Since 9-11, Christian Fundamentalists and other conservatives have warned America and the West of a frightening scenario: Muslims would slowly destroy the West by enforcing a form of Islamic law known as Sharia Law. By enforcing Sharia Law, the West would be subjected to a brutal theocracy where people would be forced to abide the most rigid dictates of the Koran: women's rights would evaporate over night, homosexuality would be punishable by death, religious freedom would die, and dancing would be outlawed. We would all have to follow Islam or else.
I would actually agree with conservatives that Sharia Law is an anathema to western values, but Christian Fundamentalists don't want to acknowledge why that is so. To those of us who have advocated for secularism, it is odd to hear Christian Fundamentalists complain about encroaching theocracy, as they have been the leading advocates for it.
It was like that time that Rick Santorum, a man who supports criminalizing homosexuality, condemnned Iran for criminalizing homosexuality. We agree: Iran's treatment of gay people is terrible, but we must also ask why Santorum, of all people, is so upset about a society that treats gays much the same way he would treat them? Is it just jealousy over the ability of Muslims to enforce Islamic theocracy while the Christian Fundamentalist movement has been stripped of its ability to enforce its religion through the dictates of the lawbook?
I am only 45 and it was in my lifetime that the Supreme Court finally ruled that we couldn't jail people for blasphemy. It was in my lifetime that we began to put an end to Christian-based blue laws that banned businesses from operating on Sundays (although some forms of these laws still exists in some states). We need to remember that. It was in my lifetime that we finally put an end to the Christian based terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan (never forget folks the Klan was a Christian organization). The only reason we don't still have Christian-based violence and Christian based extremism in the US is because of the success of secularists.
That's the dirty secret the Sharia Law fear mongers don't want to delve into. Sharia Law is put in check, not by Christian fundamentalism, but by secularism. Secularism is the only answer to religious extremism. Christianity isn't as violent and repressive as it once was, not because it is naturally better than a religion like Islam, but because secularists in the West won the day. And with the rise of secularism we are no longer permissive towards Christian extremism and Christian violence. We, through secularism, have repressed those extremist and violent tendencies in Christianity. That's why we don't have a repressive Christian theocracy not because of the better nature of Christian fundamentalists.
And so, to our Christian Fundamentalist friends, here is how you stop Sharia Law: through secularism. An embrace of an absolute separation of Church and State or a separation of Mosque and State would eliminate any fear of creeping Sharia Law. Because any society that unapologetically embraces secularism will defeat any sort of theocracy -- that includes Sharia Law.
But here's the problem for Christian Fundamentalists: they are, at their core, theocrats. And theocrats hate the notion of secularism. Admitting that the founders did, in fact, enshrine a separation of religion and state in the constitution not only defeats any would-be Sharia Law enforcers, but also defeats every legal argument Christian Fundamentalists have put forward for oppressing LGBT people, oppressing women, limiting religious freedom, or outlawing dancing.
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