No religious legal system or court could ever supplant or take precedence over the Constitution and judicial system in the United States. But that hasn't stopped many this election season from suggesting that Islamic law is somehow a threat to become the law of the land. Today's LATimes reports on a ballot measure in Oklahoma that would ban Sharia law. As the piece points out, proponents of such a step have little to cite as example.
In the U.S., those who warn of the dangers of Sharia can point to only a handful of cases that merely allude to the centuries-old, complex tangle of Muslim religious law. And in none of the cases cited has any U.S. court held that Sharia law is the law of the land here.
Islamic groups say that the Oklahoma initiative, which was placed on the ballot by the Legislature, is nothing more than an effort to stigmatize their religion in order to whip up votes. "There's no threat of Sharia law coming to Oklahoma and America, period," said Saad Mohammed of the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City. "It's just a scare tactic."
