Kerby Anderson

During this election season, you may have noticed several political candidates are talking about sharia law. On the one hand, it isn’t likely that American judges will suddenly adopt sharia principles in their interpretation of U.S. law. On the other hand, it is worth noting that changing judicial interpretation could occur faster than most believe.

Many years ago, Pew Research interviewed nearly 40,000 Muslims in 39 countries concerning sharia law. They found that 99 percent of Muslims in Afghanistan favor making sharia the official law of their country. The same poll found that 91 percent of Muslims in Iraq also believed sharia should be the official law of their country.

If you looked at the list of other countries, you see high percentages: 84 percent in Pakistan, 74 percent in Egypt, and 72 percent in Indonesia. In nearly every country surveyed, you had a substantial majority that believed that sharia law should be the official law of their country.

Obviously, the percentages in the U.S. were different because (1) there are fewer Muslims in America, and (2) many Muslims have been willing to accept American democratic values. At least one recent poll discovered that 39 percent of American Muslims do believe we should implement sharia law, and there is some evidence it might be happening in a limited way.

The Center for Security Policy found a significant number of cases of sharia law being allowed in U.S. courts. One report with the title, “Shariah Law and the American State Courts” found examples from their small sample of appellate published cases. Granted these are not major cases but they still illustrate the willingness of some Americans (both Muslim and non-Muslim) to accept some aspects of sharia law.

That is why you will be hearing political candidates talking about it this year.