Will Obama Enforce Shariah Blasphemy Laws?

At his White House press conference Friday, President Obama once again endorsed the placement of a triumphalist mosque in immediate proximity to Ground Zero, declaring it the “inalienable right” of the increasingly transparently immoderate imam determined to build it there. Troubling as this evidence is of Mr. Obama’s submission to shariah – the supremacist political-military-legal code of places like Saudi Arabia and Iran that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf says he wants to bring to America, even more worrisome is something else he at least implied: He was prepared as “Commander-in-Chief” to prevent the burning of Qurans by a pastor in Florida.

Now, I am no fan of book-burning, of any kind. But, as I noted in this space recently, it is absolutely the “inalienable” right of any American citizen to do it – whether the book is the Bible (which we now know the U.S. military has burned in Afghanistan, lest it be used to proselytize there), the U.S. Constitution or, yes, the Quran.

The President evidently feels justified in contemplating the use of force to stop Quran burnings on the basis of the possibility raised by General David Petraeus, among others, that such a bonfire in Gainesville would translate into a conflagration elsewhere. All of us must be concerned at the prospect that the latter might consume U.S. servicemen and women or civilians, in Muslim lands or elsewhere.

Still, as such brilliant commentators as Andy McCarthy, Diana West, and Debra Burlingame have observed, there is something peculiar about the remarkably contrasting concern being expressed by Barack Obama and his friends over Muslims’ rights and sensitivities on the one hand, and his seeming indifference to those of Americans who are not Muslims. The only common denominator between his attitude toward a megamosque that offends more than 70% of our countrymen and women and his attitude toward the prospect of an “insensitive” book-burning is that he wants to ensure nothing is done that would offend Muslims.

This practice amounts to enforcing shariah’s strict laws prohibiting “blasphemy” and “slander.” In Saudi Arabia and the other states governed by this repressive code, the penalty for such a crime can be death.

As it happens, in a little noticed action taken a year ago in the odious UN Human Rights Council, Mr. Obama effectively made enforcing such shariah prohibitions the official policy of the United States government. By co-sponsoring a resolution proposed by Egypt on behalf of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the U.S. called on all United Nations member states to “prohibit and criminalize all forms of offense against religions under any circumstances.” (Emphasis added.) Interestingly, the only religion named in the resolution was Islam.

Predictably, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and its allies are seizing upon the Gainsville “stunt” to press for – in the words of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) – an international law criminalizing all forms of offense against religions under any circumstances.” Evidently, support has flagged for the Obama-Egyptian resolution so, according to CNS.com, the OIC is now pursuing “a parallel strategy – to have an existing global anti-racism measure, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), amended to incorporate religion.”

Here’s the bottom line: If at any point President Obama invokes his power as Commander-in-Chief to prevent Quran burnings in America, he will have taken a massive step towards the institution of shariah law in this country. At the very least, his enforcement of shariah blasphemy codes will be seen by our enemies who adhere to that doctrine as evidence of our collective submission – a step that invites more violent efforts to complete our conquest, and inevitably, more mosques celebrating our defeat.