Liberals call us Catholics bigots for saying we believe that marriage should be as it was in the beginning, Adam and Eve, because Jesus (God in the flesh) told us this is the way it should be. But these same liberals give a free pass to Islam whose Sharia law condemns homosexuals to death. And this isn’t just a belief in Islam, it’s a regular occurrence to see homosexuals sentenced to death and executed for being homosexual in Islamic nations with Sharia law. Yet, liberals bend over backwards to defend Islam while calling us Catholics the bigots. It doesn’t make any sense.
I’m a liberal, but I can only speak for myself and my own feelings. Also, I’m from the US, and I only know American Muslims, so I’m primarily thinking about them in the following.
I certainly do not call anyone bigots, unless the definition unequivocally fits (like with the KKK).
I feel drawn to defend anyone who I feel is being unjustly ganged up on. After 9/11, a lot of anti-Islam attitudes suddenly popped up, and a lot of innocent Muslims were affected by this prejudice. I suppose its the same sort of thing that happened during WWII to Japanese Americans (though not as bad in this case, fortunately). At least as practiced in the US, Islam is generally a harmless, peaceful religion, and Muslim Americans just want to go about their business, practice their religion, and not be harassed. They didn’t like Osama bin Laden any more than the rest of us did. Even on this board, which usually has a higher standard of behavior than most internet forums, there is far too much uninformed anti-Muslim rhetoric. So, I feel drawn to defend them.
I know only a bit about Sharia law. There are some parts that I find praiseworthy, some parts that I find appalling, and some parts that I’m neutral about. In general, I don’t want to live under Sharia law. But, I don’t mind if US courts need to refer to Sharia law, when they are arbitrating divorces of marriages contracted under Sharia law, or when they are administering wills drafted according to Sharia law. How could a judge not refer to Sharia law under these circumstances? Or, if two Muslims in a civil dispute agree to an arbitration that follows Sharia law, why should I care? Where Sharia law doesn’t violate US law, there is no reason that parties can’t follow it, if they choose.
No Muslim American that I know of wants to impose Sharia law on the US. The specter of Sharia law has become a sort of boogie man that people invoke when they are engaging in anti-Muslim rhetoric. In fact, my Muslim colleague says that Muslims appreciate the US for one of the same reasons we appreciate it – religious freedom. He says that the US gives him more freedom to practice Islam that was available in his original country of Egypt (before the revolution, at least).
In summary, I defend Islam because I see that it needs defenders in the US. If I lived in an Islamic country where it was the Catholics who were being oppressed, then I would spend more time defending Catholicism.