Bad news: Sharia law continues to creep closer to taking over Oklahoma

Bucky

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Mon Nov-08-10 08:07 PM
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Bad news: Sharia law continues to creep closer to taking over Oklahoma

Edited on Mon Nov-08-10 08:10 PM by Bucky

As many of you DUers know, I've been particularly worried about the prospect of Sharia law being imposed on the State of Oklahoma of late. My concern arises not just from the fact that my aunt lives in Oklahoma City, and that my cousin Jimmy and his wife and child frequently visit the soon-to-be-renamed Oklahomistan, but that I shudder at the thought that the Will Rogers Museum--truly one of America's treasures--will also be subject to the vile jizyah taxes that the Islamic Caliphate was known to impose on the People of the Book in the 14th Century.

Think about that for a second (but no longer).

Obviously, I was greatly relieved when, in a triumph of democracy, the great people of Oklahoma snatched victory from the drooling maws of defeat by their referendum banning the imposition of sharia law anywhere in the state. For the first time in months, I had a sound night's sleep. True, the wording of the law also banned the Ten Commandments, of which certain sects of Oklahomans are particularly fond. But, as Davy Crockett said, better to reign in hell than serve in Texas. Amen, Davy, amen.

But our long national nightmare is not over yet, thanks to some liberal activist elitist federal judge in the United States District Court, Western District of Oklahoma. The lawsuit was brought by the sinisterly named Muneer Awad, who immigrated to this country from Athens, Georgia, and now serves on a range of insidious sounding so called organizations, such as Council on American-Islamic Relations, Central Oklahoma Human Rights Alliance, and the Peace House. The "Peace House", really? Sieg heil, comrade!

Now the lurking confabulations of international Islamic domination are creeping their sucker-gripping tentacles ever closer to strangling freedom in the Sooner State, for the fellow travelers lurking in the fluorescent shadows of the US District Court Building, Western District of Oklahoma have granted a stay of that last prophylactic of security between burkha-imposition and my sweet little auntie. And what legalistic mumbo jumbo does the court use to back up this blatant fifth-columnizing? I don't know, I can't find it in any of the tubes of the internet. But here's what some pro-Muslim extremist told NPR:

Marc Stern, a First Amendment lawyer with the American Jewish Committee, says there's no way that fundamentalist Islamic law will be imported here.

"Stoning, cutting off of hands, people being forced to wear veils and the like are simply not going to happen with the assistance of the courts," Stern says.

So what would the new amendment do? Stern says it would favor other religious practices over Islamic ones. For example, Stern says, it is common for a court to accept a will, a prenuptial agreement or a contract based on religious law.

"This amendment seems to say the courts can take no notice of Shariah law," he says. "It doesn't say you can't take notice of canon or Jewish or any other form of religious law that imposes requirements on religious believers. That, alone, would seem to be grounds for throwing this out."

Touche, Brute, touche, indeed.

The clouds gather darkly, my friends, darkly and troublingly. The freedoms that Oklahomans cherish hang by a thread. Soon the state will be steeped in religious dementia, hounded by posturing clerics, perhaps even attempting to impose partial bans on alcohol and limiting its use to private clubs. The mind reels. Even now, I imagine, Iran and Saudi Arabia are conspiring to flood the state with fatwas and zakāts. I call on President Obama to send in the troops and protect us all from this foot in the door of sharia law--for as goes Oklahoma, so goes Kansas and parts of western Arkansas. The dominoes, my God, the dominoes! Already the religious crazies of Oklahoma are threatening the very economy of the state!

The amendment opens a Pandora's box of legal problems aside from the First Amendment issues, says Joseph Thai, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma's College of Law. It would bar courts in the state from recognizing all international law, including treaties and international business contracts that are often based on foreign law. He wonders, why would any foreign company do business with Oklahoma?

"I think this hurts Oklahomas economy because it chills international investment to the extent that international investors rely on international law to protect their contract rights," Thai says. "I think it also hurts Oklahoma more broadly because it makes Oklahoma seem like a less welcoming place for outsiders."

As Franklin Delano Shakespeare once said: Oh, what a tangled weave we wear, when first we fear fear itself, and then despair!