Islamic law is being unfairly targeted by an “emerging preemptive anti-Shariah movement,” wrote Washington Post guest columnist column on Monday, and in reality Shariah is “based” on Judeo-Christian values.
In the column, Khan argued that the Ten Commandments can all be found in the Koran, proving that “the key principles of the Islamic Sharia are based on the Ten Commandments.”
“Conservatives in the West cannot advocate for the Ten Commandments and campaign against the Sharia at the same time, the two are one and the same,” wrote Kahn, the director of Islamic Studies at the
Kahn listed the commandments, such as “Honor thy father and mother” and “You shall take no God before me,” and then pointed to similar verses in the Koran. “Islam is very serious about respect, honor and obedience for parents,” he wrote. “And God says in the Koran – And your God is one god and he is most Compassionate and Merciful.”
According to Kahn, these similarities prove that Americans shouldn't “freak out when they hear the word Sharia.”
The columnist even defended the corporal punishments mandated by Shariah, which many in Western cultures see as savage and archaic.
“[T]hese punishments often described as barbaric in the West have their origins in the Bible too, such as stoning for adultery,” wrote Kahn. “But the Quran always keeps the door for forgiveness open and all who repent are forgiven.”
But David Reaboi, a spokesperson for the Center for Security Policy, says that Khan's article represents “classic misdirection – one which takes advantage of the Post's readers' very limited knowledge of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.”
“This guy knows very well that Shariah doesn't track with the religious views of Jews and Christians,” he said.
Reaboi also noted that “[w]hile portions of The Ten Commandments are to be found in the Koran and, in fact, in Shariah, it is an error of logic to assume they are the same. For example, in Judaism, the Ten Commandments could better be understood as 'Ten Suggestions,' as they are not political (i.e., enforced by law). Similarly, in Christianity, perhaps the most widely-known statement from Jesus is the admonition to 'render unto Caesar' the sphere of politics. While it is true that early Jewish law, meant to govern the political entity known as ancient Israel, contains punishments we today may find extreme, the Shariah contain numerous explicit punishments and exhortations to violence against the non-Muslim that (very significantly) have been reaffirmed through the centuries and until today.”
As for Khan's idea that Shariah law is based on the Ten Commandments, Reaboi said that it's “utterly wrong logically. Either the Shariah is the Ten Commandments [which, then, wouldn't prompt his column in the Post], or it is inclusive of many other laws and statutes, and it is more than the Ten Commandments. Even taking his argument at face value, it's as if he's agitating for the acceptance of every legal system that contains prohibitions on murder, bearing false witness, honoring parents, etc. If the author is fine with the precepts of those Ten Commandments, he should be happy and satisfied with the attention religious Jews and Christians bring to them in this country.”
According to the Global Muslim Brotherhood Report, Khan has been tied to the extremist Muslim Brotherhood organization. Documents recovered from the Muslim Brotherhood dating back to 1991 allegedly state that the group's goal is the destruction of Western Civilization from within. Khan has reportedly served in prominent positions at Muslim Brotherhood-connected organizations such as the Association of Muslim Social Scientists and the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy.
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