Incompatibility

Islamic law of the Shafi school of jurisprudence (according to Reliance of the Traveller, pp. 607-09) describes the conditions which non-Muslim subjects of the Islamic state (AHL AL-DHIMMA) must accept:

--Pay the Jizya (non-Muslim poll tax); 4.235 grams of gold per person per year
--Wear special identifying clothing
--They are not greeted with the traditional greeting accorded Muslims—“as-Salamu alaykum”
--They must keep to the side of the street when passing a Muslim
--Must not build as high as or higher than Muslim buildings
--Do not publicly celebrate their religions, display pork or wine, ring church bells or display crosses
--Do not build new churches
--Do not live in the areas around Mecca, Medina or Yamama

If the non-Muslim violates any of the following five rules, he is then considered a prisoner of war:
--Marries or commits adultery with a Muslim woman
--Conceals spies of hostile forces
--Leads a Muslim away from Islam
--Kills a Muslim
--Mentions something impermissible about Allah, the Prophet or Islam

Given that many American Muslims have expressed their desire for Islamic law to be the highest law of the land, the question is this—what should the attitude of American non-Muslims be toward Muslims who support this traditional Islamic law?

-- Reciprocity—dhimmitude for Muslims, a taste of their own medicine? (No—we have already tried having a society with second class citizens and we don’t like it. We do not aspire to become Saudi Arabia.)
--Expulsion on the grounds of irreconcilable differences?
--Imprisonment for sedition or incitement to violence?

The list of options is short and unappealing.

The least painful option is for moderate Muslims who have no desire to live under Islamic law to get serious about reforming it.

This sort of Islamic law will not take root in the West. At some point, American Muslims will have to choose between American and Islamic law. The Danish and South Park cartoons, the rights of former Muslims, the loyalty of Muslim soldiers and the rights of Muslim women are only the tips of an iceberg of incompatibility between Islamic law and Western human rights and responsibilities.

Muslims still have time to avoid a bloody collision, but right now the proponents of Islamic law are twisting the tiger’s tail—treating Americans as if they were living in an Islamic state subject to Islamic law.