Should we encourage more Islamic immigrants to come to America?
Just two days after the terror bombings in New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is calling for more Islamic immigration to the city. Fewer than 1% of Americans are muslim — de Blasio’s case for increasing that percentage is that very few muslims actually commit acts of terror after they arrive in the United States. He correctly points out that terrorist activities by Islamic migrants are relatively rare — but is that a good enough reason to encourage more to come to America?
The question we should be asking ourselves isn’t whether or not Islamic migrants are more or less likely to become terrorists — the real question we need to discuss as a nation is whether or not the belief system of Islamic migrants is compatible with the character of the United States. We need to decide whether or not we should encourage those with incompatible beliefs to immigrate — beyond encouraging them we need to decide whether or not we should even allow them to come to America.
Before we begin the discussion we need to understand why certain beliefs may be incompatible with our national character. Most muslims believe that sharia is the revealed word of God and is superior to laws developed by men. Most Americans are repulsed by many of the commands of sharia — here are just ten things that would bother me personally:
- Sharia commands that drinkers and gamblers should be whipped.
- Sharia allows husbands to hit their wives even if the husbands merely fear highhandedness in their wives.
- Sharia allows an injured plaintiff to exact legal revenge — physical eye for physical eye.
- Sharia commands that a male and female thief must have a hand cut off.
- Sharia commands that highway robbers should be crucified or mutilated.
- Sharia commands that homosexuals must be executed.
- Sharia orders unmarried fornicators to be whipped and adulterers to be stoned to death.
- Sharia orders death for Muslim and possible death for non — Muslim critics of Muhammad and the Quran and even sharia itself.
- Sharia orders apostates to be killed.
- Sharia commands offensive and aggressive and unjust jihad.
Not only are most of these concepts repulsive to most Americans they are incompatible with our nation’s character and against our current system of laws.
So back to our original question, should we encourage people who believe that these tenants of sharia should govern the United States to come here? I would argue that not only should we not encourage them — we should find ways to prevent to prevent them from coming here to live. We should be uncomfortable inviting more and more people to our shores who would support making the United States a theocracy governed by sharia.
The good news is that not all muslims believe in sharia and those that do don’t agree with all of its tenants. The bad news is that there are huge numbers of muslims who believe that sharia law should govern their nations — as opposed to laws created by man. For example, muslims from Afghanistan are almost unanimous (99%) in their opinion that sharia should be the ONLY law. On the other hand muslims in Azerbaijan are generally against (only 8% favor) the idea of sharia.
What should be clear is that it isn’t Islam that is incompatible with America — it is sharia that is incompatible with our nation’s character and our laws. Our leaders are reluctant to discuss the difference because they are deathly afraid of being called a racist, a bigot, or a xenophobe. It is not racist or bigoted to oppose those who would feel comfortable killing their spouse for adultery. There is hope as, according to Pew Research, only half of those muslims who believe in sharia actually support stoning as a punishment for adultery.
The good news is that around half of muslim immigrants in America have assimilated and are moderate in their religious views — honoring our traditions and laws while opposing sharia. The bad news is that the other half of muslims in the United States believe that sharia should be the law of the land superseding the constitution. Worse yet almost a quarter of muslims in the United States believe that violence is justified whenever Islam is offended — e.g. if someone draws a cartoon of Mohammed.
We DO need more immigration to the United States, but we need to stop encouraging migration based on culture, color, or creed. Instead we need to invite the best and the brightest people from across the globe — regardless of country of origin, race, or religion to join our nation — to assimilate and become Americans (not hyphenated Americans). We cannot afford to invite people who, based on their beliefs, are unwilling to respect our secular political system or our legal system.
Specifically, we need to decide as a nation what we stand for. Do we want a country where both men and women have the same rights? Do we want a country where homosexuals can live openly and freely? Do we want a country where anyone is free to practice their religion without interference from the state? If these are the sort of things we want for our nation we need to have an honest, but potentially politically incorrect, conversation about belief systems that are incompatible with those ideas.
The elephant in the room — one that no one other than Donald Trump has attempted to address — is that half of world’s muslims have a belief system that is incompatible with our nation’s character. How do we figure out who to invite and who to keep out?
