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Second Symposium Held On Sharia Law

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Community News - Community News Written by CordeliaGaffar, Muslim Link Contributing Writer Wednesday, 27 April 2011 15:05

Corey Saylor of CAIR discusses how Islamophobic groups are using zoning laws and other tactics to curtail the Muslim-Americans right to worship. Photo by Andrew Bennett.

Every year the University Of Maryland School of Law in Baltimore City has two symposia sponsored by the schools Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class a large forum in the fall and a smaller one in the spring. This year the spring symposium was scheduled on Wednesday April 13 to coincide with Diversity Week according to Jeff Raymond, Media Relations Specialist for University of Maryland Baltimore City. The Executive Editor of the Journal, Hera Hashmi, says her idea for these symposia, called Confronting Islam: Shariah, the Constitution and American Muslims, spawned from her internship last summer at the

United Nations Human Rights Council in Switzerland. As I spent time in Europe my thankfulness for being an American Muslim grew, especially when I saw bans on the burqa being discussed in France [and elsewhere]. I experienced some of the tension [of being] Muslim in Europe and the open hostility and Islamaphobia I learned more about the challenges [European Muslims] have practicing Islam, she told the Muslim Link. Her experiences may have been a foreshadowing of what was to come for Muslims in America. At the time of the symposium last November, there were only threats of burning the Holy Quran, banning Sharah law at the state level, and fighting masjid construction. Since then, all of these acts of Islamophobia have come to pass. The April 13 symposium had three panelists: Corey Saylor of CAIR; Sahar Aziz, a professor at Georgetown Law School and a private-practice attorney; and Maryland law professor Maxwell Chibundu who teaches comparative jurisprudence around the world. Saylor noted the following threats to Muslim American civil liberties: masjids expansions are being targeted using legal maneuvering often related to zoning; Islam being seen as generally hostile; the use of Islamophobic law enforcement trainers and consultants; and proposed anti-shariah legislation. Ms. Aziz agreed that anti-shariah legation is a major threat for Muslim Americans especially because special interest groups, such as the Center for Security Policy, are well funded and have the ear of many influential members of Congress. She called it a lucrative industry that is gaining traction. These interest groups argue that Islam should be viewed not as a religion but as a political movement, she said. The anti-shariah legislation is being led by attorney David Yerushalmi who created a template law that these anti-sharia groups in several states are following. Yerushalmi, who maintains a law office Washington DC, claims expertise in Islamic Law and wrote in the American Thinker in 2006 that Islam was born in violence; it will die that way. Any wish to the contrary is sheer Pollyannaism. The same way the post World War II German youth were taught by their German teachers and political leaders to despise the fascism of their fathers, with strict laws extant still today restricting even speech that casts doubt on the Holocaust, so too must the Muslim youth be taught from the cradle to reject the religion of their forebears. Professor Aziz told the audience to expect more anti-sharia rhetoric in the ramp up to the 2012 elections. [Muslims] and shariah law will be the mud to be slung, she said. Mr. Chibundu, originally of Nigeria, said although Islam is seen as the enemy and [in opposition to] western values or liberalism, that he is cautiously optimistic with the recent uprisings in several predominately Muslim countries. The people have spoken in these countries saying that their Islam has been suppressed and the media has been covering these events as a democratic reform implying that Islam and democracy can live in harmony. As a high school student I studied both the Quran and Bible. Perhaps if this were also encouraged at the high school level elsewhere, Islam would not be seen as inherently hostile, he said. The reactions to the symposia [are] great and many of the attending scholars [wrote] on the topic, said organizer Hashimi, a member of Marylands Muslim community. I hoped these symposia would create a forum where we could come together and have an open and honest discussion about what Shariah is, how is it relevant to the United States legal system, and what the legal struggles are of American Muslims. The University of Maryland recognized Hashmi in February with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Diversity Recognition Award for her organization of the Fall Symposium and her efforts at creating dialogue through this symposium.

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