In an interview, State Rep. Gerald Gay (R-Casper), sponsor of a resolution in the Wyoming legislature which would, if passed, amend the state's constitution to "forbid courts from using international law or sharia law when deciding cases," said his motivation was "I don't want our laws having origins in other places, foreign religions or foreign countries."
When I asked him whether he considered Islam to be a "foreign religion," Gay hedged: "It's not that it's a foreign religion," he said, "but we do believe very strongly in the separation of church and state which many, many Islamic believers do not believe that to be true. People who believe in shari'ah – shari'ah is church and state under one aegis." That, of course, is simply not true; as Haroon Moghul has written here and explained in this bloggingheadstv episode, shari'ah is a process of engaging with sacred texts, an ongoing conversation, not a set of concrete rules or laws that must be followed.
When I asked him whether he considered Islam to be a "foreign religion," Gay hedged: "It's not that it's a foreign religion," he said, "but we do believe very strongly in the separation of church and state which many, many Islamic believers do not believe that to be true. People who believe in shari'ah – shari'ah is church and state under one aegis." That, of course, is simply not true; as Haroon Moghul has written here and explained in this bloggingheadstv episode, shari'ah is a process of engaging with sacred texts, an ongoing conversation, not a set of concrete rules or laws that must be followed.
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