Under some pressure from parents, California’s Education Department is reviewing its guidelines for teaching Islamic Studies to seventh-graders in its public schools. We wrote about this trend six years ago when we discovered that, though the California standards require the study of all religions, Islam is examined disproportionately.
Moreover, the more extreme elements of the more radically Islamic societies, though they represent a minority of a religion whose adherents are overwhelmingly peaceful, are ignored, no matter how visible their acts are. The latest attempt to revamp the California rules adds a new wrinkle to this approach.
Yet all the available evidence indicates that Shari’ah law is hardly benign even in its present incarnation. “Major principles of shariah are a ban on interest, a ban on contractual uncertainty, adherence to risk-sharing and profitsharing, promotion of ethical investments that enhance society, and asset-backing,” Shayerah Ilias reports in a February 9, 2009 report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). “The international market for Islamic finance has grown between 10% to 15% annually in recent years.
Analysts at Shariah Finance Watch (SFW) , who track the application of the law in the world today, do not take quite so sanguine a view of it. A project of the Center for Security Policy, SFW examines how this body of law works in and out of the Middle East.
“Understanding Shariah law is integral to understanding the dangers of Shariah-compliant finance,” the SFW website argues. “Shariah law is Islamic law dating back to the 7th century and is today the law of the land in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan and the law under which the Taliban operates.”
“Shariah law authorities, some of whom are now being paid handsomely by Barclays, Dow Jones, Standard & Poors, HSBC, Citibank, Merrill Lynch, Deutschebank, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Credit Suisse and others have the power to dictate Shariah compliance as deemed by ‘scholarly consensus’ on matters of finance, family, penal law, apostasy, and war.”
“Shariah law, or Islamic law, officially went into effect in a region in Pakistan this week and will likely result in ‘egregious’ human rights violations,” the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) reported on April 16, 2009. The USCIRF went on to note that “Under Taliban-enforced shariah law in North West Frontier Province’s (NWFP) Swat Valley, human rights and religious freedom – especially for women and members of religious minorities – are expected to suffer severely.”
“The violent, Taliban-associated extremists based in NWFP’s Swat Valley consistently demonstrate their disregard for fundamental human rights, and use public beheadings and beatings as a means of enforcing their control,” Felice D. Gaer, USCIRF chair stated. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom was created by an act of Congress and gives “independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and the Congress.”
Those who have lived under Shariah offer even harsher assessments. “Sharia[h] laws are being used by terrorists to violate divine human rights,” Shaukat Malik, a Muslim-American Certified Public Accountant, wrote on The Baltimore Sun web log.
“Sharia[h] is used to scare the average citizen into submission,” he wrote. “This is done through publicly staged floggings, stoning and executions of men and women for committing adultery or other sexual acts.”
California Department of Education
Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division
1430 N Street
Room 3207 Sacramento, CA 95814
916-319-0881 or 319-0454
FAX 916-319-0172
Malcolm A. Kline is the executive director of Accuracy in Academia.
Is Obama’s religion becoming America’s??? You can’t even speak of the LORD JESUS CHRIST publicly, but let’s teach our children this heresy!!!
Hannah
