Target the Jihadists, but Stay True to the US Constitution

Republican politicians are warning about the Islamization of America, which is spawning homegrown jihadists and recognition of Sharia law. But some are going too far, claiming that Muslims "don't belong in American society" and are "unable to assimilate."

Our leaders need to keep in mind that American Muslims are diverse in their thinking and lifestyles. Most feel pride in this country and willingly obey our legal system, not Sharia law.

The challenge is to defeat the Islamist threat while remaining true to the U.S. Constitution and our Western values of tolerance and pluralism. Don't let the enemy turn us into haters.

The campaign against Sharia law is reaching a fever pitch in Texas. That's no surprise. In the four counties surrounding Dallas/Fort Worth, mosques have surged over the past two decades and now number 108, serving about 200,000 Muslims.

At the Republican Midterm Convention earlier this month, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz warned that Sharia law is incompatible with the U.S. Constitution, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to "fully ban Sharia law in Texas."

Cruz is right about Sharia's extreme provisions.

These tenets are found largely in the Quran, which instructs Muslims to conquer nonbelievers, something no other foundational text, such as the Bible, does. The Quran also calls for the subjugation of women, punishes homosexuality with death, and imposes barbaric corporal punishments like amputation and stoning.

Even so, Abbott's Sharia ban is a nonstarter. Oklahoma tried the same ban in 2013, and it was struck down in federal court for violating the First Amendment's prohibition on establishing one religion over another. Florida has managed to accomplish the same goal, without a constitutional challenge so far, by barring recognition of any foreign or religious law in state courts and arbitrations.

Florida's remedy also deserves to be emulated because it distinguishes between Sharia's gruesome legal tenets, on the one hand, and the dietary practices and cultural traditions many Muslims continue to practice that pose no threat to America.

Cruz and fellow Texas Sen. John Cornyn also want to derail plans for a mega-mosque housing, school and recreation center in Josephine, Texas, that Cornyn calls a "Sharia Law compound." But the Constitution does not allow the government to compel assimilation. The Amish and some Jews also choose to live separately, cut off from secular life.

But they don't hijack planes and fly them into tall office buildings.

Segregated Muslim enclaves spawn jihadism. Some imams are encouraging their followers to blow up the infidels. The enclaves cannot be outlawed, as long as we choose to live by the Constitution, but monitoring possible jihadist plots originating in mosques and Muslin enclaves, within the parameters set by the Constitution, is essential.

We can't allow the First Amendment's protection of religion to become a suicide pact.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed worsen the risk by associating brazenly with radical Muslim clerics and terrorist sympathizers instead of calling them out. Mamdani pals with Sheikh Fadhel Al-Sahlani, imam of the Al-Khoei Islamic center in Queens, who publicly lauded the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. El-Sayed has taken numerous donations from at least 41 current or former leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which federal prosecutors allege was formed to support Hamas in the U.S. Florida and Texas have designated CAIR a terrorist organization.

American Muslims are more likely to tolerate other religious faiths and live among non-Muslims than those who settle in Europe, according to polling by Pew Research and the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. These Muslims are welcome additions to our country.

On Thursday, Texas Rep. Chip Roy urged Congress to enact a ban on immigrants who harbor hostility to the U.S. or want to see Sharia law replace the current legal system.

Cornyn proposed a similar bill last May. That's sensible.

The Muslim population in the United States has doubled since 2000 and is projected to exceed the Jewish population of the U.S. by 2040.

Putting a litmus test on new immigrants is not unconstitutional or unprecedented. Congress used the 1940 Alien Registration Act to prevent the entry of communists and anarchists at the beginning of the Cold War. Immigrants seeking to enter the U.S. do not have the same constitutional rights as people already living here.

Overall, Muslims running for political office is a good thing, a sign of assimilation and buy-in to our political values.

The exception is red-green alliance, personified by Mamdani and El-Sayed. Cruz said it best, describing them as "Communists and Islamists coming together and sweeping over the Democratic Party. ... They hate Christians. They hate Jews. They hate capitalism. They hate the Constitution, and they hate America."

Leave it to these lefties to spew hate. As a nation, we are better off if we act aggressively and swiftly against the evildoers, not against an entire religion.

Betsy McCaughey is a former Lt. Governor of New York State and Chairman & Founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths at www.hospitalinfection.org. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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