Sharia Law is Taking Over Texas!!!

[Shiranu]

The fact that people are somehow still getting that Islam is a threat to the law and our way of life from this...

[josephpalazzo]

Definitely against grifters ... ancient or modern.  They breed like fleas, and I forgot where I put my damn flea collar!

Perhaps a metamorphosis à la Gregor Samsa might be what you really need...:-)

[Baruch]

Yeah, that's the ticket!  If you can't beat the insects, become an insect.  Do you have ulterior motives, like stock in Raid?

Burnt Books by Roger Kamenetz.  Triple bio of the author, Rabbi Nachman, and Franz Kafka.  Alienation didn't start with Marxist analysis, it started when the Von Daniken aliens helped the Egyptians build the pyramids ;-)

[josephpalazzo]

Yeah, that's the ticket!  If you can't beat the insects, become an insect.  Do you have ulterior motives, like stock in Raid?

No, but now that you've mentioned it, I might invest...

Burnt Books by Roger Kamenetz.  Triple bio of the author, Rabbi Nachman, and Franz Kafka.  Alienation didn't start with Marxist analysis, it started when the Von Daniken aliens helped the Egyptians build the pyramids ;-)

Sure but crop circles by aliens started way before the pyramids...:-0

[Termin]

   i wonder if a full disclosure law, or something similar would have an effect here. If you require all "tribunals", regards of any affiliation,  to inform participants that the proceedings are voluntary and non binding.

[Baruch]

Auto da Fe would be popular in Texas, since they like barbecue ;-)

[jonb]

Sharia law, Christian canon law, and Jewish rabbinic law ... all appear under the guise of binding arbitration.  In some countries like England, you can choose to have your marital dispute for example resolved by a binding arbitration of your choice.  Several are available in England, in addition to the usual civil one.  England allows this flexibility.  In the US, we allow binding arbitration in commercial disputes.  The difference is that these arbitration courts are not religiously based.  I have supported a ban against all religiously based binding arbitration in American jurisprudence.  Otherwise the clerk in Kentucky could choose a snake-handling Christian cult arbitration panel to adjudicate her situation vis a vis her official duties ;-)  England allows religious ghettos, America does not (for now).

When talking about another land with a different culture it is easy for misunderstandings to arise.
Can a Jewish ultra orthodox woman remarry? Yes she can get a divorce under US law but if she wants to stay in the faith as I understand it there are other things that have to be settled, which I presume are undertaken by a rabbi in the states, I presume this must happen, but has no status officially outside of that faith. In Britain I think, but it might be just English and Welsh Law, the religious decision is allowed some official status, but with the proviso that should any party be unhappy they have the right to ignore any decision of that religious court and go to the normal courts.
As I understand things there is a strong separation of church and state in the US, this is not the case in Britain which has some advantages.
Having a religious court brought within the state law also means it has to be regulated, and as such religious leaders can far more easily be held to account. I have been enough around atheist forums to have heard many stories from the US of aberrant pastors etc making individuals lives hell, could it be that the British more regulated system might help with some of those cases?

Don't get me wrong, I am in fact not saying the British system is better I don't actually like it, but when I hear Americans talking about the otherness of the British system and implying the horrors of religious courts I strongly advise you to take this with a strong pinch of salt.

Ghettos: Is the Chinatown in virtually every American city a Ghetto? Is Manhattan a Ghetto, Harlem, the Bronx or is silicon valley a geek ghetto? If the answer is yes then Britain has ghettos, if you answer is no then we do not.

https://youtu.be/2Ox1Tore9nw

Its funny how words which mean little when we use them about our society pass us by, but when applied to others seem to point to something truly evil.

Baruch you really don't want to sound like Fox news do you?
 

[Baruch]

America used to have de jure ghettos.  Now they are de facto ... a small improvement.  Asian folks are too successful here to stay in any Chinatown ... others not so good.  Thanks for clarifying about religious courts in Britain.  We don't have a Chief Rabbi here, for that very reason that the US is different.  You make good points about the relative merit of bringing the religious court into the scope of the State, even that more than one could be allowed (but not in the bad old days).

There is a special case in Jewish law, which only applies to Orthodox Jews.  The divorce must be recognized civilly and religiously, otherwise it is incomplete and neither party can remarry.  This is particularly bad in Israel, where they have not one, but two Chief Rabbis ... it is not uncommon for a Jewish woman to be civilly divorced in Israel, yet not divorced (missing the "get") in the religious court ... this is a way for the former husband to torture his former wife.  This wouldn't work in the US of course, though it would involve the ostracism of leaving one's religious community because of shunning.  A "get" has no legal status here, nor would the RC restrictions of divorce ... but the RC church is free not to remarry you in their church.

[jonb]

The difference between the British and Americans I think is the answer David Sedaris gave at the end of one of his radio readings here in Britain when asked about this.

In America if your nextdoor neighbour has a Rolls Royce you want one too, and in England if your next door neighbour has one you want him to die in a fiery accident.

Apart from that in practice our systems produce quite similar results.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

It's pretty simple really here in the US. If you want membership in the club, religion x you have to abide by the club rules. If not then quit the club..
My parents were Catholics when my sister died at birth, but they burried her with my mother's parents  in a non catholic cemetery so the church would have nothing to do with her burial and the priest told my parents they had to sleep in separate beds and live as brother and sister. 
Exit the catholic church for my family.  Mom had some not so nice parting words for the priest as she kicked him out of her house ..

[Baruch]

A similar event happened between my grandfather and a priest, after my father was born.  But similarly, the situation was tense, because my grandmother had just died shortly after my father was born, and I don't think that my grandfather got along with his in-laws.  The question was over baptism for my father.  And true to stereotype, my father never was religious.

[Ace101]

I'm not worried about Sharia law "taking us over" because they're aren't enough Muslims in the US to make that happen, nor do enough Muslims practice it regardless of whether it is "the true" interpretation of Islam or not.

On the same note I find the idea that one can't criticize Islam or Muslim extremism on its own right without mentioning "Christians" also to be pretty silly.