FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 2010
KLMNO
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Politics & The Nation
Religious leaders alarmed by misuse of term, denigration
BY MICHELLE BOORSTEIN Protesters of the proposed Is-
lamic center near Ground Zero waved signs there Sunday with a singleword: sharia. Their reference to Islam’s guid-
ing principles has become a rally- ing cry for those critical of Islam, whousethewordtoconjureimag- es of public stonings and other extreme forms of punishment in countries such as Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan and argue that those tenets are somehow gaining a foothold in theUnited States. Blogs with names such as
Creeping Sharia andStopShariah Now are proliferating. A pam- phlet for a “tea party” rally last weekend in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., asked: “Why do Muslims want to take over the world and place us under Shariah law?” For- mer GOP House speaker Newt Gingrich amplified that point in a much-publicized speech a few weeksago, exploringwhathe calls “the problemof creeping sharia.” The fact that the word has be-
come akinto a slur insome camps is an alarming development to many religious and political lead- ers. “We are deeply saddened by those who denigrate a religion which in so many ways is a reli- gion of compassion,” Peg Chem- berlin, president of the National Council of Churches, said in a statement this month signed by 40 national religious leaders. Sharia in Arabic means “way”
or “path.”Muslims agree that sha- ria isGod’s law. To some, sharia is a set of rules that are codified and unchanging. To others, it’s a col- lection of religious principles that shift over time. Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim
chaplainatGeorgetownUniversi- ty and spokesman of the Islamic Jurisprudence Council of North America,describesMuslimsasbe- ing divided into two camps: “Thosewho see shariamandating that we live asMuslims did 1,300 years ago, andthosewhosay shar- iadoesn’thaveaspecific formatas to how you live your life, that Islamgives you paradigms.” This question of how to define
sharia has become amore urgent issue for Muslims around the world in recent decades as, ac- cording to some estimates, one- thirdof themliveoutsideMuslim- majority countries for the first time in history. Conferences are held where scholars debate what it means for a government or a person to be “sharia-compliant.” Imam Feisal Rauf, a Sufi Mus-
limwho is spearheading the con- troversial mosque center, runs something called the Shariah In- dex Project,which seeks to create a more progressive benchmark formeasuringthe “Islamicity”ofa state. Daisy Khan, Rauf 's wife, said the couple believe the word “sharia” primarily refers to sever- al broad principles called “maqasid sharia,” which include the protection of life, property and religion, among others. Others say “sharia” refers tothe
specificwords of theKoran (Mus- lims’holybookofGod's revelation passed orally to the prophet Mu- hammad) aswell as all thehadith, the actions and statements attrib- uted to Muhammad that have been passed down, analyzed, in- terpreted (and sometimes tossed out) for centuries. Manyof theharshest,mostcon-
troversial writings are in the ha- dith, such as those giving lower status to non-Muslims and man- dates to stone adulterers (includ- ing a much-publicized stoning thismonth inAfghanistan,meted out by the Taliban).Muslims have debated their accuracy for centu- ries. Another key source is fiqh, the
collection of opinions scholars have written to determine how the will of God can be carried out in daily life. Some people include all fiqhwhenthey refer to“sharia” or “Islamic law.” Daniel Pipes, a conservative
Middle East scholar controversial forhis focus onextremismamong Muslims, said sharia refers to something “enormously specific,” which he compared to the U.S. Constitution. The danger, he said, is whenMuslims “want to imple- ment sharia in every detail on everyone in a stringentway.” The Rev. Canon Julian M.
Dobbs, who oversees Muslim en- gagement for the umbrella group of conservative Anglicans who broke away from the Episcopal Church in North America, re- ferred to stonings as being part of sharia. “Islamic scholars must stop the self-deception which claims that Islam is 100 percent peace, and with honesty, recog- nize the violence that continues to exist within their religion today,” he said. GeoffRoss, aNavy veteranwho organized the tea party event in
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Florida last weekend, said the wordmeans “the lawthat practic- ing Muslims follow to lead their daily lives.” He became involved with anti-sharia events last year. “I study the Koran, I study the
Internet. I look at sources on the Internet and try to vet that infor- mation,” he said. “I’m not anti-Is- lam. I’m anti-terrorist. But if you take quotes from the Bible and compare them to the Koran, the Bible might say, ‘Turn the other
cheek,’while theKoranwould say, ‘Strike your enemies down and kill them.’ ” There is also great disagree-
ment—andsometimescontradic- tion — across the Muslim world aboutwhat itmeans toimplement sharia, or, to use a frequent term, to be a sharia-compliant country. Recent polling in the Muslim
world shows people can say that they believe sharia should be a source for crafting legislation but
simultaneously believe that reli- gious leaders should play no role in drafting laws. Dalia Mogahed, executive di-
rector of the Gallup Center for MuslimStudies, saidmost consti- tutions in the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Confer- enceMember States “mention sh- aria as a source of legislation. But thatmeans very different things.” Pipes said three countries claimthey are implementing sha-
ria: SaudiArabia, IranandSudan. Thosewho decrywhat they call
“creeping sharia” are concerned about Muslims in the West win- ning more public accommoda- tions. Examples they cite include Harvard University recently cre- atingwomen-only hours at one of its swimming pools; banks offer- ing products that comply with Islam’s ban on charging interest; andfemalepoliceofficerswearing head coverings when entering
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A5 Protesters use ‘sharia’ as a slur and rallying cry against Islam
mosques. “Some Islamists employ mass-
murder attacks while others pre- fer a gradual march through our institutions—our legal, political, academic, and financial systems, aswell as our broader culture; the goal of both, though, is the same,” AndrewMcCarthy wrote in a Na- tional Review piece July 31 called “It’s about sharia.”
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