The last time I checked, the Constitution’s First Amendment does not allow anyone license to stray outside its boundaries to defy the laws of the land. If it did, we’d see more court cases like the one in New Jersey, where a female Moroccan immigrant requested a restraining order against her ex-husband who, she alleged, repeatedly raped her under the guise of his religious beliefs.
Before his decision was overturned, the judge overseeing the case denied the restraining order because, according to Fox News, the man “felt he had behaved according to his Muslim beliefs.”
Bob Englehart / Hartford Courant (click to view more cartoons by Englehart)
It is no wonder that states like Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee are attempting to block judges from considering International and/or Sharia law in their decisions, while groups like the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) work on damage control.
The ICNA recently launched a nationwide campaign, “Defending Religious Freedom, Understanding Sharia,” which includes college campus seminars, billboards, radio advertisements and a 25-city “education tour to introduce the Islamic Faith to the American public.”
More power to them. After all, this is America, “the land of the free” and the home of religious freedom. But, as the old saying goes, “your freedom ends where mine begins.”
You may recall ICNA drew a lot of attention after five young men belonging to this organization disappeared, and then showed up in Pakistan to allegedly join the jihad. One of the men, Ramy Zamzam was quoted saying, “We are not terrorists. We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism.”
ICNA has a sympathetic ear at the White House by way of Obama administration appointee to the U.S. Homeland Security Council and White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Dalia Mogahed, who spoke at ICNA’s 34th convention. Investigativeproject.org claims Mogahed “has worked quietly” to ensure “radical Muslim groups” are “active participants” in her work.
Mogahed, who claims she was instrumental in the composition of President Obama’s infamous Cairo speech to the Muslim world, was on a controversial television show in London awhile back. The UK Telegraph reported that this White House advisor remained silent as others bantered about the West’s “secular man-made law” (the Constitution) and talked about the “lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism.” Mogahed told the show’s host the West’s view of Sharia, is “oversimplified,” and “not well understood.” It would be nice to hear the poor Moroccan woman’s take on that one.
As a nation founded on Judeo-Christian principles, and filled with immigrants from every walk of life, Americans are some of the most tolerant people on the planet. Think about it. Standing tall in New York Harbor, Lady Liberty beckons, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
The word “free” is key here. That’s what the bloodshed was about during the American Revolution. Our Constitution charges our government with the task of preserving the “unalienable rights” endowed by our Creator. The U.S. Constitution is superior in that restrains tyrannical governments, whose religion and politics are virtually indivisible, from overtaking ours. Nonetheless, there are those who would seek to present Sharia law as a Muslim religious prerogative under the protection of the Constitution’s First Amendment.
Earlier this month, Thomas More Law Center president Richard Thompson told World Net Daily, “Islam is more than a religion; it is a political ideology that regulates every aspect of human existence and calls for the Islamic domination of the world. Since radical Muslims know they can never defeat our military on the battle field, they devised the strategy of internal subversion.”
Some things were never meant to be fused together. As Rudyard Kipling once wrote, “Oh East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” In my humble opinion, the fusion of Sharia with our Constitution is like attaching a lawn mower to your bicycle. Sooner or later they will self-destruct, and everyone gets hurt.
On a side note: I recommend checking out the amazing work that is being done by the nonprofit Thomas More Law Center at www.thomasmore.org.
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Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.
©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561
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