By Omar Sacirbey
Wednesday, May 23, 2012 – Some 15,000 Muslims are expected at this weekend’s 37th annual convention of the Islamic Circle of North America in Hartford, where the theme of “Defending Religious Freedom: Understanding Shariah” reflects the worry that anti-Muslim activists are fanning fear of Islamic law to marginalize U.S. Muslims.
The May 26-28 gathering, which is also sponsored by the Muslim American Society, is the second-largest Muslim convention in the U.S., behind only the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America, which draws between 30,000 and 40,000 people.
Earlier this month, the Kansas House and Senate joined Arizona, Oklahoma, Missouri, South Dakota, and Tennessee in approving legislation to prohibit state judges from considering foreign laws, including Shariah, in their decisions. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, a Republican, has not yet signed the bill.
“It’s a deep-down hatred of Muslims that motivates” the anti-Shariah movement, said Naeem Baig, ICNA’s vice president of public affairs. “They don’t want to see Muslims in America.”
Many of the convention programs focus on educating Muslims about Shariah, such as myths about Shariah used to demonize Muslims, as well as its role in their day-to-day lives.
“Muslims need to be educated about Shariah. There’s a need for the community to better understand what Shariah means to us, and how to apply Shariah in a society where most people are not of the same faith,” Baig said.
The convention is open to non-Muslims. About 100 or 150 non-Muslims have come in recent years.
Some of the best-known Muslims in America will be speaking, including Rep. Andre Carson, a Democratic Muslim from Indiana; Islamic Society of North America President Imam Mohamed Magid; and Imam Siraj Wahaj of Brooklyn, who in 1991 became the first Muslim to give an Islamic invocation to the U.S. House of Representatives.
© The Washington Post Company
Article Courtesy: The Washington Post
Muslims to gather to combat anti-Shariah movement
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It’s not that we don’t want to see Muslims here. I’m Jewish, but love Muslim people and culture. We just don’t want “honor” killings and wife beating to be legalized, for Christians and other religions to be imprisoned or killed for their faith as in other Islamic nations.
I once took this oath, and I affirm it now: “I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.
I shall never live under Shariah law or any law imposed upon me without my consent. I shall never consent to wife beating, stoning, genital mutilation, honor killings, necrophilia.
All of them will die. We are waiting for you. America will exterminate the Islamic insects.
you want to live under Sharia law? Fine…have a nice trip to the middle east. Been there during the gulf war, it’s s really nice place. Please note sarcasm. REligion of peace my bum, history speaks for itself. Don’t really see alot of buddhist, chatholic or mormon suicide bombers, do you? Any religion that condones killing other people should be outlawed.
Anthony, how come “honor” kiling you can find in the Bible, but not in the Quran???
Bert no one asks you to live under Sharia law, but I want to live under it, and that is my choice. “Genital mutilation” is ordered by the Bible too, as covenant of Abraham, and we proudly following it (and jews too).
How about Jim Jones and massive sucide christian cults in America. How about christian pedofile priests, christian rapists and serial killers in the Christian west? How about your single women going to the dogs? Or how about spreading of incest which is blessed in the Bible??? You see, west has so many and more seroius problems!!!
Shariah Law is a barbaric, 7th-century legal code that has infested many Islamic nations. Here are the results of a stunning survey by world-renowned pollsters at Pew Research Center in December 2010:
http://pewglobal.org/2010/12/02/muslims-around-the-world-divided-on-hamas-and-hezbollah/
***
% of Muslims who want DEATH PENALTY for those leaving Islam:
Egypt (82%)
Pakistan (82%)
***
% of Muslims endorsing STONING TO DEATH of adulterers (98% WOMEN):
Egypt (84%)
Pakistan (76%)
***
SHARIA LAW IS SUCH A BARBARIC VIOLATION OF BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS THAT IT CANNOT BE TOLERATED IN CIVILIZED NATIONS.
Dominic Carabello if you are so for human rights according to your own definition im guessing, then you would be against the American government who go around invading other peoples country’s and killing,torturing civilians whole sale and propping up of the brutal oppressive dictators in the middle east for generation’s who are enforcing the same punishment laws that you despise so much and while there supporting regimes in the middle east then there raping nuns in south america and infecting people with STDs for human experiments in Guatemala why don’t we hear you complaining about “Human Rights”?…….. Now to address all you ignorant backwards islamophobes, in Islam we stone adulterers not woman theirs a difference to bad your pee sized brains cant comprehend that and whats hilarious is the most who are complaining about this are the right wing fascist Christians yet in there own theology and bible they believe Trinity God Jesus inspired this law, now does this mean he is evil and barbaric? ………….i also don’t know if anyone knows here in America capital punishment is also applied yet in other secular democratic nations its outlawed does this mean america is a backwards barbaric nation that’s against “human rights”…….whats also interesting is that in america if you commit treason ,betraying a government you could hardly stand or trust they could get you capital punishment yet if you betray your wife and break your oath that you made with her and (continued)->
god then its wrong to execute the adulter what kind of logic is that?, then the other hypocrisy’s is that they claim to be a country of freedom of religion yet they want to ban shariah law why should it be a problem if its not inflicting on anyone’s rights and only Muslims practicing it and why ban shariah why not just ban the hadood which are the laws containing the punishments if this whole banning of it isn’t against Islam……..but for us Muslims there’s a way to go around these new rules just practice the same thing but not call it by its name and if we majicly woke up one day and the majority of americans are all a sudden muslim then there will be some laws that will need some amending and Dominic i don’t know if you know Democracy is forging from the Greeks and its a barbaric 14th century political ideology should we then out law it here in America?
If anyone still wonders why more and more Westerners come to seriously dislike Islam – it’s supremacist impositions and phantasmological demands like these spruiked by ICNA. There is no anti-Muslim conspiracy, there is simply the majority of Westerners telling you loud and clear: When in Rome…!
The last time I read upon it, “honor” killings are NOT a part of Shari’ah so why is everybody even bringing that up? Shari’ah does not permit any punishment without due process, otherwise known as habius. The same with genital mutilation… and I am assuming female genital mutilation, as far as I know, the practice LONG predated Islam and since the introduction of Islam, it has decreased in places like Africa (far from what we hear in the media these days)… most mixups and confusions are due to ignorance of history and Shari’ah, including my fellow Muslim average joe who has not studied it and often sends out the wrong confused messages concerning it. Much of the Shari’ah has a context too and the context ITSELF is an important principal of the Shari’ah and thus u just can’t pull cases out of the blue and discuss them in absolute terms… Furthermore, what needs to be discussed is Sharia’ah principals and their modern forms ala Muhammad Iqbal… Shari’ah and modern political philosophy.
In the US, you are claiming that you are being marginalized due to you are muslim but in other country where muslim are majority, they do the same to other religion by not allowing (or make it difficult for) other religion to build their place to pray…..Actually if everybody can just focusing on their belief and do not forcing anybody else (since this is the basic of human rights) to follow what their belief then everything should be good.
@JA
While ‘honor killings’ may not be officially part of Islamic doctrine, they are clearly a time-honored Islamic tradition in much of the Muslim world and now increasingly brought to the US by Muslim immigrants:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-11-29-honor-killings-in-the-US_N.htm
“Muslim immigrant men have been accused of six ‘honor killings’ in the United States in the past two years, prompting concerns that the Muslim community and police need to do more to stop such crimes.
Honor killings are generally defined as murders of women by relatives who claim the victim brought shame to the family. Thousands of such killings have occurred in Muslim countries such as Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan and Palestinian territories, according to the World Health Organization.”
Muslims living in Muslim-majority nations generally have much more barbaric Islamic beliefs than what we see among Muslims in the US:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEXWjlgJ83E