the Limits of Tolerance for the Common Good

 

In most places throughout the world people are not able to safely make their most personal convictions public. The United States is one of the few bastions of freedom where people of all creeds and colors are invited to practice their religious and political beliefs openly without concern for discrimination or prosecution. It is a nation that has always been distinctive as a healthy diverse religious democracy. While there are often great differences in religious beliefs and practices most people are tolerant of their fellow Americans who have different lifestyles and convictions.

Each religious tradition has its own definition of justice. This is where tolerance must yield to the common welfare of the collective citizenry of the nation. It would be nice if there was one common definition of justice that treated everyone fairly and equally, but that is not the case. In the United States we pride ourselves on being a nation of laws originating from our founding documents. In order for all people to get along, all citizens must agree to yield to guidelines established by the Constitution and its Bill of Rights.

There is considerable resistance on the part of many Americans toward the unchecked influx of Muslims resulting from the loose and often illegal policies of the Obama administration. People who are characteristically very tolerant of differences of expression in the greater community are angry, not only because they see a dramatic increase in violence on the part of practicing Muslims toward innocent American civilians, but because they see a tradition whose adherence to sharia law circumvents a cooperative understanding that all Americans yield to the definition of justice as defined by the Constitution.

Sharia is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith, and is considered the infallible law of God. Adherence to sharia has served as one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Muslim faith historically. Sharia is considered a body of moral and religious law derived from religious prophecy, as opposed to human legislation. For American Muslims this becomes problematic - follow precepts laid down by God or set them aside for laws made my humans. For most Muslims there can be no compromise. Sharia is part and parcel of the Islamic faith.

The ongoing conflict between the sons of Abraham representing Christian and Islamic beliefs extends back beyond the Crusades. Any reconciliation for the two cultures to live peacefully together may always be pre-empted by the requirement of Muslims to practice sharia.The concept of crime, judicial process, justice and punishment embodied in sharia is different from that of secular law. The differences between sharia and secular law have led to an ongoing controversy as to whether sharia will ever be compatible with secular forms of government, human rights, freedom of thought, and women's rights.

America is not a place where diverse definitions of justice, like sharia, can be tolerated. There once were people in America that believed lynching was justice, even though it was outside the law. It was not justice for most of the rest of us. Should we say that the lynchers just had a different idea, or should we say the lynchers were wrong? How do we deal with lynchers? Do we empathize with love, without condoning their actions? Do we educate them about the law? Or do we put them in jail because that is the justice that Americans believe in? In a similar light, there is no room for Sharia law in America or in any of its expressions. The Constitution must be followed if Muslims choose to live here and become citizens. A healthy diversity depends upon certain agreements such as this. Without agreement we risk fracturing a diverse way of life that has worked better than any other in the world for more than two hunded years. Muslims are welcome to become a part of the American community, but sharia law has no place in America.