Roll Call veered away from its usual Capitol Hill politics to publish an open letter from Muslim graduate, Umema Aimen, meant for former speaker Newt Gingrich. In it, Aimen voices her opposition to Gingrich’s proposed "Sharia test" for Muslim immigrants and even went so far as to say Sharia Law would make Muslims living in the U.S. better Americans.
In one excerpt she says…
Your proposed methodology is to look for those who believe in Sharia. The good news is that there’s no need to start interrogation; just search for #IbelieveinShariah. The bad news is that it’s all of us; we believe Sharia is divine law that motivates us to live a life of truth, justice, morality, courage and kindness. It prevents us from committing oppression, racism and injustice. In fact, it teaches Muslims how to be American.
Aimen goes on to say that Islamic values are compatible with the American way of life and that mosques have been “the most effective” at de-radicalizing Muslims.
In my opinion, mosques and American Muslim leaders have actually been the most effective at educating and de-radicalizing Muslims. They have openly and unequivocally condemned all acts of terrorism even in the face of death threats by ISIS. Countering radicalization has been the main theme of most Muslim conventions and conferences in America.
She concluded her open letter by claiming she no longer cared to visit the United States to honeymoon. She pointed to some of the issues we are dealing with today. Apparently she thinks gun rights was the culprit of the Orlando shooting and made reference to the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Yet, you did say that if we had been actively monitoring the Orlando killer, we would have known when he went to buy a gun, and that I have to agree with; guns are where we should start.
You also spoke about the presumption of innocence, and if everyone thought that way, we wouldn’t have needed a Black Lives Matter campaign in America.
Pakistan, the nation which Aimen resides in, has been in the news recently due to the honor killing of internet celebrity Qandeel Baloch. Her brother killed her in her sleep because he believed she embarrassed him. So-called “honor killings” have been on the rise in Pakistan. Almost 1,100 women were killed in 2015 by relatives who believed they had dishonored their family. This was up from about 1,000 honor killings of women in 2014.
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