President Obama - Authority on Islam

So Barry says ISIS is "not Islamic." Well, I have to agree with Daniel Pipes when he quotes Bernard Lewis:

"As Bernard Lewis, a leading American authority of Islam, notes: “It is surely presumptuous for those who are not Muslims to say what is orthodox and what is heretical in Islam.”

And I'm of the same thought as Edward Curtis IV, a colleague of mine. If someone declares themselves to be a Muslim we must take them at their word as we do not have the authority to say otherwise. Unless we're Barack Hussein Obama.

Barry Throws Islam Under the Bus

For the past week I've been busy on a project and have purposely stayed away from the news as I knew it would draw my attention and I wanted to concentrate on this project and give it my full energy. So here's my take on the whole Benghazi Bungle:

President Obama is throwing an entire religion under the bus. Sending Ambassador Rice out to say that the attack was not premeditated when the Libyans (and others) are saying that it was, just to save his sorry ass and get re-elected is basically saying that a poorly made YouTube video critical of Islam or an attention-seeking pastor with a handful of parishioners burning a Qur'an will set off these violent, primitive, backwards yahoo-s. This panders to both the Left and the bigots on the Right in its denigration of Islam.

Hmmm. Maybe Barry is a uniter after all. . .

Shari'ah in America?

Don’t Fear Islamic Law in America

Application of the Shari'ah in the United States?

Interesting concept. But here's the problem. And this is from someone with a PhD centered in Islamic Studies, not some ill-educated yutz from the New York Times:

Shari'ah (way, path, road in Arabic) has a number of components. Its core is theocratic, that is, those revelations found in the Qur'an that are legalistic. There are about 600 verses that could be considered legalistic with only about 80 specific ones. Thus the Shari'ah also draws from the ahadith (sing. hadith) that are reports of the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, that is, what he said or did or allowed to be said or done in his presence. The idea here is that Muhammad, being a prophet of God, was most familiar with God's intentions as to how a person should behave himself.

Another component of the Shari'ah are the decisions of religious scholars/jurists made by interpreting the above sources and applying them to the circumstances before them. For the majority of Muslims, the Sunni-s, this ijtihad (original jurisprudence) was stopped in the 10th cen. CE and after that only applied interpretations of these original decisions allowed. For the Shi'ah jurisprudence never stopped and also includes the ahadith of twelve Imams.*

But a fairly large part of the Shari'ah, and something that I think allowed Islam to quickly expand** in the first century and half of its existence, is local tradition modified by and modifying the other parts of the Shari'ah. Thus the Shari'ah in one area is not necessarily the same Shari'ah one would find elsewhere. The result of this can be seen in the extreme example of the various ways adultery is punished in different Islamic countries.

So knowing this, my questions for those calling for the application of the Shari'ah ANYWHERE are:

Which Shari'ah?

And who gets to decide?

*This is another lecture.
**By around 710 CE areas under Islamic control stretched from the Pillars of Hercules to the banks of the Indus River.

h/t Alphecca

Hajji Ellison

Some of you may be familiar with Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison, our first Muslim congressperson. As he's performed the Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca, incumbent upon all Muslims) we might refer to him as Hajji Ellison. That is, if his pilgrimage counted. The gang at Power Line have commented on Congressman Ellison's source of funding for his hajj. He didn't do it out of his own pocket. First it wasn't thenit was the Muslim American Society, the American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Such duplicity puts the thawab ('religious merit') of his hajj into question as there are certain pre-conditions regarding the Hajj:

All Hajj expenses must be paid out of money obtained through legitimate (Halal) means. Money obtained through illegitimate or doubtful means is not acceptable.

All of your debts and financial obligations must be fully discharged before you start your journey and, where necessary, a written acknowledgement of the transaction obtained for future use.

Well, Keith? Maybe you better go do it again on your own dime.