The voters in Oklahoma were duped into believing fears about being forced to stone adulterers or cut off the hand of some guy stealing a candy bar from 7-11 or some such thing. Radical Shariah law is not practiced in most regions of the world, including most Islamic nations. Most of what is considered Shariah law is not even what we think of when referring to the criminal or constitutional guidelines. Shariah law anywhere in the world is generally considerate of culture and practices and existing laws of the land. In fact, abiding with the law of the land is part of Shariah law. The bulk of what is practiced as Shariah law is largely about how social relations and personal business is contracted and conducted and does not conflict with democracy in general, the constitution, or with the general laws of the land. Normal practices wrt wills, marriages, contracts, burial traditions etc often consider the guidelines of religion's including Catholic, Jewish, Native American etc and this is all that the Oklahoma Muslims are asking for. The Oklahoma law could block some guy's wishes who said he wanted to be buried according to Shariah law. It might complicate contractual arrangements between Oklahoma companies and foreign corporations. Its broad ban on judges considering “international law” could also make it impossible to rule on suits involving the state’s many Indian tribes, who are sovereign nations.
It will get flushed out over time now that it is being covered by the media a bit more. Radical archaic Shariah practices are not going to be forced upon America's system of justice and the practicality of having minor disputes between Muslims resolved according to innocuous traditional doctrine is not going to inflict any harm on the rest of the populous. Raising a big stink about it might though. |
