I heard that the US adopted the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous (Native) People. Yet, I understand that the Family Leader group wants to do away with the Sharia law based on the Quran which I understand to be a code of moral living similar to the Ten Commandments (basis of Judaism and Christianity). The American Indians are concerned with states removing the use of the Sharia law in courts. Apparently the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy has a moral guide called the Code of Handsome Lake which is similar to the Sharia law.
As Islam does not separate church and state, the Sharia law goes further than the Ten Commandments. According to an article by Gale Toensing in the September 7, 2011 Indian Country Today magazine, it deals with all aspects of daily life such as family (marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance); finance, banking and contracts (investing, forbidding the paying or charging of interest); social issues (dress, hygiene); religion; and crimes (theft, murder, rape). The Middle East country of Oman uses Sharia law for personal and family law courts; it is not used in other courts.
The US does separate church from state and that’s one reason why the Commandments are not used in our governing. This is probably a good thing as a good portion of our population would die because of committing adultery. I don’t know how our laws differ from the Sharia law or Code of Handsome Lake (they’re probably not as strict). But, I think our laws leave too much for ongoing dispute in behavior. I also don’t know if we don’t have something like the Sharia law because we allow the states to make their own; this leads to a behavior being acceptable in one state while it is not in another and various punishments for the same crime. Personally, I like knowing the rules and it would be easier if they were the same throughout the country. This would support our Constitution’s belief that all people are created equal (we’re not treated the same from state to state when it comes to crimes). Economically I would think we could save money on the various state governments. States could still deal with speed limits, budgets, insurance restrictions and more but the major issues that support our Constitution would be the same. So, I think the Islamic have something going here and perhaps it’s time for us to create a great document to support our Constitution.
Claremont Lincoln University in California says there’s no denying the role of religion in the world. On the news, we hear about suffering and injustice perpetrated by fanatics who wield religion as a weapon. But the same religions have deep wells of wisdom that speak to the best within humanity … if we’ll only stop and listen. Many universities study religion as a human phenomenon. Others are committed to the outlook of a single religious tradition. Both are important, but they aren't enough to solve problems in the 21st century. At Claremont Lincoln, they not only learn about religion and ethics, but also learn from them. Students bring their beliefs to the table, infuse them with the best of modern thinking, and then apply them to a world in need. Subsequently, they apply ancient wisdom to today’s problems. Claremont Lincoln is not the only place to find peaceful multi religion groups. But it would be nice to use such groups to help create a Declaration of Decency that would state what we will tolerate from each other (for example: products (not people) can be bought, sold or traded). When we have such a document then it would be okay to discontinue the use of the Sharia or other laws that are meant for fair treatment of a group of people.
We’ve had our share of Timothy McVeys and serial killers that we did not called terrorists which we probably should have. Although we did jail our Japanese Americans (and later gave them a stipend for our misconduct) we did not condemn all Germans because of Hitler, all Italians because of Mussolini, or all Russians and Cubans in our war against Communism. We seem to have a problem with Mormons although they are not all polygamists but we don’t condemn all Christians because of the laws that priests and others break. We as Americans are not to condemn all of any group; it’s supposed to be an individual issue. Yet, a conservative Florida (FL) Evangelical group (FL Family Association) started a campaign against the Muslim TLC reality show saying it’s propaganda and Lowe’s pulled its ads from the program. Osama Bin Laden was a terrorist but this does not make all Muslims guilty. Decent people have a code of ethics. No matter what nationality or religion there are always those who choose not to follow the rules.
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