Increased deference to Islamic law

January 4, 2011

"If current trends in the United States continue," Marvin Olasky recently asked scholar Daniel Pipes, "what will be the situation in 2020?"

"Increased deference to Islamic law," Pipes replied. "Look at Britain: Polygamy is legal so long as you contract the polygamist marriage in a place where it's legal (say, Morocco). The legal codes accommodate multiple marriages. Welfare and inheritance legal codes separate what wife No. 1 gets and what wife No. 2 gets. That has not happened in the United States, but about four years ago, in Brooklyn, two husbands with multiple wives, and a number of the wives and children, were killed in a fire. The mayor went to pay condolences -- it was routine. No one blinked an eye about these polygamists in New York. Contrast that with American treatment of Mormons in the 19th century: furious rejection of polygamy."

In the current issue of Perspective, constitutional lawyer (and former OU law professor) Herb Titus explains why Oklahoma's preemptive strike on Sharia law is so important.