Banning Shariah Through Legislation? ....Tea Party’s Dangerous Agenda

[Bilal Mahmud المكافح المخلص]

 From 1831 until 1840, French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville traveled throughout the United States

                              Imam Khalid Fattah Griggs

 

 

 recording his observations of the religious, social, and political life of the American people. His masterful sociological treatise of early America, Democracy in America, published in 1835, introduced a characterization of the nation that would endure, for many, virtually unchallenged in the psyche of the American people into the 21st century, American Exceptionalism. The notion of American Exceptionalism entails the collective belief that the United States is qualitatively different from other countries due to its unique ideological foundation of personal liberty, equality, individualism, and tolerance of differences. This belief morphed into the expansionist policy of Manifest Destiny in the 19th century as the American people embraced the idea that they were destined to stretch the nation from “sea to shining sea,” even if Native American nations had to be eliminated, and Mexicans living in America had to be forcibly driven back to Mexico in the process. As the 20th century unfolded as “The American Century,” due to its global political, economic, and military dominance, America’s mantle as the unique bastion of personal liberties and equality suffered as the nation struggled before an international audience to extend civil and human rights to its citizens of African descent in the face of racist resistance in the 1950s and 1960s. However, not since the southern-states based civil rights struggles of the second half of the 20th century have state governments seemingly competed with one another to eliminate a minority community, in this case Muslims, from public life as is happening with the anti-Shariah legislation now proposed in at least 24 states. 

 

The thinly-veiled racist, bigoted façade of the anti-Shariah campaign attempts to hide behind the patriotic-sounding, hysterical sloganeering of “Protecting the Constitution and the nation from foreign laws.”  While the far-reaching geographical scope of the hateful campaign seems to suggest that the movement is a grassroots reaction to the menace of “creeping Shariah law,” the facts are otherwise. At the heart of the campaign is David Yerushalmi, an Arizona-based white supremacist lawyer who in a 2006 essay entitled “On Race: A Tentative Discussion,” discusses his belief in the genetic inferiority of Blacks. In the same article, he writes, “Muslim civilization is at war with Judeo-Christian civilization…The Muslim peoples, those committed to Islam as we know it today, are our enemies.” The Anti-Defamation League says of the South Florida native who lived for a while in a West Bank settlement in Occupied Palestine, “…an Arizona lawyer with a record of anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and anti-Black bigotry.” From his platform of Society of Americans for National Existence, S.A.N.E., Yerushalmi has formed an operational unity with conservative policy institutes, former military and intelligence officers, and ultra right

anti-Muslim hate groups like ACT for America, led by Bridgette Gabriel, a Lebanese Christian American, Frank Gaffney’s Center for Security Policy, American Congress for Truth, and Society of Americans for National Existence. While Yerushalmi found ideological camaraderie and generous donors with a relatively small, tightly-knit network of Islamophobes, it would be the Tea Party’s embrace of Yerushalmi’s anti-Muslim, anti-Shariah philosophy that would provide him the national political megaphone necessary to transform the fascist like, bigoted rhetoric of the anti-Shariah movement into a 24-state campaign.

 

The true origin of the Tea Party is about as dubious as the rhetoric of its members. Popular legend attributes its genesis to either Dick Army, former Republican House leader from Pennsylvania, CNBC commentator Rick Santelli, and/or Seattle housewife Keli Carender. What is undisputed is that the Tea Party was publicly birthed in February 2009. Brought together by a shared hatred for big (federal) government and a common vision of restoring America to its White Anglo Saxon Protestant (W.A.S.P.) roots, the Tea Party exploded onto the national conscience mostly rallying evangelical and other ultra-conservative right-wing Christians. Yerushalmi’s politically packaged hateful anti-Shariah discourse found a responsive home in the Tea Party. An August 2010 Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life Survey revealed that 42 percent of Tea Party members agree with the positions of the religious right conservative Christian movement while 46 percent have not heard of or have no position on the religious right. Whereas, 86 percent of persons surveyed identifying themselves as conservative Christians have heard of the Tea Party. It becomes easier to understand how so many people can accept false and absurd accusations against Islam and Muslims when, according to Pew Research, a full 46 percent of Tea Party members have not even heard of or have any opinion about the religious right, arguably the most socially and politically energized element within the American Christian community today. Although the Tea Party is almost exclusively a Republican Party phenomenon, opportunistic, anti-Shariah espousing politicians are found across the American political landscape. Diatribes against Islam by Tea Party members, and others like them who wish to stop the tide of the immigration of non-Europeans and non-Christians to America, ignorantly repeat mantras of false information about Islam. Frequently repeated untruths include, “Shariah law calls for the murder of all unbelievers who are not willing to convert,” “The Qur’an promotes violence and the killing of infidels,” and “Islam is an evil religion.” The most sinister of the Yerushalmi written anti-Shariah legislations is Tennessee State Bill 1028. Learning from the successful judicial challenges to anti-Shariah legislation previously authored by him, Yerushalmi cleverly omitted any reference to the word “Shariah” focusing instead on language forbidding the application by the Tennessee judiciary and legislature of “foreign laws.” The wide-ranging legislation will make it a felony, punishable by up to 15 years, for anyone providing material support to Shariah law. Painting Islamic calligraphy or otherwise adorning the outside of a building as an unique gathering place for Muslims, more than two Muslims

gathering in public, calling the adhan in public are all considered federal crimes under this dastardly piece of legislation.

 

Hatred for Islam, Muslims, and an uninformed, ignorance of the Shariah seems to resonate well throughout the Tea Party. Although the subject matter of writer Ze’ev Maghen’s essay is not anti-Shariah legislation or the Tea Party, the title of his piece aptly captures the near farcical Tea Party- led anti-Shariah campaign currently raging across America, “Much Ado About Wudu.” Shariah is the framework of the Ultimate Reality, a Path to Allah, a conceptual ideal that maximizes the betterment of the welfare of all people in this life and The Next. No amount of lies and disinformation can change the fact that the Divine parameters of the Shariah are immutable, not capable of or susceptible to change. The timeless, transcendent elements of the Shariah, such as aqidah (core beliefs), rituals of worship, and personal adhab (etiquette) are fundamentally unchanging. Individuals like David Yerushalmi, and groups like the Tea Party threaten American exceptionalism at its very core. It is a dangerous threat to this nation when public antipathy towards hate mongers and racists becomes so muted that the image of Americans is being driven by a relatively small fanatical group of citizens. 

         

 

Imam Khalid Fattah Griggs... accepted Islam in 1972. He is the Imam of The Community Mosque of Winston-Salem in North Carolina. This is a position he has held since 1984. He is also co-chairman of the North Carolina-based Black Leadership Roundtable of Winston-Salem-Forsyth County.

A Political Science and English graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., Griggs has been active in the Muslim and African-American communities. He was part of the anti-Vietnam war movement in the late 1960s and was also involved with the Islamic Party in North America in the 1970s after his conversion. This group, composed of predominantly Muslim African-Americans, was active in Dawa to the African-American community.

Griggs co-founded the Institute for Islamic Involvement in the early 1980s and edited its journal, Vision, for six years. More recently, he served as editor of The Message magazine.

 

 

 

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