Latest / Hank Unplugged / Understanding Sharia: Is It Really Like Christian Canon Law? | Part 1

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Understanding Sharia: Is It Really Like Christian Canon Law? | Part 1 · Hank Unplugged

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  Speaker 1: Hi, this is Hank Handegraaff, president of the Christian Research
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  Speaker 1: Institute and host of the Hank Unplugged podcast. Today I
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  Speaker 1: have a very important podcast, a podcast in which I
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  Speaker 1: would like to use a recent Jesse Waters segment, a
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  Speaker 1: segment aired on Fox News, to point out the difference
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  Speaker 1: between Sharia law and Christianity. In the particular segment to
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  Speaker 1: which I'm referring, Jesse Waters was interviewing Abdul Rahman Mohammed El-Sayed,
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  Speaker 1: who is typically referred to as Abdul El-Sayed. Abdul, of course,
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  Speaker 1: is the Democratic nominee in the 2026 United States Senate
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  Speaker 1: election in Michigan. Ironically, in this segment, Abdul El-Sayed asked
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  Speaker 1: Jesse Waters a question. He asked him if he knew
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  Speaker 1: what canon law was. Jesse responded by saying, yeah, tell me.
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  Speaker 1: Abdul went on to say that canon law is the
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  Speaker 1: name for Christian law. And then added, I don't begrudge
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  Speaker 1: you your right to practice your faith as you choose. Therefore,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know why the idea that I should practice
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  Speaker 1: my faith as I choose is a problem. Now his
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  Speaker 1: nonsensical notion that Sharia and Christian canon law are essentially
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  Speaker 1: equivalent is about as far from the truth as the
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  Speaker 1: East is from the West. In fact, it's fair to
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  Speaker 1: say that Sharia law, or the law of Allah, is
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  Speaker 1: tantamount to the law of the sword. And as such,
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  Speaker 1: Sharia law advances not so much by word as it
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  Speaker 1: does by sword. Or as the Quran succinctly puts it,
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  Speaker 1: fight the pagans until they pay the jizya. Pay that
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  Speaker 1: jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued. That's Quran 9.29,
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  Speaker 1: which begs the question, what is jizya? In essence, jizya
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  Speaker 1: entails a worldview in which non-Muslims are subjected to paying
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  Speaker 1: a poll tax, or a jizya. And they're subjected to
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  Speaker 1: paying this poll tax as compensation for not being slain,
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  Speaker 1: but also as a ready reminder of their inferior status.
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  Speaker 1: But that's just the tip of an insidious iceberg. because
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  Speaker 1: we all do well to remember that the law of
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  Speaker 1: Allah always advances not so much by word as by sword.
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  Speaker 1: Fight and slay the pagans, says the Quran, wherever you
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  Speaker 1: find them, and then seize them, beleaguer them, and lie
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  Speaker 1: in wait for them in every stratagem of war, Quran 9.5.
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  Speaker 1: And as anyone who has read the Quran knows full well,
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  Speaker 1: Sharia law not only sanctions polygamy in Quran 4.3, but
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  Speaker 1: it also sanctions the possession of women as sex slaves.
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  Speaker 1: You see that in Quran 33. Moreover, let me add this.
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  Speaker 1: Sharia is ultimately rooted and grounded in the words of Allah.
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  Speaker 1: And therefore, Sharia law is unalterable, can't be changed. Let
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  Speaker 1: me put it plainly. Sharia or divine Islamic law embodies
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  Speaker 1: the will of God for every aspect of society. And therefore,
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  Speaker 1: there is no real distinction between Sharia and state. Plainly put,
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  Speaker 1: Sharia is state, and state is Sharia. Sharia governs virtually everything.
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  Speaker 1: Everything from how you worship to national governance. And as
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  Speaker 1: a law is not subject to adaptation, neither is Sharia.
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  Speaker 1: Sharia deals with every aspect of day-to-day life, and that
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  Speaker 1: includes politics, it includes economics and business, it includes law, marriage, divorce,
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  Speaker 1: it includes child rearing and custody, and it makes no
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  Speaker 1: distinction between public and private life. It treats all aspects
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  Speaker 1: of human relationships as by Allah's law or by Sharia law.
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  Speaker 1: Sharia law, well, it even mandates that a woman seen
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  Speaker 1: without a headdress be flogged and also calls for beheading
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  Speaker 1: for adultery. And while many like Syed feign commonalities between
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  Speaker 1: Sharia and Mosaic law, the contrast between the two could
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  Speaker 1: not be starker. If there is a set of rules
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  Speaker 1: that is timeless in the Jewish Torah and in the
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  Speaker 1: Christian Bible, it is of course the Ten Commandments. In fact,
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  Speaker 1: the aim of Mosaic law, in stark contrast to Sharia law,
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  Speaker 1: is to promote a compassionate populace in which people take
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  Speaker 1: precedence over possessions. Furthermore, Mosaic law is time-bound as opposed
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  Speaker 1: to timeless. And in contrast to the expansionism of Sharia,
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  Speaker 1: Mosaic law was geographically bounded and it was for a
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  Speaker 1: particular people at a particular time in history. And Mosaic
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  Speaker 1: law is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus Christ in contrast to Sharia.
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  Speaker 1: in which Muhammad is the last and said to be
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  Speaker 1: the greatest of all the prophets. And I should also
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  Speaker 1: note that unlike Muhammad, Jesus never commanded beheading infidels. He
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  Speaker 1: never commanded oppressing women. In contrast, he rightly elevated women.
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  Speaker 1: And he taught his disciples that the meek would inherit
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  Speaker 1: the earth. And while Sharia applies to all people in
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  Speaker 1: all places at all times, Mosaic law has long since
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  Speaker 1: been abrogated. And I would say, as such, it's more
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  Speaker 1: than a little messed up for pundits like our former president,
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  Speaker 1: Barack Obama, to say that Leviticus suggests that slavery is
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  Speaker 1: all right and eating shellfish is an abomination. because as
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  Speaker 1: Obama knows full well, to read an anachronistic modern meaning
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  Speaker 1: into an ancient Near Eastern word like slave is hardly enlightened.
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  Speaker 1: In the New World, a slave may have been a
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  Speaker 1: commodity or a property denuded of rights and privileges, but
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  Speaker 1: not so in ancient Israel. In ancient Israel, a slave
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  Speaker 1: was akin to a subject or a servant. As such,
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  Speaker 1: when Christians called themselves slaves or bondservants of Christ, they
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  Speaker 1: do not for a moment mistake their meaning. While we
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  Speaker 1: would never call a modern presidential aide a slave, an
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  Speaker 1: ancient Israelite vassal, even as a king, with all the
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  Speaker 1: pomp and circumstance of monarchy could be designated in this way.
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  Speaker 1: And I could go on. Obama's mischaracterizations regarding shellfish are
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  Speaker 1: more subtle, but they're equally misleading. He is, of course,
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  Speaker 1: right in suggesting that Leviticus characterizing the eating of shellfish
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  Speaker 1: as an abomination, but he's wrong in isolating this injunction
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  Speaker 1: from its historical context. The distinction between clean and unclean
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  Speaker 1: foods symbolized something. It symbolized the difference between that which
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  Speaker 1: was holy and that which was unholy, but within the
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  Speaker 1: context of an ancient, theocratic form of government. Consequently, from
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  Speaker 1: a New Testament perspective, it is as morally appropriate to
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  Speaker 1: eat shellfish as it is to eat steak. And I
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  Speaker 1: would be remiss here if I did not explicitly address
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  Speaker 1: something else. Something else appropriately called a canard. One that
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  Speaker 1: is raised ad nauseum, ad infinitum by those who inappropriately
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  Speaker 1: put Mosaic law on the same footing as Sharia law
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  Speaker 1: or for that matter, surreptitiously put Christian canon law in
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  Speaker 1: the same category as Sharia. We can no more read
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  Speaker 1: New World realities into ancient Near Eastern legalities than we
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  Speaker 1: can read Mosaic legalities into New Testament realities. In stark contrast,
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  Speaker 1: Sharia is considered by Muslims to be as valid today
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  Speaker 1: as it was 14 centuries ago. Now to gain a perspective,
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  Speaker 1: and I think it's important to gain perspective here, to
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  Speaker 1: gain a perspective on what Sharia is like in the
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  Speaker 1: modern world, you have to look no further than Brunei,
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  Speaker 1: which is Southeast Asia, of course. About a decade or
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  Speaker 1: so ago, the Sultan of Brunei announced his intention to
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  Speaker 1: impose Sharia in three phases. So this is in modern history.
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  Speaker 1: The three phases were, well, a first phase that included
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  Speaker 1: fines and prison sentences for crimes such as pregnancies outside
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  Speaker 1: of wedlock, as well as propagating religions other than Islam.
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  Speaker 1: Then there was a second phase. And that phase included
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  Speaker 1: floggings as well as the cutting off of hands for
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  Speaker 1: property offenses. And a third phase? Well, a third phase
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  Speaker 1: that mandated stoning for offenses like adultery, abortion, sodomy, and
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  Speaker 1: even blasphemy. All of this, said the sultan, is to
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  Speaker 1: cohere to Allah's command as written in the Quran. So
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  Speaker 1: what Brunei is imposing on its citizens is standard fare
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  Speaker 1: in Muslim countries. Even conversion from Islam to Christianity according
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  Speaker 1: to modern day Sharia is punishable by beheading, hanging, or stoning.
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  Speaker 1: And lest anyone think that this is radical Islam, consider
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  Speaker 1: that of the more than one and a half billion
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  Speaker 1: Muslims worldwide, a majority affirms the principles and the precepts
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  Speaker 1: of Sharia. Indeed, Sharia has proliferated to the point that
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  Speaker 1: it has, for all practical purposes, found near universal acceptance
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  Speaker 1: across the Muslim world. It's safe to say that a
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  Speaker 1: majority of Muslims worldwide want Sharia. As I plan to
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  Speaker 1: point out in the next podcast, no demographic is more
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  Speaker 1: adversely affected by Sharia law than women. Now, I've written
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  Speaker 1: comprehensively about Sharia law in my book, what you need
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  Speaker 1: to know about the world's fastest-growing religion. And this book,
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  Speaker 1: of course, available through the Ministry of the Christian Research Institute.
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  Speaker 1: You can find it on the web at equip.org. You
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  Speaker 1: can also write me for a copy at Post Office
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  Speaker 1: Box 8500, Charlotte, North Carolina, zip code 28271. But again,
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  Speaker 1: in the next podcast, I want to talk about the
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  Speaker 1: impact of Sharia law on women. It is amazing. Absolutely stunning.
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  Speaker 1: It's shameful. It's disgusting. But it's true. Thanks for tuning
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  Speaker 1: in to this edition of the Hank Unplugged podcast. We
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  Speaker 1: look forward to seeing the next podcast as I talk
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  Speaker 1: about the impact of Sharia on women around the world.
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  Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning in. So long for now. Thank you.