Where’s the Fear?

As Rep. Peter King’s Muslim hearings approach, his past views draw ire. In 1985, the Irish government boycotted the St. Patrick’s Day parade in New York City, the biggest celebration in the Irish-American calendar. The cause of its umbrage was Peter King, that year’s grand marshal and someone the Irish government said was an “avowed” supporter of a terrorist organization, the Irish Republican Army.

Not really related to Shari’ah at all, but a good article. In the interests of transparency, I was briefly involved with the Texas curriculum project. Rick Perry: The pro-Shariah candidate? – War Room – Salon.com. Perry is a friend of the Aga Khan, the religious leader of the Ismailis, a sect of Shia Islam that claims a reported 15 to 20 million adherents worldwide. Sprouting from that friendship are at least two cooperation agreements between the state of Texas and Ismaili institutions, including a far-reaching program to educate Texas schoolchildren about Islam. That’s a partnership that has already prompted a…

Wait, there’s actual evidence of what American Muslims think about shariah? But what will we do with the Islamophobia industry who thinks they know everything about everything? ISPU Report “Shari’a Law: Coming to a Courthouse Near You?: What Shari’a Really Means to American Muslims” by Julie Macfarlane. This is the first empirical study to ask North American Muslims what shari’a means to them in their everyday lives. The study demonstrates that the present “moral panic” over shari’a and its alleged impact on American legal and social culture is wildly overblown. Based on the study, for most American Muslims shari’a represents…