Pamela Geller, American Thinker: The ABA's Jihad

It's coming, fast and furious. The latest submission to Islamic supremacism and Islamic law (sharia)? The American Bar Association. Check out my article in today's American Thinker:

The ABA’s Jihad  Pamela Geller, American Thinker

The American Bar Association (ABA) has decided to undertake the fight for Sharia law. The ABA’s Executive Counsel “has organized a Task Force to review the legislation of 14 states -- Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming – in which anti-Sharia legislation has been introduced.”

The goal of the ABA’s Task Force is to fight against these legislative initiatives by free people, and to develop “an informal set of ‘talking points’ that local opponents of these initiatives could use to make their case in each of these states.”

Here’s the relevant extract from the ABA’s International Policies 2010: Download ABA_SIL_Official Policy Development and Positions_09-1

Oklahoma referendum related Rule of Law initiatives.

The Section’s Executive Counsel has organized a Task Force to review the legislation of 14 states -- Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming – in which anti-Sharia legislation has been introduced.  The goal of the Task Force is to have a Report and Recommendation against such legislation as well as an informal set of "talking points" that local opponents of these initiatives could use to make their case in each of these states.  We received a lot of interest from members and have forwarded your interest.  At this point, the task force is in the planning and organizing stage. We will keep you updated as to the progress and we may call upon some of you who expressed their interest in this matter to volunteer.

In reality, Islamic law is the most radical and intolerant system of governance on the face of the earth. It denies the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience, and legal equality for women and non-Muslims. That’s why so many states are trying to ban it. And that’s why the ABA should be on their side. The Oklahoma ban was brilliant but poorly worded (which is why a liberal judge found it so easy to overrule the will of the people) and had 70% of voters approving of it -- it is clear that American people understand the Islamic threat to our constitutional republic.

Instead, our cultural warlords in the mainstream media, academia and entertainment strictly enforce the blasphemy laws of Islam, which command that one must not insult or slander Islam. In Muslim countries, blasphemy is punishable by death; in the West, it is your character that is assassinated. Our last line of defense was always the rule of law. So it is particularly jarring and deeply disturbing to come upon this latest initiative from the ABA, the last line of defense against sharia creep.

There's much more. Go.

UPDATE: Stealth sharia (hat tip freedom loving American)

One of the most important ways in which Muslims now express their identity is in the courtroom, and since the 1970s there has been a steady growth in U.S. cases involving Muslims and Islamic law. This is partly due to immigration from countries that apply the shariah, and also because second generation Muslims and converts are now more confidently asserting their legal rights. As the Muslim population increases, it is becoming increasingly important for lawyers and the judiciary alike to try to understand the mysteries of the Islamic faith and address legal issues that specifically arise out of Islamic culture and beliefs.

While some religions allow its followers to easily segregate their “worldly” life from “spiritual/religious” life, Islam has failed to follow suit. A Muslim’s day-to-day life is intricately intertwined with his or her religious beliefs and teachings. A separation of the two is not only difficult but virtually impossible. Islamic states have addressed this issue by implementing a body of law derived from the Qu’ran and Hadith’s, ¹ which is known more commonly as the shariah. The literal translation of shariah means way or path. Shariah is the legal framework that regulates and provides guidance to a Muslim on how to conduct his or her private and personal affairs. However, shariah is not simply limited to the regulation and guidance of an individual’s personal affairs; it is in fact much more expansive and regulates businesses, governments, and states.

 UPDATE: Here is the ABA statement and my response: (also source emails)

the ABA issued the following statement in response to my article:

American Bar Association on 23/02/2011 10:52:44

WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb. 22, 2011–The American Bar Association has taken no action in support of, or in opposition to, judges considering Islamic law or Sharia.

The American Bar Association has nearly 400,000 members, many of whom volunteer with any of the ABA’s 2,200 entities.  One of those 2,200 entities is the Section on International Law, which has elected to assemble a taskforce of several individuals to examine this issue.

These individuals are examining whether the proposed changes to the law impact important constitutional questions.  They are also considering implications for international commerce.

The actions of a few interested members within one section are not and cannot be interpreted to be those of the entire American Bar Association. Claims to the contrary are erroneous.

How dishonest and disingenuous. This is spin and damage control. 

The Middle East law committee launched a lobbying campaign, which the international law chair endorsed. It was a political act, not a neutral study. The "how we make policy" policy I posted below clearly indicated that policies promulgated by "small" committees through expedited executive procedures are clearly ABA policy. They are on the spot: Either their policy mechanism on Middle East law has been taken over by Middle East based lawyer(s) with Islamic supremacist sympathies, or it hasn't, and the Middle East law committee does represent institutional positions.

Further, is there any group or task force assigned to helping those who oppose Sharia to craft legislation to ban it? No. There is only an initiative to oppose those fighting the Sharia.

Here is the correspondence concerning the anti-sharia action plan. It went out to all the members of Members of the Middle East Committee:

Objet : Middle East Committee Update
 
Dear Members of the Middle East Committee,
 
With so much going on in the Middle East, it has been impossible to organize a February call.  However, we have been working on a number of projects off-line and want to give you an update on those.

The website project and survey.

We want to thank all of our members who took the time to fill-out the website survey and especially Justin Connor for creating the survey.  Through the survey results, we have made a few useful observations about the members of the Committee and your preferred method of obtaining information.  We are still working with the results to determine the best use of our resources, including the Committee webpage.  To that end, Justin has drafted a memo that synthesizes the survey results, that I have attached to this message.  Your observations and thoughts concerning the results are welcome.

We understand the need to add content to the website and intend to reach out to Committee Members in the near future to add content too.  In addition, we are working with the Section staff to determine if there is a way to post the email chains that were circulating on the listserve during the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions — sort of a “real time” web log from our Committee Members.  If anyone wants to volunteer to work out the logistics of that process and work with the ABA staff to post it on the website, please email me.

Oklahoma referendum related Rule of Law initiatives.

The Section’s Executive Counsel has organized a Task Force to review the legislation of 14 states -- Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming – in which anti-Sharia legislation has been introduced.  The goal of the Task Force is to have a Report and Recommendation against such legislation as well as an informal set of "talking points" that local opponents of these initiatives could use to make their case in each of these states.  We received a lot of interest from members and have forwarded your interest.  At this point, the task force is in the planning and organizing stage. We will keep you updated as to the progress and we may call upon some of you who expressed their interest in this matter to volunteer.
 
Review of the article on Sharia.
We want to thank all of you who volunteered to review on the article concerning Islamic criminal law, as per our request.  We forwarded the article to the most qualified reviewers who were the first to respond.  A special thanks to Muddassir Siddiqui and Hisham Kassim for their needed and helpful comments.  The article will be published in the next edition of the International Law News.
 
Coming up in the near future.

[...]

 
We want to thank you all for your participation in the Committee.
 
Kind regards,

Madeleine Giansanti Cag, co-chair
Yasmine Lahlou, co-chair

I am particularly irked by the non-democratic way in which the decision to “oppose” state anti-Shariah legislation was reached within the ABA, as is obvious from the context of the message. ABA policy is controlled by a tiny minority of its membership, and almost always is developed “top-down.” This initiative seems to have been pushed forward through what the ABA calls a “blanket approval” or even more rapid “technical comment” procedure (see attached policymaking document for context), and appears to go beyond issuing mere statements to actively organizing lobbying to influence state legislation, which is generally forbidden for tax-exempt organizations under the IRC.

Here are the Middle East Committee officers, from the ABA website:

Co-Chair:  Madeleine Giansanti Cag, Yasmine Lahlou  Vice-Chair: Hdeel Abdelhady, Omar Hafez Ayad, Carole Basri, Anahita Ferasat, James David Filpi, Joe E Karam, Bassel Charles Korkor, Carrie Newton Lyons

This above message was sent around and endorsed by Salli Swartz, Paris-based chair of the ABA International Law Section (ABA_SIL). The committee has 400+ members. 

The ABA SIL “executive counsel” referred to in the email is a typo referring to the SIL Executive Council, a 40-member body that is well up the ABA food chain.

From: "Salli Swartz" -

This is terrific
Do you mind if I circulate the survey results to a larger audience including staff?
THANKS
Salli
 
Salli Anne Swartz
 
Chair International Section American Bar Association
 
Giraud Naud Amiot & Swartz
Avocats à la Cour
Paris France

It's time the ABA created a task force to help those of us who are fighting the introduction of Islamic law in America.

Here is the policy document I referred to above: Download ABA_SIL_Official Policy Development and Positions_09-1