This week, Alabama moved forward in implementing the nation’s strictest abortion ban. A favorite line of attack from the Left is to claim the religious right is imposing sharia law.
Remember folks, Sharia law is a-ok as long as it’s Christianist extremist Sharia Law.
— Cliff Schecter (@cliffschecter) May 15, 2019
Ive been warning for years – it’s now here in US: CHRISTIAN Sharia law takes hold!! The Christian right wants America to be the Christian version of Saudi Arabia: Alabama Lawmakers Vote to Effectively Ban Abortion in the State https://t.co/LHXAWmLM1y
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) May 15, 2019
The same people who trumpet their constitutional right to own a gun after people die in mass shootings want you to believe they care about the “sanctity of life.”
Life?
This shit ain’t about life.
This shit is about white people’s version of Sharia Law.
— michaelharriot (@michaelharriot) May 16, 2019
The irony is that the people arguing for abortion to be legal in the first trimester are closer to most interpretations of sharia.
There’s no single Catholic-style Catechism of Sharia and abortion isn’t addressed in the Quran, and so there’s no single “Sharia teaching on abortion.” Abortion views are shaped by the hadith, the record of words, actions, and silent approval of the Prophet Muhammad. The hadith is considered a major source for religious law and moral guidance in many Muslim-majority countries.
According to the hadith, a fetus is considered a living human soul after four months of gestation (i.e. the beginning of the second trimester). Abortion beyond that point would thus be deemed impermissible.
Again, there’s no uniform rule in sharia.
Tunisia legalized abortion in 1973 and abolished sharia courts in 1956. Turkey, which has become more authoritarian over the last decade, abolished sharia in 1924 and allows abortion up until 10 weeks of gestation.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia allows abortion only to protect the life of a pregnant woman or preserve her physical health.
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia’s tiny neighbor to the east, is a different story. According to its constitution, “Islamic sharia is a chief source of legislation.” In spite of that, abortion is permitted upon request by the pregnant woman up until the end of the first trimester, so long as the woman is not performing it on herself. This includes abortion in cases of rape, incest, fetal impairment, to preserve a woman’s physical and mental health, and even socioeconomic reasons.
Americans’ perception of sharia is widely misunderstood. Framing the abortion debate in the context of sharia only adds confusion to the debate.
