How Russia played with our minds in 2016

https://www.axios.com/russia-facebook-ads-political-race-election-85b9ad01-5606-4c66-ba21-ead811895dc7.html

This is how Russia played with our minds: They hyped hate and used cheap Facebook advertising to appeal to existing prejudices...and receptive minds and hearts shared them with friends...multiplying the hate messages to millions. They were bi-partisan and even targeted liberals to hate right wingers more,  but the greatest unwitting targets were on the right. For a list of kinds of targets and the numbers of voters who saw them, there is a good summary by CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/congress-releases-all-3000-plus-facebook-ads-bought-by-russians/

 This one on Shariah law, anti Muslim hate mongering, posed a non existing threat, and the fake cause was taken up even in my rural Grand County. Why did they do this? They see democracy as a threat to their authoritarian rule and want to make sure it fails and weakens the US. A house divided cannot stand...approach.

Some new information re the Sharia law scare: https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/04/exclusive-robert-mercer-backed-a-secretive-group-that-worked-with-facebook-google-to-target-anti-muslim-ads-at-swing-voters/

This is an update and reposting of an October 17,2017 blog post on this one particular Russian propaganda/active measures use of Facebook advertising.

In the meantime, in April 2018, Donald Trump appointed John Bolton to be his national security adviser who chaired Gatestone, partially funded by the Mercers, that spewed anti Muslim propaganda in 2016 and which was amplified by Russian bots in the election.

The Muslim travel ban will be argued in the US supreme court: https://www.yahoo.com/news/travel-ban-case-justices-first-dive-trump-policy-044621903--politics.html


/

The root of the Muslim ban goes back to the 2016 campaign and it reflected fear of anything Muslim and Islam that has been brewing among a segment of our population . Fear of terrorism is one factor. But since at least 2004 a wave of fear spread across the South that Islam's religious Sharia law would soon be coming to their state.. That has been one element feeding that blanket hatred of anything Muslim and a desire to keep their followers out of the US. Fear of Sharia is a form of  Islamphobia that cropped up again in Grand County with a controversial speaker recently at Constitution Week in Grand Lake. as reported in the Sky Hi News (http://www.skyhinews.com/news/controversial-speaker-during-constitution-week-talks-islam-sharia-law/) The story resulted in a heated exchange of letters to the editor, attacking and defending the point of view expressed at the event.

Those raging against Islam and Muslims often  promote  fear that Sharia law will become the law of the US, or they ask it  in terms, "do you want your neighbor to practice Sharia law and be able to beat their wives ".

Practically speaking  we are in no danger of having Sharia law  imposed on Americans.  American  Muslims have little  political clout since adult Muslims comprise  2% of our population. 58% of those are immigrants. 42% are US born.

There is also a constitutional angle to the Sharia law issue  Thanks to our Constitution, we cannot establish any state religion."  In 1791, the First Amendment was adopted. The "Establishment Clause" forbade Congress (and later, the states) from passing laws which adopt a state religion or to favor one religion over others. In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the U.S. Supreme Court explained:

Banning Sharia law has been a hot topic in legal and political circles, and often fueled by fear of Muslims. Anti Muslim sentiment erupted in the 2016 election in the form of Trump's Muslim ban.

Ignorance of the practice of Islam fuels much of the anti Muslim hysteria.. Sharia law is interpreted and applied  many different  ways in many different countries. Physical   spousal abuse  is not condoned by all Muslims and clerics, and Islamic scholars, either.  The practice of Islam varies from country to country and cultural and customs are as much an influence as the interpretation of their  theology.  Attitudes toward Sharia law as official law  also vary widely per a PEW research poll. Even in the Middle East, less than 30% of Muslims in Lebanon support Sharia law. In Bosnia, 15% support Sharia law; Turkey 12%. Highest support of Sharia law outside the Arabian peninsula   is in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan and to lesser extent in some Southeast Asian and  African countries..

The Sky Hi News reported  that the speaker felt confident she could be  safely outspoken against Islam  because there were no Muslims in Grand County. She feared for her life because she  was  working  undercover  for a Christian ministry. I wonder how many in Grand County have ever met a Muslim. Such one sided, extreme  opinions can easily  find  fertile ground to grow here.

Our Islamphobia makes us vulnerable to being duped by adversaries such as Russia. .As we have learned through news reports and Congressional hearing testimony ,  Russians saw  an opportunity to weaken  US world influence, sow internal dissent and hatred, and interfere in our elections by  hyping  anti- Muslim hysteria that supported Donald Trump's anti Muslim oratory. One tool the Russians used was social media to organize a Muslim hate rally in Twin Falls, Idaho in 2016. A Russian originated Facebook site promoted an anti Muslim rally in Houston, last year, as well, posing as a Texas organization.

Talking turkey about religious freedom

A version of this was published in the Sky Hi News Nov. 22, 2017 https://www.skyhinews.com/news/muftic-talking-turkey-about-religious-freedom/


Update: Dec. 5, 6, 16 2017: Supreme Court to hear the Masterpiece Cakeshop case:
http://www.newsweek.com/masterpiece-cakeshop-v-colorado-civil-rights-commission-three-things-know-730892

https://www.yahoo.com/news/supreme-court-weighs-bakers-refusal-cake-gay-couple-060222755.html

https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-temporarily-blocks-trump-rules-birth-control-204222704.html


Hopefully not forgotten  when we feast Thanksgiving   is the reason the Pilgrims risked  the dangerous passage  across the ocean . It was to find a place to practice their religion free of persecution by the English crown.  It took another 160 years before the concept of religious freedom changed from  just for protecting  the practice of the majority group’s  religion to  Constitutionally enshrined   tolerance  of all to practice their religion free  from  government  restrictions and persecution, prohibiting  the establishment of a state religion that meant the separation of church and state.  Those. provisions were incorporated in the First Amendment :“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religions, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof….”

To reach an agreement  from the desire of colonialists to protect only their  own colony’s majorities’ religious practices to protecting everyone else’s took time and  bitter experiences. The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony hung Quakers for not going along with their concept of purification.  Roger Williams left the Colony to found Rhode Island  as a result. Nearly every colony had established their state approved religion before 1776 and some, like Maryland, found themselves entangled in anti-Catholic  turmoil.

Interpretation of  the meaning of the First Amendment is constantly under pressure for revision  by conservative  religious  groups who want to expand its meaning to suit their own brand of theology, sometimes  to the detriment of others who hold  different beliefs and values. A changing  ideological makeup of the Courts will help  the religious right find success  for years to come

 In our divisive partisan times  there is a concerted  fast track effort  by  the  GOP majority Senate  to approve  young appointees  to lifetime  federal bench  positions who demonstrate  allegiance to a   very conservative  religious based  ideology with less regard of  their professional credentials  and  judicial temperament. In the last Obama administration years, the GOP Senate dragged its heels in approving Obama's nominations, leaving 159 seats (1/8 of the total) vacant for a GOP Senate to fill in 2017-2018. Last week  a GOP dominated  Senate committee gave approval  for a federal judgeship to  blogger Brett Talley,  a  highly partisan Trump administration family member  with no court trial experience and who was  declared unfit to serve  by the  American Bar Association.  With the appointment of  Judge Neil Gorsuch to the US Supreme Court  this year  even past decisions could be in jeopardy  of revision given the tilt of the Court to the right, including the reversal of Roe v Wade and the right to same sex marriage. It is likely to happen..

Could tax payer funded vouchers be issued for students to attend religious based schools?  In Douglas County, Colorado,  an election of a school board that  advocated such  vouchers triggered  suits claiming violation of the separation of church and state,  resulting in stalled  court decisions, and a  successful counter revolution against  the voucher advocates in recent school board elections  this  November 7. Outside groups supporting vouchers  plan to continue the  legal fight.  Courts have ruled against state legislation banning Sharia law on Constitutional grounds .Federal courts overturned President Trump’s “Muslim ban” twice  as  religious discrimination.  However, with a  third revision, the ban was given  partial life by the Supreme Court  on procedural matters, but other challenges on substance remain. A Trump executive order in October permitted employers to stop insurance coverage of birth control on religious grounds. A court case to permit businesses  to refuse service  to gays  because of religious beliefs, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission ,will be heard and decided by the US Supreme Court in 2018.  

Even the  the candidacy of Judge Roy Moore in Alabama reminds us of his advocacy of the public  government display of the Ten Commandments to discrimination against gays were also struck down by courts on First Amendment grounds.

While Pilgrims and Puritans came to America to practice their own brand of Christianity free of the King of England’s persecution, tolerance of others was not their purpose. It was the son of the Age of Reason, Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1779 and his concepts were incorporated in the First Amendment by those who argued for separation of church and state. disestablishment of state churches and protection of religious freedom.

For those who argue our country was founded on Christianity, that this is a Christian nation,  it  may have been  so at the beginning, but it was not  ultimately reflected in our Constitution.  It was the Age of Reason that was the non-religious, non sectarian view which prevailed in the First Amendment.  The new nation  reflected  Judeo-Christian values, if not a specific theology,  of the dominant  western European culture of the time.   Our founders did acknowledge that we had rights endowed to us, the people, by the Creator. Still fought by atheists is whether we are indeed “one nation under God” and much has been made that Masonic symbolism permeates our national symbols and architecture.  The model used as a form of government  by our founders mostly  was Roman. The philosophers drawn upon  in the enlightenment and age of reason  by Jefferson were Greek and their 18th century interpreters. A motivating pragmatic reason may have been the history of bloody wars and divisiveness of the Catholic-Protestant conflict that swept  England and Europe for centuries  after the Reformation, as well as the unfairness of Kings who claimed they had the divine right to govern absolutely.  By banning a state religion and providing for the separation of church and state, those bloody religious based civil wars were made less likely.

Dec. 4 2017 update.
In the recent version of the tax bill that passed out of the Senate and is on the way to conference committee, Orin Hatch sneaked in an amendment that permits tax deductions for the cost of going to a private school...any...including religious. However, for expenses parents may have to attend public school, there is no tax break. Expect this to be challenged in court.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-gops-plan-to-rule-the-courts-until-2050

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/27/us/supreme-court-same-sex-marriage.html?_r=0

https://www.npr.org/2016/11/09/501476919/gop-strategy-paved-way-for-trump-to-nominate-supreme-court-justice

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/11/07/dougco-school-board-race-election-results/

http://www.denverpost.com/2017/11/09/douglas-county-school-district-voucher-program-in-danger-after-election-2017/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-06/trump-rule-limits-obamacare-s-birth-control-coverage-requirement

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/10/victory-trump-supreme-court-dismisses-travel-ban-case/752401001/

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2017/09/12/bakers-supreme-court-case-set-tone-religious-liberty-us/

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/05/roy_moore_timeline_ten_command.html

Also, see the 9/19/17  blog posting on this site: Islamphobia Comes to Grand County.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-pilgrims/2013/11/22/9f93e822-52c1-11e3-9e2c-e1d01116fd98_story.html

http://www.shmoop.com/church-and-state/supreme-court-school-vouchers.html

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa031700a.htm

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/nov/21/judge-removes-block-funds-gender-reassignment/?utm_source=onesignal&utm_campaign=pushnotify&utm_medium=push

Islamphobia in Grand County

Some new information re the Sharia law scare: https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/04/exclusive-robert-mercer-backed-a-secretive-group-that-worked-with-facebook-google-to-target-anti-muslim-ads-at-swing-voters/

In the meantime, in April 2018, Donald Trump appointed John Bolton to be his national security adviser who chaired Gatestone, partially funded by the Mercers, that spewed anti Muslim propaganda in 2016 and which was amplified by Russian bots in the election.

The Muslim travel ban will be argued in the US supreme court: https://www.yahoo.com/news/travel-ban-case-justices-first-dive-trump-policy-044621903--politics.html

The third version of Donald Trump's Muslim ban has been ruled unconstitutional by two lower court federal judges(Hawaii and Maryland). The judges ruled it was too similar to the ones before.Judges are ruling the orders run afoul of the US Constitution because it was caused by animus against one religion, Islam. The Supreme Court considering the first two ban versions delayed oral arguments pending lower court rulings on the new version that added a few non Muslim countries to the ban list of countries. The third version ban was in effect allowed to go into effect, but the lower courts' ruling on the third put that one on hold, as well.

Update: the anti-Sharia law movement and fear that Muslims have infiltrated the US government conspiracy theory in the US has a right wing think tank origin. Anti Sharia law legislation has its origins and organized promotion. It did not happen by accident per a investigative report. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/07/17/islam-sharia-law-how-far-right-group-gets-model-bills-passed/1636199001/?csp=chromepush   

The root of the Muslim ban goes back to the 2016 campaign and it reflected fear of anything Muslim and Islam that has been brewing among a segment of our population . Fear of terrorism is one factor. But since at least 2004 a wave of fear spread across the South that Islam's religious Sharia law would soon be coming to their state.. That has been one element feeding that blanket hatred of anything Muslim and a desire to keep their followers out of the US. Fear of Sharia is a form of  Islamphobia that cropped up again in Grand County with a controversial speaker recently at Constitution Week in Grand Lake. as reported in the Sky Hi News (http://www.skyhinews.com/news/controversial-speaker-during-constitution-week-talks-islam-sharia-law/) The story resulted in a heated exchange of letters to the editor, attacking and defending the point of view expressed at the event.

Those raging against Islam and Muslims often  promote  fear that Sharia law will become the law of the US, or they ask it  in terms, "do you want your neighbor to practice Sharia law and be able to beat their wives ".

Practically speaking  we are in no danger of having Sharia law  imposed on Americans.  American  Muslims have little  political clout since adult Muslims comprise  2% of our population. 58% of those are immigrants. 42% are US born.

There is also a constitutional angle to the Sharia law issue  Thanks to our Constitution, we cannot establish any state religion."  In 1791, the First Amendment was adopted. The "Establishment Clause" forbade Congress (and later, the states) from passing laws which adopt a state religion or to favor one religion over others. In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the U.S. Supreme Court explained:
The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion to another "... That decision works two ways: Sharia laws clearly cannot be established as the law of our land and  state laws attempting to ban Sharia law have been ruled by courts as  unconstitutional because they harm Muslims or are redundant.

 Banning Sharia law has been a hot topic in legal and political circles, and often fueled by fear of Muslims. Anti Muslim sentiment erupted in the 2016 election in the form of Trump's Muslim ban. Its chief anti-Muslim fear and cheer leader was Mike Flynn, the general who briefly served as Pres. Trump;s national security advisor, but was fired for not being truthful about conversations with Russians. It later was learned that he was working for the Turkish government, ironically a Muslim country.

Ignorance of the practice of Islam fuels much of the anti Muslim hysteria.. Sharia law is interpreted and applied  many different  ways in many different countries. Physical   spousal abuse  is not condoned by all Muslims and clerics, and Islamic scholars, either.  The practice of Islam varies from country to country and cultural and customs are as much an influence as the interpretation of their  theology.  Attitudes toward Sharia law as official law  also vary widely per a PEW research poll. Even in the Middle East, less than 30% of Muslims in Lebanon support Sharia law. In Bosnia, 15% support Sharia law; Turkey 12%. Highest support of Sharia law outside the Arabian peninsula   is in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan and to lesser extent in some Southeast Asian and  African countries..

The Sky Hi News reported  that the speaker felt confident she could be  safely outspoken against Islam  because there were no Muslims in Grand County. She feared for her life because she  was  working  undercover  for a Christian ministry. I wonder how many in Grand County have ever met a Muslim. Such one sided, extreme  opinions can easily  find  fertile ground to grow here.

I have spent a good part of my life interfacing with Bosnian Muslims beginning with  my travels in their region with them in the late 1950's, influencing  my academic studies and a lifetime fascination with the history and impact of Christian/Muslim interface. What I have learned over the years  is that those who practice Islam are  diverse in their application of their theology. 

The danger of a blanket indictments of all Muslims based on  experience with immigrants limited to those from more extreme traditions  is that it feeds divisive  bigotry . It makes us look like hypocrites who do not practice what we preach  about democracy nor do we understand the concepts  of freedom of religion and anti discrimination  protected by our Constitution. It weakens our ability to get along with a major part of the rest of the world and our own Muslim neighbors.  

Our Islamphobia makes us vulnerable to being duped by adversaries such as Russia. .As we have learned through news reports and Congressional hearing testimony ,  Russians saw  an opportunity to weaken  US world influence, sow internal dissent and hatred, and interfere in our elections by  hyping  anti- Muslim hysteria that supported Donald Trump's anti Muslim oratory. One tool the Russians used was social media to organize a Muslim hate rally in Twin Falls, Idaho in 2016. A Russian originated Facebook site promoted an anti Muslim rally in Houston, last year, as well, posing as a Texas organization.

For more on the subject, visit www.mufticforumblog.blogspot.com and search Sharia law.

The PEW poll can be found at  http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/09/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/

http://www.skyhinews.com/news/controversial-speaker-during-constitution-week-talks-islam-sharia-law/

http://www.factcheck.org/2017/11/trump-spreads-false-anti-muslim-tweet/

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/18/second-judge-issues-halt-revised-travel-ban/?utm_source=onesignal&utm_campaign=pushnotify&utm_medium

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/17/judge-blocks-trumps-latest-travel-ban-order-243875

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/25/politics/travel-ban-3-0-could-derail-supre

me-court-case/index.html

http://www.khou.com/news/local/report-anti-muslim-rally-in-houston-orchestrated-by,
-russians/481410660

http://fortune.com/2017/09/12/russia-orchestrated-anti-immigrant-rallies-in-the-u-s-via-facebook-last-year/

Everson v Board of Education explanation source: Wikipedia Search Sharia Law in America for more details about States' attempt to ban Sharia law.

Why Islamphobia in 2016- 2018

Updated: 7/18/19
2018 update: John Bolton, Pres. Trump's new national security adviser, chaired an anti Muslim thinktank that spewed propaganda in 2016 that was amplified by the Russians interfering in the 2016 election. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/john-bolton-chaired-anti-muslim-think-tank-n868171
The Muslim travel ban attempted by Donald Trump in the 2016 election and then via executive orders will be argued in the US Supreme Court: https://www.yahoo.com/news/travel-ban-case-justices-first-dive-trump-policy-044621903--politics.html

Some new information re the Sharia law scare: https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2018/04/exclusive-robert-mercer-backed-a-secretive-group-that-worked-with-facebook-google-to-target-anti-muslim-ads-at-swing-voters/

The third version of Donald Trump's Muslim ban has been ruled unconstitutional by two lower court federal judges(Hawaii and Maryland). The judges ruled it was too similar to the ones before.Judges are ruling the orders run afoul of the US Constitution because it was caused by animus against one religion, Islam. The Supreme Court considering the first two ban versions delayed oral arguments pending lower court rulings on the new version that added a few non Muslim countries to the ban list of countries. The third version ban was in effect allowed to go into effect, but the lower courts' ruling on the third put that one on hold, as well.

The root of the Muslim ban goes back to the 2016 campaign and it reflected fear of anything Muslim and Islam that has been brewing among a segment of our population . Fear of terrorism is one factor. But since at least 2004 a wave of fear spread across the South that Islam's religious Sharia law would soon be coming to their state.. That has been one element feeding that blanket hatred of anything Muslim and a desire to keep their followers out of the US. Fear of Sharia is a form of  Islamphobia that cropped up again in Grand County with a controversial speaker recently at Constitution Week in Grand Lake. as reported in the Sky Hi News (http://www.skyhinews.com/news/controversial-speaker-during-constitution-week-talks-islam-sharia-law/) The story resulted in a heated exchange of letters to the editor, attacking and defending the point of view expressed at the event.

Those raging against Islam and Muslims often  promote  fear that Sharia law will become the law of the US, or they ask it  in terms, "do you want your neighbor to practice Sharia law and be able to beat their wives ".

Practically speaking  we are in no danger of having Sharia law  imposed on Americans.  American  Muslims have little  political clout since adult Muslims comprise  2% of our population. 58% of those are immigrants. 42% are US born.

There is also a constitutional angle to the Sharia law issue  Thanks to our Constitution, we cannot establish any state religion."  In 1791, the First Amendment was adopted. The "Establishment Clause" forbade Congress (and later, the states) from passing laws which adopt a state religion or to favor one religion over others. In Everson v. Board of Education (1947), the U.S. Supreme Court explained:
The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion to another "... That decision works two ways: Sharia laws clearly cannot be established as the law of our land and  state laws attempting to ban Sharia law have been ruled by courts as  unconstitutional because they harm Muslims or are redundant.

 Banning Sharia law has been a hot topic in legal and political circles, and often fueled by fear of Muslims. Anti Muslim sentiment erupted in the 2016 election in the form of Trump's Muslim ban. Its chief anti-Muslim fear and cheer leader was Mike Flynn, the general who briefly served as Pres. Trump;s national security advisor, but was fired for not being truthful about conversations with Russians. It later was learned that he was working for the Turkish government, ironically a Muslim country.

Ignorance of the practice of Islam fuels much of the anti Muslim hysteria.. Sharia law is interpreted and applied  many different  ways in many different countries. Physical   spousal abuse  is not condoned by all Muslims and clerics, and Islamic scholars, either.  The practice of Islam varies from country to country and cultural and customs are as much an influence as the interpretation of their  theology.  Attitudes toward Sharia law as official law  also vary widely per a PEW research poll. Even in the Middle East, less than 30% of Muslims in Lebanon support Sharia law. In Bosnia, 15% support Sharia law; Turkey 12%. Highest support of Sharia law outside the Arabian peninsula   is in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan and to lesser extent in some Southeast Asian and  African countries..

The Sky Hi News reported  that the speaker felt confident she could be  safely outspoken against Islam  because there were no Muslims in Grand County. She feared for her life because she  was  working  undercover  for a Christian ministry. I wonder how many in Grand County have ever met a Muslim. Such one sided, extreme  opinions can easily  find  fertile ground to grow here.

I have spent a good part of my life interfacing with Bosnian Muslims beginning with  my travels in their region with them in the late 1950's, influencing  my academic studies and a lifetime fascination with the history and impact of Christian/Muslim interface. What I have learned over the years  is that those who practice Islam are  diverse in their application of their theology. 

The danger of a blanket indictments of all Muslims based on  experience with immigrants limited to those from more extreme traditions  is that it feeds divisive  bigotry . It makes us look like hypocrites who do not practice what we preach  about democracy nor do we understand the concepts  of freedom of religion and anti discrimination  protected by our Constitution. It weakens our ability to get along with a major part of the rest of the world and our own Muslim neighbors.  

Our Islamphobia makes us vulnerable to being duped by adversaries such as Russia. .As we have learned through news reports and Congressional hearing testimony ,  Russians saw  an opportunity to weaken  US world influence, sow internal dissent and hatred, and interfere in our elections by  hyping  anti- Muslim hysteria that supported Donald Trump's anti Muslim oratory. One tool the Russians used was social media to organize a Muslim hate rally in Twin Falls, Idaho in 2016. A Russian originated Facebook site promoted an anti Muslim rally in Houston, last year, as well, posing as a Texas organization.

For more on the subject, visit www.mufticforumblog.blogspot.com and search Sharia law.

The PEW poll can be found at  http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/09/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/

http://www.skyhinews.com/news/controversial-speaker-during-constitution-week-talks-islam-sharia-law/

http://www.factcheck.org/2017/11/trump-spreads-false-anti-muslim-tweet/

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/oct/18/second-judge-issues-halt-revised-travel-ban/?utm_source=onesignal&utm_campaign=pushnotify&utm_medium

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/17/judge-blocks-trumps-latest-travel-ban-order-243875

http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/25/politics/travel-ban-3-0-could-derail-supre

me-court-case/index.html

http://www.khou.com/news/local/report-anti-muslim-rally-in-houston-orchestrated-by,
-russians/481410660

http://fortune.com/2017/09/12/russia-orchestrated-anti-immigrant-rallies-in-the-u-s-via-facebook-last-year/

Everson v Board of Education explanation source: Wikipedia Search Sharia Law in America for more details about States' attempt to ban Sharia law.

Why Islamphobia again in 2017.

Updated 9/19/2017  and 7/18/19

Every once in a while there is a flurry of Islamphobia coming into my Facebook pages. It cropped up again in Grand County with a controversial speaker recently at Constitution Week in Grand Lake.  I did not attend nor did I hear the speaker, but I am relying on the report in the Sky Hi News.

 I first noticed anti-Muslim shout-outs  in 2011 and blogged about it then and several times since .  The viewpoint  mostly promotes fear that Sharia law will become the law of the US, or it is asked in terms, do you want your neighbor to practice Sharia law and be able to beat their wives.  Recently I am getting some such postings and I was puzzled why. It appears that the only reason must be to justify something that is happening in the US. The newest wave seems to have started with Donald Trump's proposal for a Muslim ban.  However, it has risen to a new pitch since the November elections.  Why:  I have, I think, found the key: It has to do with Donald Trump's appointment of General Michael Flynn to one of his close advisers in the White House. (Flynn  since resigned in the midst of controversy and is a major figure in the Russian connection investigations).

Updated: The anti Muslim/Sharia law movement has its roots in a right wing think tank who have promoted legislation in various states and have promoted a conspiracy theorty that the US government has been infiltrated by Muslims. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/07/17/islam-sharia-law-how-far-right-group-gets-model-bills-passed/1636199001/?csp=chromepush


First, my answer to such postings and sentiments.  Yes, of course Sharia law in not compatible with our Constitution.  But also thanks to our Constitution, we cannot establish any state religion. Religious practices which contradict US criminal law are also considered criminal and subject to prosecution, including domestic violence and assault. Practically speaking it will not happen. To gin up fear of Sharia law in the the US only adds to the hatred of all Muslims. have no political clout since they have less than 1% of our population. Our own US criminal laws would punish assault, domestic violence regardless of religious motivation, including those who assault anyone claiming my religion made me do it, Christian or Muslim. Sharia law is interpreted many ways in many different countries and this type of abuse is not condoned by all Muslims and clerics, and Islamic scholars. The only purpose I can see to these kinds of postings is to promote hatred of all Muslims and somehow to excuse bigotry and bigots and to legitimize and justify it.

Second: the Flynn connection. He has made statements that condemn all Islam as a cancer that needs to be excised and ginned up fear of Sharia law. Fact checkers of similar statements and postings in the past by others rated this "pants on fire". Instead of just repeating his hate speech and his bigotry myself, visit http://www.politifact.com/florida/article/2016/nov/22/donald-trumps-security-adviser-pick-michael-flynn-/

What was interesting as reported by the Sky Hi News, is that the speaker felt confident she could be as safely outspoken against Islam as she could because there were no Muslims in Grand County. I wonder how many in Grand County have ever met a Muslim. That may explain why such one sided,
extreme  opinions have such fertile ground to grow here. I have spent a good part of my lifetime interfacing with Bosnian Muslims, since my encounter with it in the late 1950's. Bosnian Muslims   are closer to the Turkish more moderate practice since they were a province of Turkey for five hundred years. Ironically, General Flynn did  not let his anti-Muslim  sentiments stand in way of his being an agent of the Turkish government and is under fire for not having registered as a foreign agent.

 I translated that personal experience into independent study of Islam's interface with the West  in my senior year in Northwestern and I have followed the subject closely, writing about it frequently in my blog.  Those who practice Islam are  more diverse in their application of their scriptures  and theology than even Christianity.  The practice of Islam varies from country to country and cultural and customs are as much an influence as the interpretation of theology.  Even within those predominately Muslim countries, there are debates and sects about the role of government in enforcing and applying Sharia law. There are extremists and moderates and secularists  (separating religion from government)  throughout the Islamic world. The largest numbers of Muslims are in India and Indonesia, not those encountered by the Constitution Day speaker.  Extreme applications of Sharia law are concentrated in a minority of countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.  Isis is considered by most Muslims to be heretical. Blanket indictments of all Muslims and their practitioners is part of  the current wave of Islamphobiacs  who  want you to believe the exceptions are the rule. Their viewpoints  are often  based upon ignorance, political bias,  and/or  limited personal experience. The danger is that divisive hatre and bigotry are increased by them and then get translated into domestic and foreign policy that harms our ability to get along with a major part of the rest of the world.   For those who would like to follow the subject more closely, visit www.mufticforumblog.blogspot.com and do a keyword search  of Sharia law.

Also, not to repeat other of my  blog postings on the subject, and additional links to the subject  visit:

http://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/how-is-it-i-am-writing-about-middle-east.html

http://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/leap-of-faithless-muslimphobia-in-us.html

http://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/michael-flynn-donald-trumps-national.html

http://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2016/11/defining-racism-and-bigotry.html

Updated 3/6/17:
An Oklahoma State Representative, John Bennett, refused to meet with Muslims at the Oklahoma State Capitol, on Muslim Day (a project to improve relations between the Muslim community and politicians). on the bais that they had to first answer a set of questions posed by a Mulsimphobia group...such as the Koran says men can beat their wives and asked it they beat their wives  Perhaps Bennett should also not meet with Christian  or Jewish groups either since scriptures in the Bible also exhort similar violence.

 http://www.alternet.org/30-mlent-exhortations-bible-torah-and-quran#.WDjnAVgJ2L0.ost-vio


Take the test at the above site.
Michael Flynn resigned soon into the Trump administration under a shadow of suspicion that he did have  contacts with the Russians and was untruthful.

As we celebrated the 4th, let us also celebrate our freedom of religion, too.

On this 4th of July week, as we celebrated the independence of our country, let us also celebrate our founders of independence who later put into our constitution an amendment to protect the freedom to practice one's religion. It should be a reminder to those who would discriminate against believers in a religion and for us to condemn those who use hatred, ignorance and fear as a way to rise to political power. Unfortunately we are seeing much of this in Donald Trump's rhetoric and in his promotion of a Muslim ban. Even more unfortunate, many of his supporters agree. Somewhere along the way they missed or forgot that chapter about the First Amendment in their civics/social studies/American history classes but it is an element that makes this country the exceptional experiment in democracy that it is.

The First Amendment “prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion…”We have had waves of religious hatred in our past, anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, even in my lifetime and sadly now, but our ship of democracy rights itself because of the provisions in the Constitution and the reminders of the values our founders set in it. We have seen discrimination in institutions that refuse to let practitioners of certain religions become members and we turned away boatloads of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. I remember the slurs uttered when John F Kennedy was a candidate for president, the first Catholic to be elected.

Churches, mosques, and temples are still being desecrated and burned and practitioners have been targets of mass shootings.  There are those who argue their freedom means they can discriminate against those of a different religion and impose by law elements of their religion’s belief on others who do not share their doctrines. Ironically, those who irrationally fear the imposition of Sharia law in the United States as part of their fear of Muslims are also protected by the First Amendment’s forbidding the establishment of a state religion.(though banning Sharia law courts ruled is discriminatory). Fortunately court rulings have upheld the original meaning of the amendment and hate crimes have special penalties in our statute books.

I was interviewed by chance, waiting for a ride home outside the Denver Center for Performing Arts in Denver this  winter after a breathtaking performance by Shen Yun, .a New York based

Chinese performing dance company. The interview landed in a New York international newspaper focusing on uncensored Chinese news, the Epoch Times. It accurately portrayed my remarks about freedom of religion and explained my passion about that right. For the full interview, go to http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1986176-journalist-sees-hope-for-freedom-in-shen-yun/#

Here is an excerpt:

“I’ve been through an awful lot, I’ve seen an awful lot,” said the 78-year-old journalist. Ms. Muftic had lived through the Cold War, married an Eastern European in Berlin at the time, and seen many people persecuted for their faiths under totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe during her career.
So learning that New York-based Shen Yun was reviving a divinely inspired culture lost under China’s communist regime, and seeing those events played out in the dance, was hopeful to Ms. Muftic.
“I understand the persecution of that. I’ve seen it myself, I’ve felt it myself, I know what it is about. The hope of that to me is wonderful. And I don’t think we can lose that hope.”



Note: An attempt to ban Sharia law by Oklahoma was also unconstitutional, per a court ruling, because it would be discriminatory.  This is not the same as establishing a state religion, however.http://www.salon.com/2013/08/16/judge_rules_oklahoma_cant_ban_sharia_law/

One of the controversies regarding freedom of religion has also been whether a merchant who disagrees with the beliefs of a customer can refuse to serve them.  Is permitting that impeding a person's freedom of religion? Or is it impeding the right of the customer to practice their religion?  The issue is not freedom of relgion. It is an attempt to use religion to rationalize practicing discrimination in a public accommodation. That violates  another amendment to the Constitution forbidding discrimination. In my mind, as a business person serving someone with whom I disagree is not the same as a government keeping me from going to church and praying to my God  nor in my private life does it keep me from chosing my friends based on their beliefs.

The rule of secular law is the law of the land

The rule of secular law

As  a former county clerk myself, the county clerk  who refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples because it violated her religious beliefs, got me thinking about the differences between a country ruled by laws that were secular, not connected with religious or spiritual matters, and a country ruled by an official state religion. The U.S. is governed by secular laws.

 

 That issue, secular vs religious rule,  dominated debates in  American history  among and within the colonies, but it became one of the compromises expressed in the First Amendment when the Constitution was formulated and ratified. It  forbad Congress from establishing a state religion and protected freedom to practice one’s own religion.

 

 Our founding fathers were influenced by  their bitter experience with persecution under the English kings who also served as the religious rulers by divine right and  the divisive practices of some colonies , such as the Puritans of Massachusetts who substituted persecution justified by one religious belief with another just as cruel.

In modern times the issue of separation of church and state has been the subject of many a US Supreme Court rulings.  Sometimes other Constitutional provisions such as the 14^th Amendment that established the right of equal protection under the law seem to conflict with the First Amendment.  The Supreme Court is the arbiter that resolves those conflicts and they ruled in 2014 that equal protections trumped  laws in  those states that had passed laws motivated by religious beliefs of their majority forbidding same sex marriage.

 A key to a stable, successful democracy is a  rule of secular  law that protects minority interests.  Failure to do so has hobbled many wannabe democracies .The tension within secular states vs Islamist advocates of Sharia law , the religious laws derived from interpretations of the Koran, have played out in the Arab Spring .  In Egypt ,deposed President Mubarek’s secular law was replaced by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Sharia type laws that resulted in persecution of Christians and others, followed by  a military coup that re-established secular law.  In Turkey, a government tried to replace  the secular laws of Ataturk (founder of modern Turkey) with more Islamist ones.  The result has been many demonstrations, bombings and unrest, attempted power grabs,  and changes in leadership.  The Nobel peace prize was just awarded to a group in Tunisia who hammered out a compromise between Islamists and secularists, though the country is  still a home to many Islamic extremists.

 Most American elected and appointed officials swear on a Bible to uphold the laws of the land which are secular.      Kentucky  clerk, Kim Davis,  refused  to  issue marriage licenses to same sex couples because  she was acting because of her religious beliefs that  forbad her to do so.  Her action  resulted in jail time for contempt of court. 

Another Kentucky clerk opined : " Why take away the majority's right [just] to give the minority their rights?” Send her back to school for civics lessons.  The First and 14^th amendment protects minority rights from being trampled by the majority ,  but they are not enforced under the authority of state sponsored religion but under the authority of the secular  Constitution.

Felicia Muftic served as Denver County Clerk from 1983-1991.
A version of this appeared in the www.skyhidailynews.com  October 23, 2015

 For sources tapped for the column visit www.mufticforumblog.blogspot.com and  also visit the posting: Freedom of religion, a right so often misunderstood

https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv

https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment.html

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/secular

 Bowman, Brad (September 2, 2015). "Defiant county clerks standing ground on gay marriage issue". The State Journal (Frankfort, KY).

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/documents/national/supreme-court-opinion-on-same-sex-marriage/1605/

http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/07/21/marriage-license-suit-vs-clerk-back-court/30319757/