Andrew Kerr and Jessica Schwalb write for the Washington Free Beacon about a disturbing revelation involving Michigan’s Democratic US Senate candidate.
Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed once declared his sacred “obligation” to follow Sharia law in every aspect of his life until he meets his maker on the day he dies, according to unearthed comments he made to the New York Times in 2009 as a young man buying his first home.
“Ultimately, the question is, when I die and I stand before God and go through everything I did in my life, I don’t want to say I did it the easy way instead of the Shariah-compliant way. Not because of fear but because of obligation,” said El-Sayed, who the Times identified at the time as a 24-year-old medical student and Rhodes scholar who had just taken out a “Sharia-compliant” mortgage to purchase a $123,000 condominium in Ann Arbor.
Sharia, or Islamic religious law, sets strict rules for living that include harsh restrictions on women and gruesome, medieval-era forms of criminal justice. Sharia law also prohibits the paying or earning of interest, a restriction that has led some banks to offer special mortgages for devout Muslims, like El-Sayed, which tack onto the principal what a typical borrower would pay in interest across the life of the loan.
The young El-Sayed’s expression of lifelong devotion to Sharia law takes new meaning following his narrow primary victory last week and raises the question of how much Sharia law continues to guide him.
El-Sayed has played a delicate balancing act on the campaign trail when it comes to his personal faith. While he has embraced his status as a Muslim man before voters, the progressive Democrat often frames his faith in broad brush strokes to avoid specifics. …
… But El-Sayed has bristled when pressed on the topic of Sharia law.
