TEXAS FAITH: Was Oklahoma out of line with Sharia amendment?
Nov 16, 2010 | Dallas Morning News
Sam Hodges
Oklahoma voters overwhelmingly passed an amendment to their state constitution prohibiting state courts from considering international or Islamic law, also known as Sharia, when deciding cases.
But on Monday, U.S. District Judge Vicki Miles-LaGrange issued a temporary restraining preventing the state’s election board from certifying the results of the vote.
According to the Associated Press, the measure’s sponsor, Rep. Rex Duncan, said the amendment was not an attack on Muslims but an effort to prevent activist judges from relying on international law or Islamic law in deciding cases.
But Muneer Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Oklahomaand filer of the lawsuit before Miles-LaGrange, said the measure transforms the state constitution into “an enduring condemnation” of Islam.
About 20,000 to 30,000 Muslims live in the state, according to the AP.
Is Oklahoma out of line with such an amendment or is the federal judge erring by delaying, for now, its implementation? And, briefly, why?
MIKE GHOUSE, President, Foundation for Pluralism, Dallas
The Oklahoma referendum on Sharia is simply gratuitous and one of the best examples of politicians duping the public.
Getting the public to be riled up against something that ain’t there is the ploy the politicians have been using. Many a times they succeed and the responsibility falls on our shoulders to wake the public up to such abuses.
The reason the Oklahoma law is gratuitous is because Muslims in America value the laws of our nation. They strongly feel that the American laws serve the very justice they seek, and they do not seek or ask for sharia law in America. Even if a few ask for it, statistically they are insignificant.
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