As someone who grew up in fundamentalist Muslim countries, the continuing spread in the West of apologists for sharia law is, to say the least, intriguing. It is, of course, good-hearted to wish people from other cultures to feel welcome. Many of these apologists, however, have no first-hand experience of how it feels actually to live in that part of the world or to be a victim of day-by-day radical Islam. What is painful is that although many of these apologists have never lived under Islamist rules, they often act as if they had.
First, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan correctly said, "There is no moderate Islam; Islam is Islam."
Islam, however, can be interpreted. Even Erdogan has said -- although it is not clear what he meant by it -- that, "Islam must be updated."
.... Finally, my message to such apologists is simple: Those who are whitewashing the purveyors of radical violence and extremism -- by changing the subject or accusing others, often unjustly, of racism, discrimination, oppression, and "Islamophobia" -- are contributing to their empowerment.
You are emboldening these fundamentalists and, by reinforcing sharia laws, enabling the suppression and subjugation of millions of women and children. You are enabling child marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM), the oppression and execution of children, gays, ethnic and religious minorities, and the increasing religious terrorism across the world. The cause, as pointed out, is born of a radical, outdated belief system. The cause is not the West. [Gatestone Institute] Read more
