Iran Demonstrates Islamic Law as Oklahoma Decides on Shariah Ban

Even as a federal appeals court in Oklahoma hears arguments for banning the use of Shariah law in state courts—and even as the gay marriage movement continues to gain a foothold in the United States at large—clear imagery has emerged of what America could look like under Islamic law.

Three Iranian men were executed for alleged homosexual acts, a move that is alarming human rights organizations. According to the Iranian Student News Agency, the men were hanged to death on Sunday morning at Karoun prison in the southwestern city of Ahvaz. The agency quoted Abdolhamid Amanat, an official at the prosecutor office in Khuzestan Province, as its source.

The independent reports that the recent Ahvaz executions cite section 108 and 110 of the Iranian penal code, which prescribes death for “lavat” (sodomy). Iran is an Islamic Republic ultimately governed by clerics. Under traditional Islamic law, homosexual practice and adultery, among other offenses, are punishable by death.

Since many churches don’t realize the global threat from Shariah law, also known a Islamic law, IRD’s religious liberty director is urging churches to condemn the executions and stand against attempts to enshrine Shariah worldwide.

Faith J.H. McDonnell, IRD Religious Liberty program director, says liberal activists in America deride churches for upholding traditional marriage but seem mostly silent when Islamist regimes execute homosexuals and adulterers.

“Enshrining parts of Shariah into Western legal codes, as the Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested, or accommodating it by social custom, opens a door to manifold dangers that churches and human rights organizations cannot ignore,” McDonnell says. “Multiculturalism and political correctness sometimes argue for accommodating Shariah in the West. But Christians and others concerned about human rights must defend Western legal traditions of equality before the law. Liberal activists so quick to accuse traditional Christians of homophobia and Islamophobia might give a little more attention to how the Islamic Republic of Iran treats its people.”