By Saleem Ahmed, Ph.D. Shariah continues to drive a wedge among Muslims and also isolates Muslims from others. What some Muslims regard as religious obligations - or "Words of God" - are looked upon by others possibly as violent and misogynic practices. Stoning adulterers to death, cutting hands of thieves, beating drunkards, and requiring women to wear the veil are the most commonly mentioned "questionable" practices. Trying to trace these practices historically, I recently discovered an anomaly: While the Shariah is supposedly based on hadith, it predates about 90% hadith. Please consider: The Shariah was formulated by the following five imams on the basis of hadith available to them: Abu Hanifa (699-767 CE); Jaʿfar ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq (702-765); Malik ibn Anas (711-795); al-...

Catholics Then, Muslims Now New York Times, January,2014 By: Doug Saunders The short, crude anti-Muslim video that sparked a wave of violent protests across the Middle East did not emerge from an obscure pocket of extremism; it is the latest in a string of anti-Muslim outbursts in the United States. In August, a mosque was burned down in Missouri and an acid bomb was thrown at an Islamic school in Illinois. The video’s backers are part of a movement that has used the insecurity of the post-9/11 years to sow unfounded fears of a Muslim plot to take over the West. Their message has spread from the obscurity of the Internet and the far right to the best seller lists, the mainstream media and Congress. For the first time in decades, it has become acceptable in some circles to declare...