By Tawfik Hamid
www.tawfikhamid.com
Some see Sharia Law (Islamic Law) as a threat to human rights, discriminating specifically against women, gays, and non-Muslims. This limited understanding of Sharia may lead to a half-hearted response rather than a serious fight for the US’s strategic interests. It is, however, difficult for an honest person to deny the fact that Sharia Law is a threat to human rights for the real threat of Sharia goes far beyond infringements of human rights.
Sharia Law was the main topic for discussion in several debates in the US and other western countries.
Careful observation of our modern history reveals that the US has had major troubles from all Muslim countries or systems that have implemented Sharia Law.
The following is a list of Islamic countries and societies that have implemented Sharia Law as the main law of the land:

1-Saudi Arabia 2-Iran 3-Afghanistan under the Taliban regime 4-Sudan 5-Somalia

Without a single exception, the US has suffered major troubles from all of these countries.
For example, Saudi Arabia produced Bin Laden who led Al-Qaeda and attacked the US on September 11 2001 which dragged the US into very costly confrontations. These confrontations have cost the US economy trillions of dollars and thousands of lives. In fact, 15 of the 19 hijackers of the planes that attacked the twin towers on September 11 were Saudis. Moreover, petrodollars coming out of Sharia-ruled Saudi Arabia have been used to support Islamists in Egypt and other Islamic countries thus promoting more Islamic-based hatred and animosity toward the US.
Another example of the outworking of Sharia is the Iranian Islamic regime that has shown aggression toward the US and currently aims at creating a nuclear bomb that threatens world stability and security. The relationship between the US and Iran declined dramatically after the Iran regime adopted Sharia Law following the Islamic revolution in 1979.
Afghanistan under Sharia Law created a system extremely hostile toward the West, including the US. The Sharia-ruled Taliban adopted Al-Qaeda fighters and caused – and is still causing -major troubles for the US. In fact, the Islamist threat that originated in Afghanistan has also affected nearby countries such as Pakistan. The honeymoon that existed temporarily between the US and the Taliban during the confrontation with the Russians has ended and the true nature of the Taliban as an anti-American regimen has been exposed.
Furthermore, the relations between Sudan and the US have significantly declined after the implementation of Sharia in the country.
Somalia has shown animosity toward the US and has become a breeding ground for terrorists since it became controlled by the Al-Shabbab Islamic movement that implemented Sharia Law in the land. Several US Muslim citizens also became radicalized in Somalia after Sharia dominated it.
If we compare the above countries to Islamic countries that did not make Sharia Law the main law of the land – such as Turkey, Qatar, UAE, Tunisia, Malaysia, and Indonesia – we notice that the former countries did not cause as much trouble for the US as the Sharia-ruled countries did. This is unlikely to be just a coincidence.
Sharia causes animosity toward the US (as a symbol of the highest power of western civilization) in several ways as we see below:

1- Sharia Law creates hatred toward the values of freedom and equality that are the founding principles of the US. For example, Sharia allows beating women, polygamy, and paedophilia. Additionally, it promotes killing apostates, gays, and adulteries. Islamists who adopt these Sharia values cannot have anything but hatred toward the countries that promotes freedom and liberty. 2- Sharia induces a notion of the supremacy of Islam above all non-Muslims. Several Quranic verses have been used to promote this principle of supremacy of Muslims and Islam (See: Quran [i] 48:28). Also, Sharia rules necessitate that Non-Muslims in Muslim society MUST pay a special form of Tax of humiliation ‘Jizia’ to the Muslim rulers. Non-Muslims-according to Sharia- MUST by disgraced [ii] during paying such taxes. The psychological contradiction in the mind of Islamists between their sense of the supremacy of Islam, and the reality of their weakness and inferiority, creates frustrations that lead to a desire to destroy or erase the world power (i.e. the US and other western countries) that ‘deprives’ them of their superiority. 3- Sharia principles teach the values of Jihad to spread the religion and subjugate non-Muslims to Islamic laws. With no single exception, all schools of Islamic Jurisprudence (Shafeii, Hanbali, Maleki, and Hanafi)-until today-promote that Muslims MUST declare war on and fight Non-Muslims until they subjugate to Islam.

The integration of the previous 3 factors can explain to some extent the observed positive correlation between implementing Sharia and creating hostility toward the US and other western countries.
To conclude; The trouble that has faced the US from countries that adopted Sharia Law in the last few decades, and the enormous costs that were paid by the US in these confrontations, should make the US consider Sharia not only an infringement to Human Rights but, more importantly, a serious threat to its national security and strategic interests.

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[i] Quran 48:28 It is He Who has sent His Messenger with Guidance and the Religion of Truth, to proclaim it over (superior to) all religion: and enough is Allah for a Witness.

[ii] Quran 9:29 Fight those who believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, nor hold that forbidden which hath been forbidden by Allah and His Messenger, nor acknowledge the religion of Truth, (Islam) of the People of the Book (Jews and Christians), until they pay the Jizya with willing submission, and feel themselves subdued.