Weird videos about Sharia in the US

[Yorktown]

Last edited Wed Nov 4, 2015, 03:10 AM - Edit history (1)

Mark Dice is a media analyst who shoots a 'Man on the Street Monday' series.

The routine goes like this: he takes
(A) a respected public figure: Obama, the Pope (respectable?), Elie Wiesel,..
(B) an outlandish claim: aliens just landed, Kim Il Jung is a cool guy,..
then goes to people and asks: (A) says (B), do you agree?
Example: Elie Wiesel says "Kim Il Jung is a cool guy", do you agree?

Latest installment (Nov. 2), Hillary supports Sharia Law in her platform, do you agree?
And again, people just hear Hillary, and say they agree:

I followed up on a related link (OK, it's Hannity, but the raw interview is still valid)
American Muslims saying Sharia should ideally take precedence over the Constitution.
Fundamentalist Christians, now Muslims; what's not to love?

[struggle4progress]

1. Mark Dice is a half-baked conspiracy theorist, and I don't know why anyone would post his trash here

In these videos, he's simply pushing far rightwing messages, such as 'Hillary supports Sharia Law' and 'Clinton supporters are ignorant'

In fact, sharia as a generic term means quite different things to different adherents of Islam; and it is a distortion to insist every usage reflects the views of the most regressive sects. So rightwing claims, such as 'Hillary supports Sharia Law,' function first to promote and reinforce biased stereotypes of Islam, by confusing Islam with its most regressive sects, and then attempt to transfer tie Clinton to the views of those sects

Rightwing keyboard warriors, of course, are promoting these videos heavily: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=hillary+sharia

That's not surprising: it was the intended use of this garbage

[Yorktown]

2. You make two obvious mistakes

(1) Dismissing raw material
Whoever the interviewer is and whatever his motivations are (and I couldn't care less), all this video does is show that many Americans do not know what Sharia is.
That is a fact and this video gets the message across pretty efficiently by using humor.

(2) Being plain wrong about Islam
You write sentences which make it appear you believe you know Islam. Your sentence "confusing Islam with its most regressive sects" clearly indicates you believe only 'regressive' sects among Islam support 'Sharia'. It is totally false. A vast majority of Muslims worldwide supports the application of Sharia as the law of the land.




This is also true in developed countries where Muslims are in the minority

[struggle4progress]

3. Understanding Sharia Law: Conservatives’ Skewed Interpretation Needs Debunking

Wajahat Ali and Matthew Duss
March 2011

... There is no one thing called Sharia. A variety of Muslim communities exist, and each understands Sharia in its own way ... Any observant Muslim would consider him or herself a Sharia adherent. It is impossible to find a Muslim who .. does not believe himself or herself to be complying with Sharia. Defining Sharia as a threat, therefore, is the same thing as saying that all observant Muslims are a threat ... In reality, Sharia is personal religious law and moral guidance for the vast majority of Muslims. Muslim scholars historically agree on certain core values of Sharia, which are theological and ethical and not political. Moreover, these core values are in harmony with the core values at the heart of America. Muslims consider an interpretation of Sharia to be valid so long as it protects and advocates for life, property, family, faith, and intellect. Muslim tradition overwhelmingly accepts differences of opinion outside these core values, which is why Sharia has survived for centuries as an ongoing series of conversations. Sharia has served Muslims who have
lived in every society and in every corner of the planet, including many Americans who have lived in our country from before our independence down to the present day ...

https://www.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/issues/2011/03/pdf/sharia_law.pdf

[Yorktown]

5. You are in denial

1/ it would have been good debating manners to acknowledge you had written something blatantly untrue about Islam. You insinuated only the most 'radical sects' of Islam supported the application of Sharia when in fact it is a vast majority of Muslims worldwide which supports it.

2/ you come back with a smokescreen of an answer, i.e. that there are variations among the interpretations of Sharia. While true, it is a routine and dishonest claim that Muslim apologists make. As long as the hadiths will be regarded as sacred texts (and they currently are by the overwhelming majority of beievers and schools of Islam) the core tenets of Sharia are appallingly violent. That violence being directed at imaginary crimes.

Here, the text of the most highly regarded hadiths, sahi muslim:

Book 017, Number 4193:
This hadith has been reported on the authority of Qatada with the same chain of transmitters except with this variation that the unmarried is to be lashed and exiled, and the married one is to be lashed and stoned. There is neither any mention of one year nor that of one hundred.

And its result in modern life:

[struggle4progress]

6. Why I actually wrote was:

sharia as a generic term means quite different things to different adherents of Islam; and it is a distortion to insist every usage reflects the views of the most regressive sects

[Yorktown]

8. Yes, and that sentence is wrong 1/factually 2/ by its implication

1/ it is simply factually wrong to state "sharia means quite different things to different adherents of Islam".
The different existing schools of interpretation of Islam converge to a vast extent. And how could they not? They all proceed from the same basis, the Quran and the hadiths. Therefore your "quite different things" is absolutely invalid.

2/ the second half of the sentence has for implied meaning that only some sects use Sharia in a regressive way. That is wrong again. The mainstream understanding of Sharia supports regressive and violent punishments for imaginary crimes.

Do tell: do you think you are being a Progressive by trying to paint Sharia as possibly mellow?

[struggle4progress]

10. Those, who are interested, may read my #3

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1218216891#post3

I should especially recommend reading it to those, who lack enough experience with Muslims, to recognize easily the bigotry in the views you have been advancing

[Yorktown]

12. Amazing: with you up is down and vice versa

You accuse me of bigotry for opposing Sharia? And supporting Sharia is non-bigotry?

And btw, congrats for not acknowledging some of your claims about Islam were flat false.

Do you really believe defending Sharia is a progressive stance?

[struggle4progress]

4. The video shows an Illuminati-conspiracist pushing three rightwing themes:

(1) "Sharia" is a threat
(2) Clinton supports this threat
(3) Clinton supporters are dumb females

I know why the Illuminati-conspiracist posted it: as I noted upthread, Wingnuts Unlimited are re-posting it everywhere

It's dishonest and offensive, and I will wonder if that might be the reason you posted it

[Yorktown]

7. You are raising a decoy strawman

I repeat, I do not care about the agenda of this interviewer. I just saw some of his earlier youtubes, and I found them funny. Period.

This particular video shows that there are people who do not understand what Sharia is. The second video shows that there are Muslims in America who wish Sharia would apply. The conflation of the two videos says that there are Americans who are unaware some Muslims would wish to apply a violent ideology in the uS if they had a say in it.

These are facts, and they are scary.

Now you can try to dismiss the facts by going back to what the intentions of the interviewer might have been, and then you proceed to go as far as to try to taint me as an Illuminati-conspiracist posting in a 'dishonest and offensive' way.

Why don't you answer the key issue before shooting at strawmen? Or is your defense of all forms of religion more important?

[struggle4progress]

9. Mark Dice Back on Alex Jones

1. 01. 2010
Alex welcomes back to the show Mark Dice, the Christian conservative political activist based in San Diego ...
http://www.mojvideo.com/video-mark-dice-back-on-alex-jones-tv-1-4-the-resistance-continue/44c4967ea5a05cc6c10a

Yup. He's a rightwinger ...

[Yorktown]

11. Again, deflect from the raw footage

[struggle4progress]

13. His work all has that "here-I-am-dressed-as-a-pimp-in-the-Acorn-office!" aroma:

Democrats say disliking Mexican food is racist! Obama supporters want Bill of Rights repealed Liberals want to ban the Bible!

If I wondered originally why your OP would dignify this rightwing conspiracy theorist with the title "media analyst," it's becoming clear now

[struggle4progress]

14. While you're thinking, you may enjoy chewing this nice raw Mark Dice footage

[Yorktown]

15. Totally irrelevant

Again, I made my point about the raw footage.

Despite my many indications to you, you choose to disregard facts for intention.

A 'progressive' defending Sharia Law and its advocates. Stunning.

All in the name of the presupposed 'goodness' of religions. Quite entertaining.

[temporary311]

16. Reminds me of a bit from The Man Show

where the two hosts got a bunch of women to sign a petition opposing women's suffrage, or something along those lines.

[Yorktown]

17. Yup

that's how I saw it.