About a dozen protestors stood outside the MD Conservative Action Network event to speak out against the anti-Muslim presentations being given about the supposed sharia threat to America. Photo from marylandjuice.com.
To Muslims, the term ‘Shariah’ is synonymous with ‘Islamic way of life’, and provides a methodology to develop peaceful, balanced individuals and communities.
But for an increasingly vocal segment of politically conservative Americans, “shariah” is an existential threat to the nation.
On a cold and rainy October 29, 2011, the Maryland Conservative Action Network (MDCAN) held an event in Annapolis called “Turning the Tides 2011” which featured a discussion titled “Is Shariah Law Coming to Maryland?”
The conference advertised ten scheduled sessions, including “the Threat to Property Rights”, “How to Talk to a Liberal”, and “Will Maryland Have a Wisconsin Moment?”
The session on shariah law was the first segment and featured prominent Islamophobes including Fred Grandy, a former Iowa congressman and TV actor on the 1980s sitcom “Loveboat”.
Topics of discussion regarding the subject included potential problems arising from the introduction of Shariah into American secular law, cases involving judicial use of ‘Shariah’ as a code of law in US courts, and how major Islamic councils were extensions of foreign ‘Islamist’ groups operating under the guise of being ‘legitimate social and religious organizations’ in America. 
According to a news report filed by the Capital on October 30, one speaker said Prince George’s and Montgomery counties and Baltimore city form “the Axis of Evil.” [A Muslim Link reporter was not allowed inside the main conference hall– ed.]
Fred Grandy said the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has been taken over by the radical Muslim Brotherhood, that “the Occupy Wall Street is fully supported by CAIR,” and that civil liberties groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the ACLU are all backed by the Muslim Brotherhood, according to the Capital report.
John Guandolo, a Naval Academy graduate and former FBI agent, said the “Arab Spring” will result in a more radicalized and more dangerous Middle East. He also said Muslim Brotherhood is taking over the United States, and a photo of the Annapolis Islamic Center saying “that’s the Muslim Brotherhood”, according to the Capital.
Maher Kharma, president of the Islamic Society of Annapolis and one of the protesters, rejected the notion that the local Muslim community was extreme or affiliated with any group.
“I challenge anybody to come and attend and listen and to show evidence that we are doing anything that is not positively impacting society,” Kharma told a Capital reporter. “It is unfortunate that these people are saying anything they want to say, with no evidence.”
Meanwhile outside the Doubletree Hotel where the event took place, about a dozen local Muslim and civil rights activsts weathered the rain to protest what they understood to be anti-Muslim sentiment being legitimized through ‘Shariah fear mongering’. Some protesters called attention to derogatory comments some MDCAN event speakers had publicly made against Muslims, while others called for peace, decrying ‘right-wing rhetoric’ as unproductive to solving America’s problems.
According to a protest organizer, “Anti-black racism is no longer acceptable in public; you’ll be kicked out of polite society, but it’s still ok to be anti-Muslim. So people who can’t publicly speak their dislike for [Obama] because of his being black, have made this rhetoric a proxy for the real issue of disliking the idea of a ‘black’ President.”
However, despite the central issue of Islam’s Law Code, or Shariah, being discussed among both local and national politicians, authors, activists, and citizens, no Muslims were present to speak at the event. Details about the Shariah’s application in an Islamic state were thus left to the discretion of the speakers, some of whom have been known to have strong anti-Muslim and anti-Islamic rhetoric. In effect, the current use of Shariah by countries such as Saudi Arabia and Iran was seen by many speakers and attendees as legitimate ‘Islamic’ examples of Shariah in legal use. When asked that perceptions of people, including those using Shariah as an ideology to gain political power, may not represent ‘true’ Islam (what the Muslim majority understands as ‘Islam’), a speaker at the event with ‘significant experience in the Islamic world’ simply stated, “that’s not my responsibility”; facts about Shariah were taken from current events and general perceptions in the social, security, and political communities.
During the event, some portrayals of Muslims, countries with a majority Muslim population, and Islam in general were made with the view that Islam was incompatible with the ‘American way of life’. Some attendees also maintained that a general dislike of ‘all things Islamic including Muslims’ was a reasonable viewpoint, supported by facts and figures about Muslims, their organizations, and certain aspects of ‘Islamic theology’. Many Muslim activists and community leaders have expressed concern over the spread of such views against Muslims, especially given that similar rhetoric is spoken by many conservative figures. Saqib Ali, a protest organizer and former Maryland state delegate, said regarding anti-Muslim politicians, “They’re practicing an age-old American political tactic: to stir up xenophobia and bigotry in search of electoral gain.”
An important point made by both MDCAN representatives and protesters alike was that many conservative lawmakers and politicians do not subscribe to the view of Islam being ‘incompatible’ with American life or that Shariah Law is on the rise in American judicial proceedings – but that such views are adopted by far-right groups who are not part of the Republican mainstream.
During the private conference, which attracted about 200 attendees, some visitors were allowed to walk freely among the tables set up by various groups. However, a TML reporter was limited at the discretion of the event organizers – and enforced by Anne Arundel Co. Police – to stay in the outer sanctum of the visiting hall outside the main conference room. Initially requested to remain outside until an interviewee was brought forth, the reporter was eventually permitted to roam among a few of the tables while being asked by an organizing committee member to, “not engage in conversation with anyone that doesn’t want to talk to you.” The AA-County police were on hand to enforce the rights of the private event organizers as well as the protesters outside the venue, providing the latter with bright pickets along a large designated space to protest at will.
May Allah Subhana-wa-ta’ala give Muslims the opportunity to live in harmony with those around them and elevate the Islamic way of life through righteous practices – Ameen.
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