Sharia Myths
Posted: April 1, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: American Religion, election 2012, GOP, Islam, Politics, Religion, sharia 2 Comments »Adam Serwer summarizes a new report that debunks the myths underlying conservative panics over sharia. In short, sharia is not like Biblical law or the Ten Commandments and it is not a threat to the United States.
But the sharia panic that is driving state legislatures to try and criminalize Islam, and making GOP presidential candidates fearful of even looking tolerant of Muslims, is based on an understanding of the religion that would be analogous to treating the bombing of an abortion clinic as the only true possible interpretation of Christianity.
By their various choice-of-law rules, common law courts such as those in the U.S. always had to interpret and apply foreign law to resolve certain kinds of cases. This issue reminds me of a similar concern during the Cold War of U.S. courts applying the law of communist countries.
Another historical example that comes to mind is the attempt by the British East India Company to galvanize a code of law for Hindus and Muslims in company controlled areas. Nathanial Halhead’s Code of Gentoo Laws being the first attempt.