The America They Envision – The Washington Normal

In America, in which adherents of Sharia succeeded in their goal of imposing Islamic law as the supreme law of the land would look very different from the America of today – to say nothing of the America of the Founding Fathers.

What would such an America look like? Remember that the only states anywhere in the world today that claim to implement full Sharia are the Islamic Republic of Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan. And besides Sharia, or perhaps because of it, they have something else in common as well: each has an abysmal human rights record, and each is currently a hotbed of jihadist activity and support networks.

In April 2008, the Pakistani jihadist group Lashkar-e-Islam offered a glimpse of its perfect Islamic society when it listed its preferred policies for governing the Khyber Agency, a Pakistani tribal area. Some of these are specific to the situation in that region, but many would be features of any Sharia regime. These included:

• “Eradicating all shirk [polytheism/idolatry], bid’at [innovation in the religious principles of Islam] and all un-Islamic practices from Khyber Agency” – which would involve severe restrictions on non-Muslim religious practice, in accord with the classic dhimmi laws.

• Permitting “only Islamic-style graves” – that is, graves that face Mecca.

• Enforcing “a total ban on the sale of wine” and on gambling

• Prohibiting the charging of interest in all business transactions

• Ensuring “that women are modestly dressed according to Islamic norms when attending school”

• Banning wedding music. This prohibition would likely extend beyond weddings; the Lashkar-e-Islam leader notes, “According to the local tradition, singing and dancing are not permitted. People are fined for listening to music because this is a habit of the English [Westerners].”

• Forbidding women from visiting a doctor or hospital without being accompanied by a male relative..

Note that some of these practices have already made inroads in western countries. As far back as 2006, a British cemetery beganfacing all its graves, for Muslims and non-Muslims alike, toward Mecca — in a spirit of accommodation, of course. Likewise, numerous Sharia finance initiatives are already helping Muslims in the West to get around the Islamic prohibition on usury.

Other measures are already enforced by local Islamic vigilantes. For example, Christian women have been horse-whipped in Nigeria for not dressing according to Islamic standards.

Islam’s western apologists argue that this oppressive vision of Sharia is confined to a small extremist fringe. It’s instructive, then, to note the tenets of Islamic law outlined by Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. The foremost authority in Sunni Islam, Al-Azhar is led by a grand sheikh whom the BBC calls “the highest spiritual authority for nearly a billion Sunni Muslims.” In 1991, Al-Azhar certified a manual of Islamic law as conforming “to the practice and faith of the orthodox Sunni Community.” That manual includes the following laws:

• “When a person who has reached puberty and is sane voluntarily apostatizes [i.e. converts] from Islam, he deserves to be killed.”

• “Circumcision is obligatory.” While Islamic scholars agree that this applies to men, there is some dispute about the need for female circumcision. (Commonly known as “female genital mutilation,” this procedure removes part of the clitoris.) Some Islamic authorities believe female circumcision is obligatory, while others argue it is a courtesy to the husband and a traditional accepted practice but not an obligatory one.”

• “The husband may forbid his wife to leave the home.”

• “Musical instruments of all types are unlawful.”

• “The caliph . . . makes war upon Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians . . . until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax.”

In a stunning testament to western self-delusion, shortly after 9/11 the New York Times upheld Al-Azhar as a beacon of Islamic moderation, reporting that the institution “has sought to advise Muslims around the world that those who kill in the name of Islam are nothing more than heretics. It has sought to guide, to reassure Westerners against any clash of civilizations.”

Most Americans are completely unaware that such elements of Islamic law even exist. Lulled by the soothing assurances of our media, academic, and political leaders that Islam is a religion of peace, they have little notion of the true, oppressive nature of Islamic law, as dictated by the highest spiritual authorities in the Islamic world – or that domestic Islamic groups are now working to get these laws adopted in the United States. But they are, with great energy and efficiency.

Article posted with permission from Robert Spencer