What you won't hear about Sharia

A  misconception on Sharia law has been developed.  The recent debate over a community center that will have a mosque, near ground zero, has opened the space for all kind of ideas and lies. The public has been bombarded with radical examples. Opponents, who either don’t understand Sharia law  or benefit from arousing fear in the public, have been cherry picking and generalizing implementations of  Sharia law.  Some even assert that  there is a secret Muslim plan to impose Sharia law in America.  This idea is plausible to those who haven’t taken the moral responsibilty of learning about Islam, and yet prejudice their use of Sahria law.

  Religions are complex and I do not attempt to expose a thorough research on Sharia or Islam, but rather bring forth elements of Sharia law that have been marginalized by politicians, the media, and the public.  I am open to corrections.

Sharia law is an enforced guide for Muslims.  It indicates how a Muslim should carry out all aspects of his/her life, from the spiritual to the political.  It is derived from the Qur’an and the Sunna, which is a compilation of the prophet Muhammad’s life, his teachings, and his verdicts.  All Muslims abide it, however its interpretention,and consequently, its implementation varies.

While at first glance it seems as if Islam is the most united religion,a deeper look indicates that schools of Islam come to play the role of denominations, giving it a sense of disunity.  Some sources of reference, such as Wikipedia, classify schools of Islam as denominations, but scholars usually stick to the title of schools within Islam.  This might be because each school accepts the validity of the others.  One specific example is found in the article “Islam and the United States: Streams of Convergence, Strands of Divergence” by Ali A. Mazrui.  In it he makes a broad classification of Islam into three main schools, the Orthodox, Modernist, and Liberal.

Orthodox Islam is the most literal in its interpretation of the Qur’an and the most traditionalistic in general matters.  This means that in most cases those who most frequently practice the stoning of adulters and mutilation of thieves as forms of punishment, usually belong to this school. In the article its philosophy is cleverly summed up by stating that their emphasis is on a “God of Justice”(pg.810).

Modernist Islam focuses on the convergence of Islam and modern science; and rationalism.  Most theorists of the Islamisation of Knowledege are Modernist Muslims, according to the article. To them, God is a “God of Enlightment.”(pg.810)

Liberal Islam focuses on the ethical aspects of Islam.  This school consideres that Islam should be updated so that its interpretation of Sharia law fits our time.  The most extreme hudud, or physical punishments established by Sharia, should be left in the past, or reformed to be more humane.  This school also advocates for equality among the genders.  To them, “God is a God of Compassion” (pg.810)

More information on Islam and Sharia law can be found in this article from BBC News.  It is a sympathetic view of Sharia and features a British Muslim’s perspective on it, including discussion on the most controversial aspects of the law.

Even if one disagrees on any or all aspects of the religion or Sharia law, and especially if one embraces American values, respect is owed to Islam and Muslims.   A lot of people are confusing respect with approval and feel that unless hostility is used against Muslims, Sharia law will soon be implemented upon us.   Endless argumens can be made against this crazy theory some politicians deliberately disseminate.  If Muslims have a secret plan to take over the U.S. and implement Sharia law upon Americans, why are the terrorists at war with us? Why do they spend years planning their attacks, and invest  millions of dollars in their missions, when they are quietly and effortlessly already conquering the United States?!  The answer is because they are not. 

Muslims are not conquering the U.S., and they are not trying to.  Radical groups are our enemies, and the ones we should be focusing on.  Disunity within the nation makes us more vulnerable to attacks.  Ifsome  politicians and some of the media are willing to compromise the security of the nation over their respective gains, the public should refute such attitudes and come together as a nation to fight terrorism.

Iindividuals whose image of Islam is that of a barbarous entity headed by terrorists, should make a genuine effort to educate themselves on Islam and the religion’s values and purpose.

What really caused the controversy

By now everyone knows there is a controversy surrounding the building of a mosque near ground zero, but has anyone wondered why?  And I mean the real reason why, not what can be heard from the media. 

What we hear on the surface is anchors and politicians arguing whether or not it is sensitive to build a mosque two blocks away from ground zero, whether Muslims should have that right, and what the American people think about it.  But it has not been as clean as it sounds.  The media has been corrupting information through the use of buzz words, such as “ground zero mosque”, creating the mental picture of a mosque planted right on top of where the World Trade Center towers once stood, which is completely false.  Politicians on their part are abusing the publicity of the building of the mosque to demagogue the issue, armed with the timing of the 9^th anniversary of 9/11.

 Both entities are playing with fire.  They are facilitating the division of the nation, and creating a hostile environment between faiths.  They are putting their own interests before the interests of the nation.   The media wants more rating, while politicians see this as an opportunity for free campaigning for the upcoming elections and future political ambitions.  

It is sad that a lot of news channels are merely functioning as the venue for all this turmoil.  What is even worse is that some, such as Fox news, allow unfounded statements to circle around their channel without challenging them, as if silently agreeing.  They also give room to illogical politicians who make absurd statements, as in the case of former House Speaker Newt Ginrich.  He dared compare Muslims to Nazis.  He didn’t say radical Muslims who are terrorists, he generalized and compared the entire Muslim population to Nazis.  How sick.  Furthermore, Sean Hannity stated that the Imam wanted to make America sharia law compliant, emphasizing the radical aspects and interpretations of the system.  He denies the public the right to know that sharia law is agreed upon by all Muslims, but that its requirements are interpreted differently according to denominations, such as moderate , liberals, etc.   He has his own personal agenda of supporting the ideology he believes in.

Politicians could show more intelligence and make logical and respectful opinions.  The media could stop allowing this issue to be a manifestation of the mean world syndrome, where it has become a consensus that Americans blame Islam for 9/11 and that’s why the mosque is so controversial.  But the public can also do its part.  We as citizens should learn to question our sources and listen to different point of views.  People should be aware that if we only stick to our traditional sources, chances are we merely confirming what we already believe, and won’t usually get all sides of the story.

To conclude, I would like to go back to the question at the top:  What is really the cause of the controversy?  The answer is in each and every paragraph.  The media and politicians are in a vicious circle of mutualism where the media uses politicians on their interviews for ratings, and politicians use the media for campaigning.  If neither had seen in the building of the mosque, because of the timing of the 9/11 anniversary, a potential resource, the issue might not have been but a zoning issue.  After all, it is primarily a community center with a mosque, there are other mosques near the area, and overall there is not an appreciable symbolic meaning.  Has anyone considered that perhaps the Muslim community, after being so discriminated in the post 9/11 years, is simply trying to restore their dignity? This could explain why they refuse to move their community center to another location.  It is true that the families of the 9/11 victims have been tremendously hurt, but it is also true that numerous Muslims across the country have been mistreated for something they did not do, or support.

A tragedy time can't leave behind

The 9th anniversary of 9/11 is very near. As that lamented event grows more distant from our present each year, its significance and effect become clearer to me. I was still a child when the attack happened. At 12 years old, I knew something terrible had happened because some malignant characters had killed hundreds of people, but I didn’t understand the magnitude of the effects of that attack. I believed the threat would be temporary. I thought no one was more powerful than the U.S. That the U.S. would simply get them back, maybe even go to war, but would certainly win. I still thought there was a winner in a war.


My experience was a little bit different than most citizens since I had only been in this country for two years. It was enough time for me to allow my identity to adjust to a new life. It wasn’t enough time to get a good sense of who the U.S. was or to integrate significantly with its culture. Still, the U.S. was my new home, and in it lived brothers and sisters of all cultures. It took a really graphic documentary to hit the rock bottom of my emotions. I felt emptiness mixed with pain, fear, shock, and other indescribable feelings. The documentary was a compilation of raw videos from the citizens who witnessed the attack. It was hard to digest the idea that I was not watching a movie, that all the panic and terror shown on the film was completely real. I had never seen someone die right before my eyes. That day I saw dozens. Although not at first hand, the video allowed me to witness how people jumped from the Twin Towers killing themselves in the act. Our natural instinct tells us to fight death. For someone to be forced to suicide seeking a less painful death or in an act of panic is simply inhumane.

As a child, in Mexico, my image of the U.S. was that of an invincible country. When I migrated here and learned a little bit about its history and international status, I discovered that indeed the U.S. is a very powerful nation. However, my concept of this country was limited to the mind of a 12 year old. It is now as an adult that I have a more complex concept of this nation, but this nation was not the same after the terrorist’s attacks of 9/11. That’s why I say I only know the post 9/11 America. Unlike all the adults who lived through the attacks, I don’t feel like I have a point of reference, a time that I could compare to the present. Most of my life in the U.S. has been spent aware of its vulnerability to an attack. Ironically, and ashamed to admit, I had not been as conscious to the fact that all this time we had been at war. Probably because it was not fought in our soil, the media doesn’t give it much coverage, and because no immediate relative was fighting the war. The government says the war is over, but as a journalism student, I’m learning to hear past what is being said. Part of my task and personal goal is to draw conclusions and opinions only after being well informed. As I learn more and take a deeper look into the 9/11 attacks and the war, its significance amplifies and I lament more. It is a tragedy that time can’t leave behind.


My most sincere condolences to the families of all the fallen soldiers throughout this war, and the families of the people who lost their lives September 11, 2001.