8/11/2019 Dont Fear Islamic Law in America by ELIYAHU STERN

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September 2, 2011

Dont Fear Islamic Law in AmericaBy ELIYAHU STERN

New Haven

MORE than a dozen American states are considering outlawing aspects of Shariah law. Some of

these efforts would curtail Muslims from settling disputes over dietary laws and marriagethrough religious arbitration, while others would go even further in stigmatizing Islamic life:a

billrecently passed by the Tennessee General Assembly equates Shariah with a set of rules that

promote the destruction of the national existence of the United States.

Supporters of these bills contend that such measures are needed to protect the country against

homegrown terrorism and safeguard its Judeo-Christian values. The Republican presidential

candidate Newt Gingrich has said that Shariah is a mortal threat to the survival offreedom inthe United States and in the world as we know it.

This is exactly wrong. The crusade against Shariah undermines American democracy, ignores

our countrys successful history of religious tolerance and assimilation, and creates a dangerous

divide between America and its fastest-growing religious minority.

The suggestion that Shariah threatens American security is disturbingly reminiscent of the

accusation, in 19th-century Europe, that Jewish religious law was seditious. In 1807, Napoleon

convened an assembly of rabbinic authorities to address the question of whether Jewish lawprevented Jews from being loyal citizens of the republic. (They said that it did not.)

Fear that Jewish law bred disloyalty was not limited to political elites; leading European

philosophers also entertained the idea. Kant argued that the particularistic nature of Jewish

legislation made Jews hostile to all other peoples. And Hegel contended that Jewish dietaryrules and other Mosaic laws barred Jews from identifying with their fellow Prussians and called

into question their ability to be civil servants.

The German philosopher Bruno Bauer offered Jews a bargain: renounce Jewish law and be

granted full legal rights. He insisted that, otherwise, laws prohibiting work on the Sabbath made

it impossible for Jews to be true citizens. (Bauer conveniently ignored the fact that many fully

observant Jews violated the Sabbath to fight in the Prussian wars against Napoleon.)

During that era, Christianity was seen as either a universally valid basis of the state or a faith that

harmoniously coexisted with the secular law of the land. Conversely, Judaism was seen as acompeting legal systemmaking Jews at best an unassimilable minority, at worst a fifth

column. It was not until the late 19th century that all Jews were granted full citizenship in

Western Europe (and even then it was short lived).

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8/11/2019 Dont Fear Islamic Law in America by ELIYAHU STERN

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