Clearing up misconceptions about shari'a law

Here's the scenario: one guy writes an op-ed in the local paper warning about the dangers of shari'a law in the U.S. Another guy responds the following week, hoping to start a conversation. 

The paper? The Gainesville Sun. You know, that Gainesville where a pastor once wanted to host an "International Burn a Koran Day." 

Yeah...about that. 

Conversations about Islam, Muslims, and understanding are important here. They're important everywhere, but they're particularly poignant in this place. And in this present moment. So, when another local leader asked me to respond to the original op-ed with my own analytic thoughts on shari'a law and the U.S. constitution I obliged. As a doctoral student associated with the University of Florida's Center for Global Islamic Studies and serving as a local pastor I felt I had to be part of the conversation. I think you should be too.

Join in by reading a snippet below or perusing my full op-ed HERE, take a look at the original post, or check out other letters written to the editor in response. 

FROM THE GAINESVILLE SUN: There is a tangible fear that courses through a room when the word "Sharia" is spoken. Non-Muslims can panic at the thought of state-sanctioned punishments meted out by pre-modern religious fundamentalists. Muslims may fear that such misconceptions about Sharia will yet again cast aspersion on their religion.

This column is a response to last week’s piece by George L. Barnett, “Sharia law is inconsistent with Constitution.” It is not an open challenge or call for cantankerous debate, but is instead a subtle critique of his opinion and a call for a continuing conversation between people of different faiths regarding religion and law.

Understanding Islam & the death penalty for apostasy

Last week, a Saudi Arabian court sentenced Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh to death for apostasy — the deliberate renouncement of Islam. Human rights advocates across the world rallied to his cause and as Aaron Sankin reported, "Fayadh's fate quickly became a cause célèbre on social media, with a litany of Twitter users gathering around the hashtag #FreeAshraf to protest his death sentence.”

Under the Wahhabi interpretation — an austere, literalist, sect of Islam associated with Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab and the Saud royal family — such crimes as blasphemy and apostasy are punishable by death. 

Fayadh’s case is not an isolated one. Liberal author Raif Badawi was publicly flogged in January 2015 and remains in prison after being convicted of blasphemy. There was, at the time, an international outcry as many decried the juxtaposition of such a penalty with international conceptions of human rights, freedom of conscience and speech, and the value of religious pluralism. 

While there are grave reasons to challenge the decisions of the Saudi courts to condemn these men, there is a concomitant danger with condemning an entire religion or casting dispersion toward Muslims for such stats and scenarios. Furthermore, the numbers can be misleading. There are, I think, five points to keep in mind when considering such stories before coming to any clear conclusions: