The Intrusion of Sharia into American Justice

The Intrusion of Sharia into American Justice

Friday, 20 May 2011 05:07 Baron Bodissey

I wrote the other night about the release of a ground-breaking report by the Center for Security Policy on the application of sharia law in American jurisprudence (see“Shariah Law and American State Courts” and the paper itself, Shariah Law and American State Courts: An Assessment of State Appellate Court Cases [pdf]).

Because the document itself is more than 600 pages long, I’ll undertake a series of posts to highlight some of the more important parts of the report for our readers. Tonight’s excerpts are from the “Background” section that introduces the paper.

Most Americans would probably be surprised to discover how widespread the application of Islamic law is in this country. Yet none of this is a secret. American Muslims are not hiding their efforts to impose sharia — they are quite open about what they are doing. The Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA) is up-front in its acknowledgement that the sharia it intends to implement is “another system of law outside the U.S. Constitutional framework.”

We often talk about “stealth jihad”, but there is no “stealth sharia” — what we see is “in-your-face-sharia”. All you have to do is turn off the MSM, take off the blinders, and look around you.

When you read these excerpts, you’ll notice that the AMJA instructs its members to place their allegiance to Islamic law above any allegiance to the United States and its Constitution.

You’ll see that Muslims who undertake jury duty are required not to render any judgment that violates sharia.

American Muslims are plainly instructed to co-operate with our political and legal institutions only to the extent that those institutions do not require them to violate Islamic law.

If we lived in a sane country, these writings and the organizations that sponsor them would be considered seditious. Those who wrote them would be held accountable. Any lawyers adhering to them would be disbarred and prosecuted.

But we live in a degraded times. Not only do such actions go unpunished, they are even celebrated, funded, and promoted by our own government.

Muslims would have us believe that this is all about family law: “This is just a family affair. Nothing to see here. Nothing to bother yourself about. Just a few private matters…” That’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.

But “family” is actually a proxy term for the rights of women and girls, and for the rights of the individual. Women and girls are denied their rights under sharia, and under Islamic law the individual does not have the same rights that are guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

So this isn’t really about families at all. The Muslim family is just the beginning: this is about undermining the legitimacy of the United States Constitution.

Bear all this in mind when you read the excerpts below, from pages 19 through 28 of Shariah Law and American State Courts: An Assessment of State Appellate Court Cases [pdf, footnotes omitted from these excerpts]:

In addition to the legal and academic literature on Shariah law in the U.S., a study of Islamic law in the U.S. was conducted by Emory Law School in 1999, which resulted in numerous country reports focusing particularly on issues of reform and personal status of women under the Shariah. This study, “No Altars: A Survey of Islamic Family Law in the United States,” includes a section on conflicts between Shariah and U.S. laws, including conflicts in the areas of polygamy, marriage to non-Muslims, forced marriages, and spousal abuse. The authors’ observations from twelve years ago apply even more today: “Some Muslims are proactively interested in ways to legitimately opt out of United States legal norms that potentially conflict with their Islamic preferences.” The purpose of the Emory Law School project on Islamic Family Law (IFL) is described at the website: “The first objective of this Project is to verify and document the scope and manner of the application of IFL [Islamic Family Law] around the world, including Muslim communities living within predominantly non-Muslim countries.”

Also of note, in a non-academic but still influential article published in 1993 originally in the print edition of The American Muslim by the American Muslim Council Deputy Director Issa Smith, “Native American Courts: Precedent for an Islamic arbitral system,” the author argued for a number of milestones that have since been achieved. These milestone include the creation of Muslim Bar Associations, and National Muslim Law Students Association, and the various organizations dedicated to the study of, promotion of, or enforcement of Shariah law in the U.S., which are listed in part later in this study:

Although the Muslim community in North America is vastly different from the Indian community, I feel that in developing a plan for the implementation of Muslim family law, we can in some ways imitate the paradigm of the tribal court system and its supporting network. In particular, I recommend that as a first step, supporting organizations dealing with Islamic family law be established immediately. A professional association of Muslims in the law field (of whatever specialty) is a must. A law school students’ support group should be formed, and Muslim youth should be encouraged to enter this field.

A second step would be to establish institutes in the U.S. which can supplement legal education with courses in Islamic family law. At the same time, pressure should be put on law schools to include courses in Shariah taught by Muslims. An idea suggested in several quarters and being developed by the American Muslim Council, is themoot court where students and legal experts can act out Muslim family court scenarios…

The process of implementing Muslim family law will not be accomplished overnight. Changes of their type take place very slowly in American society, and our community is far from being prepared for this tak [sic]. I commend the continental council of Masajid for organizing this conference, and bringing together so many workers and thinkers. I pray to Allah the real decisions are made here that can be implemented by those ready to work. However, I strongly urge that consideration be given to political realities and the sensitivities of the American public. Such a radical change in American law — allowing Muslims to take control over their family law issues — must be initiated from the indigenous Muslim community here in the United States. To have it seem that this initiative is originating from overseas or from organizations financed overseas, would create a very negative impression that would likely destroy this effort.[emphasis added]

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