How does the EU reconcile Western and Sharia law?

Submitted by Pat (United States), May 10, 2007 at 18:36

Islam is more than a religion. As you know, It lays out a code of conduct and enjoins the state to enforce this code on all who live under its authority. It's a system of laws and jurisprudence which specifies that non-believers have fewer rights than believers. It is incompatible with Western jurisprudence.

I don't doubt that many, if not most, Muslims are of good heart and want only to live in peace with their fellow man. The extremists are within the Muslim community. You call them busybodies but they are the ones with the power. How do we get rid of them in the US? I know of no way to distinguish between a Muslim who wants peace and one who seeks global Sharia law. Muslims are the only ones who can eliminate them. So far, they have shown little inclination to do so.

Muslims were prepared to blow up buildings in Denmark in retaliation for cartoons caricaturing Muhammad. You don't see Americans or anyone else threatening to blow up Ramallah because the Hamas network is appropriating Mickey Mouse to inculcate its children with a desire to kill non-Muslims. You have yet to see Americans attacking Muslims randomly because a few Muslims from a community that was welcomed into this country were preparing to strike an army base where many had been given shelter upon their arrival as refugees.

Membership in the EU will allow the people of Turkey almost unfettered access to the rest of Europe. Turkey should be required to demonstrate that its people will not seek to impose Sharia law on Europe and that it is prepared to fight anyone who tries to. Turkey also needs to demonstrate that Muslims from the Middle East will not be given unrestricted access to Turkey or be given Turkish passports or identification paperst. It's a tired phrase by now, but they can't have it both ways.

Muslim immigration to Europe has been going on for decades and their exposure to European society hasn't awakened any desire for freedom. Instead, they are using the openness of Western society to do things that couldn't be done in the dictatorships they came from. Unable to wage jihad on the Saudi or Egyptian governments, they set their sights on Europe and America. Why? Because they could. There may be many European Muslims who disapprove of these actions, but what are they doing about it?

There are many extremists within Turkey. Why should Europe be required to drop all its defenses on a vague promise that maybe it will inspire reform in Islam? You are asking them to trust that the people who want peace will be able to overpower the ones that don't when that hasn't happened yet anywhere in the Muslim world. Even Iraqis couldn't resist writing into their constitution that Islam is the law of the land and passing laws saying apostates can be killed. It's not fair to ask Europeans to make all the sacrifices. Muslims need to meet them halfway. Instead we see second-generation European Muslims, born and raised in freedom, planning the reconquest of Europe and the killing of infidels. It may be a pipe dream, but it's their aim. Peaceful co-existence isn't part of their agenda. Their fellow Muslims who DO want peace need to take responsibility and act.

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