‘Is there a sharia threat to America?’ was the opening line on the Glenn Beck program on April 1st 2011. The purpose of the episode was to ‘warn’ Americans that the ‘American tax payers’ are unknowingly funding terror dew to the presence of multiple sharia compliant Islamic banks in the U.S. It is not out of the ordinary to see Beck preaching absurd islamophobic conspiracy theories and nonsensical spews about Islam and its intentions towards the U.S, but this time, his stupidity has reached its utmost potential.
Beck being only a mere speck of the anti-Muslim crusade who claim the ‘sharia threat’ is real, to say the least, he definitely stands out from the crowd with his almost amusing logic. He explained his ‘ eye opening’ revelations as follows : ‘all devoted Muslims are obligated to wage jihad in all aspects of their life in the name of Allah’ – ok , fine , certainly can’t disagree with that. He continues to blab on and say : ‘ there are two kinds of Jihad which are 1) violence and 2) Stealth or Jihad of the soul’ – that one being illogical to anyone who understands Islam but complete sense to any one unfamiliar with primary research or even facts. Terrorists view violence as Jihad, not ‘all devoted Muslims’. Jihad in the name of God involves many different acts such as self-defence against violence, working hard to make a living, studying hard or spreading the word about Islam can also be regarded as Jihad. But those who live to demonize Islam gladly leave out anything that even remotely sounds non-threatening.
Beck then links these two pieces of enlightening information to the fact that Imam Yusuf Al-Qaradawi - ‘the ninth most powerful Muslim on earth’ - stated in a 2006 interview with BBC on charity “I don’t like this word ‘donations’ (zakat). I like to call it jihad with money because God has ordered us to fight enemies with our lives and our money.” This statement was the backbone and introduction to his further explanations on how Jihad is now not only blowing things up, it is now also financial Jihad. He uses this quote to further stress the point that sharia compliant banks follow Islamic law; Muslims are obligated to tithe a percentage of their income to charity. Therefore, Sharia compliant banks must tithe a percentage to charity- It’s all true till this point , BUT he continues on with rhetorical questions that are strong enough to instil added fear to those who already misunderstand Islam. ‘But which charities are the monies going to? Charities like Hamas or Hezbollah?’. What he has done here is far from just fascinating, he has managed to utilize one man’s quote from a 2006 interview and has used it as a basis and a justification to the possibility that sharia compliant banks such as HSBC, Citigroup, Barclays and Deuche Bank (which he has mentioned during the show) are funding terror via obligatory zakat money. Even something as innocent as Islamic charity is now also an evil force out to get the U.S? - who would have thought?.
I’d like to know what you think Please leave a comment
¬Jana¬
GB program April 1st 2011
