From The Daily O'Collegian (Oklahoma State University) and Alliance Defense Fund:
State question seeks to ban Sharia law in Oklahoma
By Tyler Silvy
Contributing Reporter
Published: Monday, October 25, 2010
Updated: Tuesday, October 26, 2010 02:10
Sharia law will not be coming to Oklahoma any time soon. That is if some candidates and members of Oklahoma's legislature have anything to do with it.
State Question 755 seeks to prevent Oklahoma courts from using international or Sharia law as precedents in deciding cases.
Muslims believe Sharia law is God's law; however, there are several interpretations of Sharia law and what it includes. Sharia law combines personal matters, such as sexuality and hygiene, and secular law, such as crime.
Although this is a contentious issue, candidates and legislators on either side agree that Sharia law has not been used in Oklahoma yet.
Rep. Rex Duncan, a Republican who represents four counties including part of Payne County, wrote the question, which would amend Oklahoma's constitution. Duncan could not be contacted in time for this article, but has said this about the question:
"SQ 755 will constitute a preemptive strike against Sharia law coming to Oklahoma. While Oklahoma is still able to defend itself against this sort of hideous invasion, we should do so."
The amended constitution would also prohibit Oklahoma courts from looking to other states for precedent if those states use or have used Sharia law as precedent in court cases.
John Swails is the director of the Center for Israel and Middle East Studies at Oral Roberts University and said he agrees with the change. Swails said when the question was first posed to him he didn't think it was necessary, but he said after speaking with friends in New York and Washington, D.C., he realized there was a growing movement to incorporate Sharia law into American courts.
Swails said the two main reasons that Sharia law has no place in Oklahoma courts is that there is no religious freedom provided by it and there is no equality for women.
Mary Fallin, the Republican candidate for governor, supports the question. A campaign staffer said Fallin thinks international law or Sharia law has no place in Oklahoma courts, whether it's necessary or not.
Sharia law influences the legal code of most Muslim countries, according to the Council on Foreign Relations' website, www.cfr.org.
"A movement to allow Sharia to govern personal status law, a set of regulations that pertain to marriage, divorce, inheritance and custody, is even expanding into the west," according to the website.
Jari Askins, the Democratic candidate for governor, is against the measure. A campaign staffer said the big concern with the law is its unintended consequences.
"Jari has always been committed to the Oklahoma Constitution," the staffer said. "She is opposed to applying Sharia law, but she thinks that is really a non-issue in Oklahoma."
Democrat Rep. Cory Williams, district 34, could not be reached for comment, but has said this about the proposed amendment:
"If I was a Muslim Oklahoman, I would be offended by my religion being singled out."
Muslim Oklahomans may have to suffer being offended if State Question 755 gets a majority of ‘yes' votes. To be sure, it is a controversial issue.
"Sharia's influence on both personal status law and criminal law is highly controversial, though," according to the CFR website. "Some interpretations are used to justify cruel punishments such as amputation and stoning as well as unequal treatment of women in inheritance, dress, and independence. The debate is growing as to whether Sharia can coexist with secularism, democracy, or even modernity."
And, related, from Religion Link and Alliance Defense Fund:
Shariah hysteria? Some in U.S. call for ban on Islamic lawPosted on October 22nd, 2010
Anxieties over Muslims in America have emerged in a spate of hate crimes as well as in high-profile controversies like the one over the construction of an Islamic center near Ground Zero. Now some politicians and activists say Islam’s legal code, known as shariah, is another threat to the United States that must be countered.
On Election Day, for example, voters in Oklahoma will vote on a ballot measure to ban judges from using shariah in reaching their decisions. In Nevada, Sharron Angle, Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, made controversial claims about shariah’s influence in America, while former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich has for months been voicing objections to what he sees as the threat of shariah law.
At the Values Voters Summit in September, Gingrich called for a “federal law that says shariah law cannot be recognized by any court in the United States.”
Legal and religious experts tend to discount many of these concerns as overreactions or misreadings of the legal realities. They say that shariah (sometimes capitalized and/or spelled “sharia”) in the Western context is analogous to the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law or the laws of other religious groups that govern their internal workings. Such religious strictures cannot trump American laws, they say.
Still, arguments over the proper reading and role of shariah – arguments that are part of any law code requiring interpretation — are sharp even within Islam, as experts differ as to whether shariah is fair to women, for example, especially in Muslim countries where Islamic law holds sway. Others say these internal Islamic debates are also sharpened as the number of Muslims in the West grows.
“The debate is growing as to whether sharia can coexist with secularism, democracy, or even modernity,” as an Oct. 5, 2010, Council on Foreign Relations backgrounder essay put it.
The controversy is an opportunity for journalists to explain more about what shariah is — and is not — and this edition of ReligionLink provides resources to help reporters write those stories.
Background and resources
Shariah is based on the Quran, the Islamic holy book that Muslims believe was dictated to the Prophet Muhammad by an angel, and on sayings and practices attributed to the prophet. But shariah as a body of laws did not develop until several centuries after Muhammad’s death in 632 A.D.
According to the CFR backgrounder, shariah means “path” in Arabic, and it “guides all aspects of Muslim life including daily routines, familial and religious obligations, and financial dealings.” A few governments, such as Saudi Arabia’s, base their legal systems on shariah, but shariah is mostly defined by religious scholars.
Concern over the adoption of shariah in Western countries was sparked in 2005 when authorities in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, were considering whether to add Islamic law to a legal arbitration process that allowed Catholic and Jewish faith-based tribunals to settle family law matters like divorce on a voluntary basis. There was such an outcry that the provincial government decided to scrap the faith-based program for all religions.
In February 2008, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, sparked a similar uproar in Great Britain when he suggested that the adoption of some aspects of shariah in Britain “seems unavoidable.” Williams emphasized that Islamic law could never supplant an individual’s rights as a citizen, but he noted that other religions enjoyed tolerance of their laws and he called for “constructive accommodation” with Muslim practice in areas such as marital disputes.
In September 2008 the controversy was revived when it emerged that as many as five shariah courts were operating in Britain under government supervision.
Religion Link has several editions with resources and experts for covering this topic in greater depth:
Covering Islam 101: The basics — Fifty-eight percent of Americans say they know little or nothing about Islam’s practices. And what they know is sometimes wrong. Meanwhile, 32 percent of Americans say the media are the biggest influence on their perception of Muslims. This edition of ReligionLink is a journalist’s guide to covering Muslims and Islam in America. It is a complement to a Religion Newswriters webinar presented on March 11, 2008.
Understanding Islam: From Sunnis to Shiites and beyond — Muslims tend to avoid terms like denominations or sects to describe the different streams of tradition. All Muslims are one, they note, and share the same basic beliefs and rituals. But there are different schools of thought within Islam, denoted by historical and legal differences — differences that can lead to serious divisions.
Muslims and civil rights: A continuing debate – President Barack Obama’s June 4, 2009, address to the Muslim world served as a fresh reminder of the tensions between civil rights and national security that have played out in the U.S. and abroad since 9/11. The speech was welcomed by the Muslim community, which remains deeply concerned about attacks against Muslims.
Islam: A guide to U.S. experts and organizations — This ReligionLink guide includes more than 100 experts who specialize in such areas as civil rights, politics, foreign affairs, art, culture, history, law, family issues and more. It also includes Muslim advocacy organizations, research centers and think tanks.
Covering Islam and politics — Muslims’ engagement with government and politics is becoming more prominent in the United States and abroad on issues ranging from immigration and terrorism to charities and civil rights. This guide lists research centers, organizations and scholars with expertise on the growing role of Muslims’ interactions with government and politics.
Mapping Muslim assimilation: Islam’s growing social infrastructure — Like Jews, Catholics and other immigrant groups before them, Muslims are building a social infrastructure in America that includes houses of worship, schools, health clinics, banks, charities and more. Muslims’ social and religious needs are diverse — and that diversity is reflected in the network of mosques and related social services centers they are creating.
A roundup of news and articles
Read a CFR interview, “Islam and the Midterm Elections,” with John C. Green of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, who says that although voters are primarily concerned about jobs and the economy, they may also feel growing anxiety about Islam and the cultural and ethnic changes in the country.
The Tennessean published a package of stories on October 24, 2010 related to mistrust of Muslims in the state. Shariah law plays a part in that concern, and is an issue in a lawsuit to block construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Read a Religion News Service story, “American Shariah? That’s news to American Muslims,” posted by the Kansas City Star on Oct. 16, 2010.
Read “Fears of Sharia Law in America Grow Among Conservatives,” an Oct. 13, 2010, story by CBS News.
“Sharron Angle on Sharia Religious Law: It’s Already Supplanting the Constitution,” is an Oct. 8, 2010, story at Politics Daily on the Nevada candidate’s comments about shariah.
“America’s Anti-Islam Hysteria” is a column at The Daily Beast by Reza Aslan about Angle’s shariah comments.
In September 2010 the Center for Security Policy released a report called “Shariah: The Threat to America,” which called Islamic law “the preeminent totalitarian threat of our time.”
John G. Stackhouse Jr., an evangelical scholar and theologian at Regent College in Vancouver, critiqued the CSP report in a blog post titled “ ‘Shariah: The Threat to America’: A Commendable Worry Badly Addressed.”
A Sept. 2, 2010, essay titled “The Real Impact of Sharia Law in America,” at the website of The Heritage Foundation, sounded the alarm about a New Jersey case that author Cully Stimson argued is evidence that “Sharia-loving extremists are determined to establish an Islamic Caliphate around the world, especially in America.”
At the website of The New Republic, James Downie critiques that view in a Sept. 3, 2010, post titled “Hysteria at Heritage.”
Read a July 18, 2010, story in the Tulsa World, “Legislator’s proposal would ban use of Sharia law,” about State Question 755 on this November’s ballot.
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