Here Comes Sharia Law

by Groff Schroeder

In 2013, notoriously partisan and often ridiculously contrarian Opus Dei Catholic Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia answered a question about his controversial and illogical “originalist” interpretation of the US Constitution by saying, “Words have meaning. And their meaning doesn’t change.” The original United States Constitution allowed only white male landowners to vote, many people were counted as 3/5th of a person, and men, women, and children in America were bought and sold like cattle - while imprisoned from birth until death in deadly, extrajudicial, violence-enforced, inter-generational slavery. The Civil War led directly to the United States Constitution’s 13^th Amendment prohibiting involuntary servitude (1865), and the 15^th Amendment granting former slaves the right to vote (1868) - and women finally won the right to vote with the 19^th Amendment (1919).

Similarly, the meanings of words also obviously change over time, words can have multiple meanings, and different words in different languages can have the same meaning. And just as Scalia’s originalist interpretation ignores obvious Constitutional Amendments while continuing to support second class citizenship, revocation of voting rights, and the enslavement of minorities, Scalia also appeared to ignore the 1^st Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom and the 4^th Amendment’s guarantee of security in our own persons. Specifically, in Prado Navarette v. California, Scalia supported a drug dealer’s privacy, and in Employment Division v. Smith Scalia opposed minority Native American’s private use of peyote – even for religious purposes. While some words can be interpreted in various ways, other words are more well defined.

In Arabic, “allah ‘akbar,” means “god is great,” and references the same monotheistic Abrahamic god worshiped by the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths. And the Arabic phrase “qanun alsharia,” references a body of Abrahamic religious law called “sharia law” in English. Most religious Americans very much seem to believe that their Abrahamic god is great, and many openly endorse religious law – as long as that religious law enforces “Christian” beliefs. In fact, many majority religious believers in America openly and actively seek to forcibly impose a body of “Christian” religious law upon all Americans (see Seven Mountains Dominionism, Christian Reconstructionism, etc.) to: merge church and state; criminalize abortion, homosexuality, and medical care for transgenders; ban books from public schools and libraries; return prayer and religious teachings to public schools; enslave pregnant rape survivors to rapists; and convert religious non-believers into second class citizens who are literally enslaved to religious believers. Sound familiar? Ironically, the goals of “Christian” Sharia Law are not only the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus Christ, they are also basically the exact same goals sought by Islamic Sharia law – albeit communicated in English rather than Arabic.

Sharia-like attempts to ban books are common nationwide, and several states have passed religion inspired laws that establish Sharia law type restrictions upon abortion – restrictions enforced by completely untrained and unregulated civil suit vigilantes, empowered by state government to monitor, judge, and police the sex lives of women and underage girls. Although the religious “warrior” Antonin Scalia would probably disagree, no matter whether your religious law serves Mohammad or Jesus, and no matter whether you outline the provisions of your religious law in English or in Arabic – the oft-stated goals of both Islamic and “Christian” Sharia law not only appear to be identical, they directly violate the 1^st, 4^th, 5^th, 8^th, 13^th, and 14^th Amendments to the United States Constitution.

Published in the April 6, 2022 issue of the Colorado Springs Independent with the quotation below. 

"Religion is like a pair of shoes...Find one that fits you, but don't make me wear your shoes."

George Carlin

Version corrected July 11, 2022 above, original version below.

Here Comes Sharia Law

by Groff Schroeder

In 2013, notoriously partisan and often ridiculously contrarian Opus Dei Catholic Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia answered a question about his controversial and illogical “originalist” interpretation of the US Constitution by saying, “Words have meaning. And their meaning doesn’t change.” The original United States Constitution allowed only white male landowners to vote, many people were counted as 3/5th of a person, and men, women, and children in America were bought and sold like cattle - while imprisoned from birth until death in deadly, extrajudicial, violence-enforced, intergenerational slavery. The Civil War led directly to the United States Constitution’s 13^th Amendment prohibiting involuntary servitude (1865), and the 14^th Amendment granting former slaves the right to vote (1868) - and women finally won the right to vote with the 19^th Amendment (1919).

Similarly, the meanings of words also obviously change over time, words can have multiple meanings, and different words in different languages can have the same meaning. And just as Scalia’s originalist interpretation ignores obvious Constitutional Amendments while continuing to support second class citizenship, revocation of voting rights, and the enslavement of minorities, Scalia also appeared to ignore the 1^st Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom and the 4^th Amendment’s guarantee of security in our own persons. Specifically, in Prado Navarette v. California, Scalia supported a drug dealer’s privacy, and in Employment Division v. Smith Scalia opposed minority Native American’s private use of peyote – even for religious purposes. While some words can be interpreted in various ways, other words are more well defined.

In Arabic, “allah ‘akbar,” means “god is great,” and references the same monotheistic Abrahamic god worshiped by the Christian, Jewish, and Islamic faiths. And the Arabic phrase “qanun alsharia,” references a body of Abrahamic religious law called “sharia law” in English. Most religious Americans very much seem to believe that their Abrahamic god is great, and many openly endorse religious law – as long as that religious law enforces “Christian” beliefs. In fact, many majority religious believers in America openly and actively seek to forcibly impose a body of “Christian” religious law upon all Americans (see Seven Mountains Dominionism, Christian Reconstructionism, etc.) to: merge church and state; criminalize abortion, homosexuality, and medical care for transgenders; ban books from public schools and libraries; return prayer and religious teachings to public schools; enslave pregnant rape survivors to rapists; and convert religious non-believers into second class citizens who are literally enslaved to religious believers. Sound familiar? Ironically, the goals of “Christian” sharia law are not only the antithesis of the teachings of Jesus Christ, they are also basically the exact same goals sought by Islamic sharia law – albeit communicated in English rather than Arabic.

Sharia-like attempts to ban books are common nationwide, and several states have passed religion inspired laws that establish sharia law type restrictions upon abortion – restrictions enforced by completely untrained and unregulated civil suit vigilantes, empowered by state government to monitor, judge, and police the sex lives of women and underage girls. Although the religious “warrior” Antonin Scalia would probably disagree, no matter whether your religious law serves Mohammad or Jesus, and no matter whether you outline the provisions of your religious law in English or in Arabic – the oft-stated goals of both Islamic and “Christian” sharia law not only appear to be identical, they directly violate the 1^st, 4^th, 5^th, 8^th, 13^th, and 14^th Amendments to the United States Constitution.

Published in the April 6, 2022 issue of the Colorado Springs Independent with the quotation below. 

"Religion is like a pair of shoes...

Find one that fits you, but don't make me wear your shoes."

George Carlin

Note: On April 5, 2022, Colorado Governor Polis signed Colorado House Bill 22-1279, the Reproductive Health Equity Act into law codifying existing Colorado law and ensuring that the citizens, women, families, and physicians of Colorado hold the responsibility and the power to make their own reproductive health care decisions without interference from religious fundamentalists, politicians, or government.