<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of today's (April 30, 2015) Moscow-Pullman Daily News with thanks to Nick Gier.</div><div><br></div><div>--------------------------------------</div><div><h1 id="blox-asset-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-weight: 400; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; line-height: 34px; font-size: 30px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="blox-headline entry-title" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(204, 0, 0); line-height: 38px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">His View: The big scare about Shariah law</span></h1><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>Nick Gier</b></span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Idaho state Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll joined eight other legislators in rejecting a bill that would bring Idaho into compliance with the Hague Convention on Child Support. At risk is $16 million in federal funding for Idaho's child welfare system and millions of dollars in child support for Idaho's single mothers.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Nuxoll claimed that Idaho would have to abide by decisions made by Shariah (also spelled Shari'ah or Sharia or Shari'a) law courts in the Muslim countries who signed this international agreement. Her informants neglected to tell her that Albania and Bosnia - two Muslim nations who signed the Hague Convention - follow secular, not religious law.</span></p><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Shahram Hadian, a Christian convert from Islam, is one of those advising Idaho Republicans. At a Bonner County GOP meeting in Sandpoint on April 21, Hadian warned that the Obama administration was planning on settling 2,000 Muslim refugees in Southern Idaho and that the enforcement of Shariah law would soon follow.</span></p><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">One person who attended the meeting said that she learned that Shariah law was "part of the Constitution of Islam, and that is why it can't be separated out." The only document that can be called an Islamic Constitution is the Charter of Medina, which was promulgated in A.D. 626 to settle differences among Jews, pagans, and Muslims in Saudi Arabia.</span></p></div></div><div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The Charter of Medina guaranteed freedom of religion and political and cultural autonomy for all parties to the agreement. It also contained the "right not to be found guilty because of the deeds of an ally," a decisive break from ancient laws, such as those in the Bible (Deuteronomy 5:9), that made the sins of others your own.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Many of those who suffer from Islamophobia assume that Shariah law is all about the amputation of thieves' limbs and the stoning of adulteresses, but these "hudud" offenses apply in only nine Muslim countries and are rarely enforced.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Stoning as a form of execution is not found in the Quran but is sanctioned by the Bible. Stoning in Muslim countries was not introduced until the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the 20th century. Only the Taliban and other tribal authorities continue to carry out this gruesome punishment.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In 26 Muslim countries secular law, not religious law, is enforced. In 20 other countries, only civic matters such as marriage, divorce, inheritance and child custody follow Islamic customs.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The U.S. government allows Jews to administer their own family law. Orthodox Jews have very negative views about women's rights, just as bad as some Muslim views, so this cannot be used, without showing bias, as a reason for denying the use of Muslim family law.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Some years ago Newt Gingrich cited the case of a New Jersey judge who ruled in favor of a Muslim husband who claimed that his wife's consent was not necessary for sexual relations with her. Gingrich neglected to mention that the decision was overturned "as seriously flawed" by a state appeals court, where the judges ruled the state's rape laws trump religious laws and practices.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">In a blog article titled "Who's Afraid of Shariah?" Sumbul Ali-Karamali lays out the six principles of Islamic law: (1) the right to life; (2) the right to the protection of family; (3) the right to education; (4) the right of religious freedom; (5) the right to the protection of property and access to resources; and (6) the right to the protection of human dignity.</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">As Ali-Karamali declares: "Well, bless me, as a pledge-of-allegiance-reciting, California-raised Muslim girl, these six principles sound a lot like those espoused in my very own Constitution of the United States."</span></p></div><div class="encrypted-content" style="outline: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; float: none !important;"><p style="outline: 0px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-image: none; float: none !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ali-Karamali gets the last word: "Focusing only on the nutcases who advocate a return to medieval times is ignoring the vast majority of modern Muslims."</span></p></div></div><div>--------------------------------------<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares"</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div> </div></div></div></div></body></html>