Perhaps most importantly, unlike other forms of
religious law, such as canon law and Jewish law,
shariah is the only form of religious law extant
that is also meant to apply to people of other
faiths, i.e. non-Muslims.
The threat from shariah has nothing to do with
prejudice or bigotry. The threat from shariah is
real and multifaceted.
Some claim that shariah is no threat to the American
legal system, but research shows such a threat does
exist. Just as shariah has gradually become embedded
in the legal systems of many European nations over
the past generation, it is beginning to be found in
U.S. court cases. An initial study by the Center for
Security Policy entitled “Shariah Law and American
State Courts: An Assessment of State Appellate Court
Cases,” examined 50 cases from 23 states that
involved conflicts between shariah and American
state law. The study’s findings suggest that shariah
has entered state court decisions, in conflict with
the Constitution and state public policy.
This incursion of shariah into U.S. court systems
usually manifests itself in the form of foreign law
from nations such as Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Syria and other predominantly
Islamic nations. As a result, four states,
Tennessee, Louisiana, Arizona and Kansas, have
passed into law “American Laws for American Courts,”
legislation. Several more states are considering
American Laws for American Courts. Unlike Oklahoma’s
infamous constitutional amendment, American Laws for
American Courts does not ban shariah. American Laws
for American Courts protects individual, fundamental
constitutional rights by preventing courts from
applying foreign law when the application of that
foreign law in the case at hand would result in the
violation of a fundamental constitutional right,
such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, due
process and equal protection.
Among the organizations clouding the issue on
shariah is the Saudi-backed Islamic Society of North
America (ISNA).
ISNA was named as an unindicted co-conspirator and
revealed to be a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate in the
U.S. vs. Holy Land Foundation, the largest terrorism
financing prosecution in American history.
ISNA was co-founded in 1981 by Sami Al-Arian, a man
who is now in federal prison after having been
convicted on terrorism charges as a member of
Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
According to two reports in the San Francisco
Chronicle, the other co-founder of ISNA, Mahboob
Khan, twice hosted Ayman al-Zawahiri on fundraising
trips here in the USA.
In addition, a regional representative for ISNA,
Abdurahman Alamoudi, was found to be a chief
fundraiser for al-Qaida here in the USA and was
convicted on terrorism charges. Alamoudi founded the
Islamic Society of Boston using ISNA’s tax-exempt,
non-profit status.
ISNA board member Muzammil Siddiqi told the San
Francisco Chronicle in June 2001 that he “supported
laws in countries where homosexuality is punishable
by death."
Siraj Wahhaj, who served as vice president of ISNA,
is on record as supporting all aspects of shariah,
including its call for brutal punishments like the
removal of one's hands as the penalty for theft, and
death by stoning as the penalty for adultery.
According to Wahhaj, such harsh measures are wholly
justified by Islamic scripture as he preached in a
May 1992 sermon: “I would cut off the hands of my
own daughter [if she stole] because Allah stands for
Justice.” On another occasion, Wahhaj stated: “If
Allah says 100 strikes, 100 strikes it is. If Allah
says cut off their hand, you cut off their hand. If
Allah says stone them to death, through the Prophet
Muhammad, then you stone them to death, because it’s
the obedience of Allah and his messenger — nothing
personal.”
Islamic scholar Stephen Schwartz has described ISNA
as "one of the chief conduits through which the
radical Saudi form of Islam passes into the United
States."
These hardly seem like the kind of people who should
be leading interfaith outreach in the USA.
Fred Grandy is a Republican former four-term member
of the U.S. House of Representatives from Iowa. He
was also an actor, best known for his role as Gopher
on "The Love Boat" and the former CEO of Goodwill
Industries International.