The Daily Beast’s Dean Obeidallah really wants his readers to believe that Taliban-style Sharia Law is threatening America, only, of course, it's coming from evangelical Christians. In a February 18th piece, Obeidallah hyperventilates how “Mainstream conservatives are trying to bring America’s laws into agreement with ‘God’s law’.”
The piece began with Obeidallah whining that
The question isn’t: Will conservatives push to enact laws based on the Bible? The real questions are: 1. How many more of these laws do they want to impose? And, 2. What will our nation look like if their crusade is successful to bring America’s laws into agreement with “God’s law”?
The article then ridiculously called a Kansas bill that would allow private businesses to refrain from providing services to gay couples on religious grounds, such as a bakery choosing not to cater a gay wedding, “Christian Sharia Law.” Obeidallah went on to falsely claim that “This proposed law would in essence legally sanction discrimination against gay Americans because same sex marriage is not approved by the Bible. Similar bills are pending in other State's including Mississippi, Idaho, and Arizona.”
Nowhere does The Daily Beast writer pause to think that a private business shouldn’t be forced to provide services that go against his or her religious convictions. What's more, the law in question, which Obeidallah is free to disagree with, would protect not merely Christians but Jews, Hindus, Muslims, and numerous other religious individuals who have moral objections to participating in same-sex marriage ceremonies.
Instead Obeidallah makes a blanket statement that this is the beginning of “Christian Sharia Law” in America. As if that weren’t enough, the article goes on to suggest that pro-life Christian groups lobbying state legislatures to change abortion laws was another example of “Christian Sharia Law." Obeidallah was essentially saying that any limits to abortion at all are Taliban tactics.
Obeidallah then shrieked, “Here’s the alarming thing: These views are no longer the fringe in American politics. They are increasingly become mainstream conservative fair.”
The stand-up comedian cum Beast contributor cited two prominent religious conservative politicians, Catholic Rick Santorum and Baptist Mike Huckabee, who have both said the nation needs to have laws that “comport” with God’s law, as examples of his “Christian Sharia Law” argument. Obeidallah then took his rant one step further and listed several items out of context from the Old Testament of the Bible, such as executing persons caught in the act of adultery, and asks if conservatives think “our laws should be revised to agree with God’s law.”
There is a major difference between not forcing private businesses to provide services that violate their religious convictions and murdering a woman for not remaining a virgin until her wedding night. To conflate the two and suggest that conservative Christians want to impose such laws is disgraceful and not based in logic or proof.
Oh and what is Obeidallah’s example of the right pushing such extreme laws? Conservatives that want to protect life in all instances regarding abortion and don’t believe abortion in the case of rape is acceptable. So in Obeidallah’s world, aborting an innocent baby at any time during pregnancy is “Christian Sharia Law?”
Obeidallah concluded his hate-filled attack on Christians by arguing that:
In upcoming elections, we need to ask any candidate who cites the Bible as the rationale for their political position specifically how far do they intend to take that. At least then we won’t be surprised when they push to pass laws to silence women or stone women to death who aren’t virgins on their wedding night.
Liberals love to find ways to smear Christian conservatives at every turn, but Obeidallah’s decision to compare their views to wanting to impose “Christian Sharia Law” in America shouldn’t be tolerated by anyone, even by a liberal publication like The Daily Beast.
