Yesterday, my friend Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s Minister of Minority Affairs, was gunned down in his driveway in Islamabad. The cowardly murderers of this good man left leaflets by his body saying that he was killed because he was trying to overturn Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.
What is the Blasphemy Law? It is the law that makes any perceived insult of Mohammed, the Koran, or Islam an offense punishable by death. What else is the Blasphemy Law? It is derived from the Shariah, and it is not compatible with the Constitution of the United States of America. Interestingly, two of the main promoters of the Shariah have very different ideas about how to implement it, and we in America who want our country to remain free, must be aware of both of these approaches.
Imam Choudary, who has called for his troops to impose Shariah on America decided to stay home and collect his dole payments today, but he has spoken out clearly about his intentions and his understanding of Shariah:
In 2008: “As Muslims, we will not submit to any man-made law, any government, or any prime minister – Bush or Brown. We submit to Allah.”
In the same speech, “It is our religious obligation to prepare ourselves both physically and mentally and rise up against Muslim oppression and take what is rightfully ours,” he said, sounding eerily like the Muslim version of Michael Moore. “Jihad is a duty and a struggle and an obligation that lies upon the shoulders of us all. We will not rest until the flag of Allah and the flag of Islam is raised above 10 Downing Street.”
Choudary also said, “Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a religion of submission. We need to submit to the will of Allah.”
Yet on Tuesday, at a conference on the role of religion in politics, the Imam who is attempting to build a 15 story mosque at Ground Zero, Imam Feisal Rauf declared, “A state ruled by Islam would have religious freedom for all.” All of the Shariah, he said, is “to further the interest of people.” All of Islamic law is based on the same principles as those of Jesus Christ who spoke of two great commandments, to love God and to love your neighbor. Sadly, there are too many Americans and other non-Muslims who want so much for this interpretation of Shariah to be true that they live in a state of denial.
There is no difference in the Shariah of Imam Choudary and Imam Rauf. There is only a difference in the approach of implementation. Choudary blusters and threatens, Rauf adds a spoonful of sugar to disguise the poison. Either way, Shariah is poison, poison to American rule of law, poison to freedom, and poison to the billions of people forced to live under its domination.
This article was initially made available at a Liberty Alliance press conference discussing the dissimilar values of Shariah and the Constitution.
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