Oklahoma is REALLY OK!

Never been there, but with their recent banning of the use of sharia and international law regarding their laws, I feel I should visit.  What;s the coolest place in Oklahoma?  Anybody??

Sharia in Oklahoma now Banned.

   With Oklahoma State Question755 now answered, dare we ask if sharia was ever a threat to the citizens of that great state, or can we look at examples of how sharia law has began its creep into western law?

   First let’s look at what SQ755 says.  In whole, the amendment prohibits Oklahoma’s courts from looking to the “precepts of other nations or cultures” or considering “international law or Sharia law.” when deciding cases.  In effect, it bans Oklahoma courts from using any other legal codec except those written and legislated by the US.  A good idea, but one which is in search of a as-yet unrecognized problem.  Now it is true that there have been times, such as last May where the US Supreme Court used legal rulings from other countries in regards to an international treaty on child abductions where international law is blended with western law to get the most beneficial outcome.  This is not in any similar to what sharia would bring to the jurisprudence of America.

   Proponents of SQ755 claimed during the campaign that first the new law would protect the constitution, and second they used one recent case from New Jersey where a woman was denied a restraining order against her soon to be ex-husband for sexual assault.  The judge ruled that the husband had no criminal intent when he assaulted her, but that he was merely exerting his power as a husband under his Islamic laws(sharia).  That ruling, however was immediately overturned, on appeal due to the application of sharia, or as is known a “cultural defense” being in conflict with western civil law.

   Granted, there is no immediate threat of sharia replacing the constitution or any civil laws, the troubling aspect about this single incident is the judge’s belief, and ruling that the husband’s personal religious law, sharia was to be held to a higher standard than western law.  With activist judges like this, making rulings from the bench as they see fit, the likelihood of sharia creeping further into western law is a distinct probability.

   The ever-vigilant CAIR, wanting to stand up for the rights of Muslims in America, immediately cried foul, filing a lawsuit, after which they took to releasing the torrents of slurs and invective: Islamophobe, anti-Muslim, anti-Islam, bigot.  Nothing says tolerance more than tarring your opponents with racist vitriol.  As a matter of record, their lawsuit is billed as fighting against the anti-Islam amendment.  Interesting in that CAIR has consistently claimed there is little connection between Islam and sharia, and any questioning of Islam in any way always amounts to an anti-Islamic mindset. 

   Oklahoma City science teacher Sarah Albahadily says that after the passage of SQ755 she feels a little less at home in the Sooner state. Ms. Albahadily claims that Muslims increasingly feel unwelcome, unwanted and viewed by their neighbors as un-American.  Muslim activist Allison Moore said "It's really brought the Muslim-haters out." and used the example of Brigitte Gabriel calling her that most awful word “Islamophobe.”  Maybe the reason for this unwanted view of Muslims is because of how Muslims use the tenets and teachings of Islam consistently to justify their actions.  Major Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter comes to mind, and the Christmas Day underwear bomber, and the Madrid bombings, and the Mumbai attacks, and the London blasts, etc, etc.

   Justice Antonin Scalia described it best when he said

   “To make the individual’s obligation to obey . . . a law contingent upon the law’s coincidence with his religious beliefs” would have the effect of “permitting him, by virtue of his beliefs, ‘to become a law unto himself.’”  If that came to pass, we would lose our singular laws to a multitude of laws each tailored to fit the doctrines of a specific religion.  To have a strong and united legal system there must be only one law, applicable to all.  Sharia is not that law system, and Oklahoma is right to pre-empt the possible future impact of sharia law.  Oregon should do the same.