Tag: sharia

Shari’ah, Fearing the Unknown

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In news story after news story, the fear of Islam — and specifically of “creeping” Shari’ah law —  is confirmed in headlines.  From the Oklahoma law passed during midterm elections that banned Shari’ah (and was later blocked by a state judge) to the protest of mosques (or mosque-like buildings!) under construction around the country, journalists have made clear that some Americans are afraid of the growth, practice and presence of one particular religious group. Continue Reading →

Shari’ah, Fearing the Unknown

Posted on by

In news story after news story, the fear of Islam — and specifically of “creeping” Shari’ah law —  is confirmed in headlines.  From the Oklahoma law passed during midterm elections that banned Shari’ah (and was later blocked by a state judge) to the protest of mosques (or mosque-like buildings!) under construction around the country, journalists have made clear that some Americans are afraid of the growth, practice and presence of one particular religious group. Continue Reading →

It's Not Even About A Mosque This Time

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Elissa Lerner: Have you been losing sleep over the crippling anxiety that Islamic law might one day trump Constitutional law? Fear not – Oklahoma is on the case! “Save Our State” question 755 banning shari’a law from the Sooner State passed with a whopping 70% of the vote on Tuesday. In a “pre-emptive strike” according to the proposition’s sponsor Rex Duncan, Oklahoma is now proudly the first state in the union to prevent courts from considering shari’a in reaching decisions. Please. Like they would in the first place. Oklahoma’s Muslim community hovers somewhere between 0 and .1% of the population. Continue Reading →

It’s Not Even About A Mosque This Time

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Elissa Lerner: Have you been losing sleep over the crippling anxiety that Islamic law might one day trump Constitutional law? Fear not – Oklahoma is on the case! “Save Our State” question 755 banning shari’a law from the Sooner State passed with a whopping 70% of the vote on Tuesday. In a “pre-emptive strike” according to the proposition’s sponsor Rex Duncan, Oklahoma is now proudly the first state in the union to prevent courts from considering shari’a in reaching decisions. Please. Like they would in the first place. Oklahoma’s Muslim community hovers somewhere between 0 and .1% of the population. Continue Reading →

It’s Not Even About A Mosque This Time

Posted on by

Elissa Lerner: Have you been losing sleep over the crippling anxiety that Islamic law might one day trump Constitutional law? Fear not – Oklahoma is on the case! “Save Our State” question 755 banning shari’a law from the Sooner State passed with a whopping 70% of the vote on Tuesday. In a “pre-emptive strike” according to the proposition’s sponsor Rex Duncan, Oklahoma is now proudly the first state in the union to prevent courts from considering shari’a in reaching decisions. Please. Like they would in the first place. Oklahoma’s Muslim community hovers somewhere between 0 and .1% of the population. Continue Reading →

The Perversion of the Shari'ah andthe Limits of Tolerance

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By Tariq al-Jamil

This article is part of an ongoing series that examines what Shari’ah is, how the media often get it wrong, and how it’s being used to create fear of Islam and Muslims and to justify continued military defense of “American values.”

There are multiple levels of historical misinformation that fuel the manifold misuses of the term “Shari’ah” in today’s popular media. Journalists and politicians have been quick, either consciously or in ignorance, to pander to the crude association of the term “Shari’ah” with the worst examples of violent and repressive acts undertaken by governments in places where Muslims predominate.  This categorical equation of the Shari’ah with violence, repression, and stagnation — and hence antithetical, or at the very least incompatible, with American notions of freedom, justice, and democracy — is now ubiquitous in the U.S. press and popular imagination.

The politicization of the term “Shari’ah” by ideologically driven groups is not limited to the United States and Europe but rather its uses have been equally fraught in the modern Muslim world. In the wake of colonialism, Muslim “reformers” sought to simplify what appeared to them as a complicated and specialized Islamic legal tradition. Shari’ah’s plurality of legal opinions and flexible methodology impeded governmental efficiency and was seen as ineffective for meeting the needs of modern civil societies. Continue Reading →

Contesting the Sharia: The Ideological Interpretation (and Misinterpretation) of Islamic Law

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by Najam Haider

The proposed construction of a mosque in the vicinity of Ground Zero in New York City has raised an outcry from a number of critics including (but not limited to) former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and former Speaker of the House (and potential 2012 presidential candidate) Newt Gingrich.  In a July 28, 2010 article published by Gingrich in the conservative magazine Human Events, he writes:

Radical Islamism is more than simply a religious belief.  It is a comprehensive political, economic, and religious movement that seeks to impose Sharia – Islamic law – upon all aspects of global society.

He goes on to explain that Sharia “does not permit freedom of conscience” or “religious liberty” and is “explicitly at odds with core American and Western values.”  He then chronicles a phenomena that he dubs “creeping Sharia” whereby government institutions refuse to implement the protections of American law in deference to this apparently draconian religious legal code. Continue Reading →

The Problem of Equating Shari’ah with Law

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This article is the first of an ongoing series that will examine what shari’ah is, how the media often get it wrong, and how it’s being used to create fear of Islam and Muslims and to justify continued military defense of “American values.”

by Hussein Rashid

Every time I hear someone on TV mention “shari’ah,” I think of the movie The Princess Bride and the line “I do not think it means what you think it means.” I am amused that shari’ah has come to mean “law” as a canonical system for how Muslims are to behave and act. Weak states use the term shari’ah in lieu of “law,” un-inquisitive press use the term the same way, and Muslims ignorant of their own history adopt that understanding, reinforcing the cycle.

Shari’ah literally means a way or a path, usually to a watering hole. Traditionally, it is meant to guide Muslims as to how they should fulfill their religious obligations. The vast majority of criminal and civil issues were handled by state authorities through a systemized code of law. This legal system was called qanun, from the Greek word kanon. With the rise of the modern nation-state, states seeking to be authentically “Islamic” adopted a wide variety of laws and dubbed them shari’ah, even though in the classical system they would be qanun. Continue Reading →

The Problem of Equating Shari’ah with Law

Posted on by

This article is the first of an ongoing series that will examine what shari’ah is, how the media often get it wrong, and how it’s being used to create fear of Islam and Muslims and to justify continued military defense of “American values.”

by Hussein Rashid

Every time I hear someone on TV mention “shari’ah,” I think of the movie The Princess Bride and the line “I do not think it means what you think it means.” I am amused that shari’ah has come to mean “law” as a canonical system for how Muslims are to behave and act. Weak states use the term shari’ah in lieu of “law,” un-inquisitive press use the term the same way, and Muslims ignorant of their own history adopt that understanding, reinforcing the cycle.

Shari’ah literally means a way or a path, usually to a watering hole. Traditionally, it is meant to guide Muslims as to how they should fulfill their religious obligations. The vast majority of criminal and civil issues were handled by state authorities through a systemized code of law. This legal system was called qanun, from the Greek word kanon. With the rise of the modern nation-state, states seeking to be authentically “Islamic” adopted a wide variety of laws and dubbed them shari’ah, even though in the classical system they would be qanun. Continue Reading →

The Problem of Equating Shari'ah with Law

Posted on by

This article is the first of an ongoing series that will examine what shari’ah is, how the media often get it wrong, and how it’s being used to create fear of Islam and Muslims and to justify continued military defense of “American values.”

by Hussein Rashid

Every time I hear someone on TV mention “shari’ah,” I think of the movie The Princess Bride and the line “I do not think it means what you think it means.” I am amused that shari’ah has come to mean “law” as a canonical system for how Muslims are to behave and act. Weak states use the term shari’ah in lieu of “law,” un-inquisitive press use the term the same way, and Muslims ignorant of their own history adopt that understanding, reinforcing the cycle.

Shari’ah literally means a way or a path, usually to a watering hole. Traditionally, it is meant to guide Muslims as to how they should fulfill their religious obligations. The vast majority of criminal and civil issues were handled by state authorities through a systemized code of law. This legal system was called qanun, from the Greek word kanon. With the rise of the modern nation-state, states seeking to be authentically “Islamic” adopted a wide variety of laws and dubbed them shari’ah, even though in the classical system they would be qanun. Continue Reading →