Is Sharia Law a threat?

Is Sharia Law a threat? Said another way: is Sharia compatible with western values? Some people insist there’s no concern. One Substacker wrote, among other things: “It is not true that America is in danger of falling under Sharia law; saying so is a lie.”

The writer labels several other concerns “lies.” This is somewhat ironic given the name of the Substack, “WORDS DO THINGS”. I’d previously responded to the same writer’s Gaza-genocide assertion HERE.

What about Sharia!

Apologists will regard these concerns as stemming from the “far right.” Do a Google search to discover that organizations such as the ACLU defend Sharia Law. While Sharia apologists will reject the credibility of sources provided in this post, Mark Durie deserves our attention. His position is that the West and Sharia Law are not compatible.

According to Bill Muehlenberg,

Mark Durie notes that Islamic sharia is “based upon Muhammad’s example and teaching. This system of rules defines a total way of life. There can be no Islam without Sharia. Westerners sometimes mistakenly think of Sharia as a medieval penal code, something from the dusty and irrelevant past.

“However, the Sharia is intended to be simply what it says: the pathway for a Muslim to walk upon, an authoritative application of Muhammad’s example in a comprehensive and consistent way, using rigorous principles of reasoning and Islamic case-law. This is much more inclusive in concept than any penal code.”

Questions about Islamic intrusion and empathy

I go back to the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. Immediately following that event, apologists rushed to excuse the terrorists. We heard things like: “they were driven to it because of desperation or [fill in the blank].” “Islam is peaceful.” “You criticize Islam because of Islamophobia.”

And yet interestingly, in Australia, several foreign embassies refused to fly their flags at half mast until Prime Minister John Howard intervened. At the same time, Muslim workers in an American owned car manufacturing plant in Melbourne cheered the attacks. Reza Aslan, considered a moderate Muslim, refused to condemn the attacks when pressed. Zorahn Mamdami’s wife called the Oct 7 rape claims a hoax.

Why was that so?

There’s also a tendency for westerners to want to appear good and fair-minded regarding Islam. While I understand the sentiment why, then, demonize Israel and Jews? Why did people rip pictures of Oct 7 hostages from billboards and posts? Something is amiss.

In 2019, Daniel Pipes participated in a discussion titled, Is Sharia Law Irreconcilable with Democracy? One of the points he made was of a steep learning curve regarding Sharia being compatible in the West. A few years ago some denied there were no-go zones popping up in Europe. Yet they now they’re seen to exist according to the Middle East Forum.

But what does history tell us and what are we seeing now in places like France and England? Why do scores upon scores of Muslims pray in streets and block traffic when there are enough Mosques available to them? Well, they are telling the non-Muslims something.

In “Jihad, Jizya, and Just War Theory,” David Wood talks about the Three Stages of Islam and Just War Theory. Instead of rejecting him as an extremist, I suggest reading what he says and presenting evidence to the contrary if it exists

The intention in this post is not to demonize Muslims. Christians must pray for them as we ought to pray for all unbelievers of whatever group. Yet the West must come to realize the threat of encroaching Islam as it gains stronger footholds in societies. The disquiet about Sharia Law is legitimate.

I leave the last word to Mark Durie and Richard Shumack below.

Maranatha!