- GB News host Patrick Christys misrepresented Sharia law following Adil Ray’s social media comments about Zohran Mamdani
- Factual evidence shows that practices Christys associated with Sharia law have no basis in Islam.
On a on a live segment of GB News last night, our favourite resident Islamophobe, Patrick Christys, once again, distorted the truth about Sharia Law following Adil Ray’s recent comments about Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York.
GMB host Adil Ray has reportedly been called in by management after referencing Sharia law in a social media post about New York’s newly elected Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani. The 51-year-old broadcaster is understood to have met with managers yesterday, just a day after sharing his post about Mamdani’s election victory.
Mamdani, 34, is the first to become New York City’s Muslim Mayor of South Asian heritage.
Ray’s comments were subsequently removed but earlier reactions included, “Take your Sharia law and f*** off”, while another said, “This will be your undoing,” The Sun reports.
Ray’s tweet read:
‘Some say Mamdani may implement Sharia Law. He might. The heart of Sharia is social justice, welfare, fairness, charity and cohesion. Most Muslim countries operate a hybrid of Sharia & civil law, are slowly reforming and abandoning unethical practices despite the west's portrayal.’
Later, he posted the following message;
‘To clarify. I am not actually suggesting Mamdani would implement "sharia law". But many of the issues he campaigned for are also some of the positive values of Sharia that Muslims try to live by. Something many of us would agree on.’
While Ray is right to emphasise that “the heart of Sharia is social justice, welfare, fairness, charity, and cohesion,” many orthodox Muslims would take issue with his implication that Sharia law, even when properly implemented, entails unethical practices. The normative scholastic position within Islam holds that Sharia law is divinely ordained and therefore entirely correct.
There is no country in the world currently which truly implements Sharia law. For example, certain laws enforced in Afghanistan, such as prohibiting women from walking in parks, bear no relation to Islamic principles. Similarly, the former ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia had no basis in Sharia. While Sharia does consider the cultural context of a community, it does not permit the creation of laws that contradict established Islamic rulings.
During his segment, Christys listed the following harms that are supposedly associated with sharia law during his segment:
- Child rape
- Cousin marriage
- Female genital mutilation
- Beheadings
- Chipping off of limbs
- Terrorism
We will examine each of these claims through factual evidence, which will demonstrate that there is no connection to Shariah law.
Terrorism
The notion that Muslims have initiated the most wars throughout history and have been involved in the most acts of terror is counteracted in its entirety by Naveed Shaikh’s study, ‘Body count: A quantitative review of political violence across world civilisations.’ Shaikh’s study found that through genocide, wars and civil wars from years 0 to 2008, a total death toll of 578’993’500 was distributed amongst civilisations as follows in ranking order:
1) Christian 30.73% (Christian civilisations have caused the greatest number of deaths due to religious and politically motivated violence).
2) Anti-Theist 21.64%
3) Sinic 18.64%
4) Buddhist 15.19%
5) Primal-Indigenous 7.87%
6) Islamic 5.52%
7) Indic 0.41%
Beheadings, Chopping off Limbs
Chrystys interestingly completely ignores the following bible verse:
“If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.”
Deuteronomy 25:11–12
And what about the beheading and chopping of limbs currently being conducted by the brutal and barbaric Israeli regime.
Palestinian bodies returned by Israel show signs of torture and execution, say doctors
Where is Joe Biden’s fury about decapitated Palestinian babies?
Child Rape
This is an egregious distortion. Child rape is not a part of Sharia Law. Let’s dissect what Islam really says about such a heinous act:
“O you who believe, it is not lawful for you to inherit women by compulsion.”
(Qur’an 4:19)
Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) emphasised mutual consent in marriage:
“A woman who has been previously married should not be married until her permission is asked, and a virgin cannot be married off without her consent.”
(Abu Dawood 2085)
“Let those who find not the means to marry keep chaste until Allah enriches them from His bounty…”
(Qur’an 24:33)
Prophet Muhammad said: “Whoever comes to a woman who is forbidden to him, it is as if he has disobeyed Allah…”
(Sahih Muslim, Hadith 140)
Ibn Taymiyyah commented:
As for marrying her off despite her unwillingness, this contradicts fundamental principles and sound reasoning. Allah did not allow her guardian to force her into buying or renting unless she consents, nor to eat, drink, or wear something she does not want. How can he force her to be intimate and interact with a man she does not want to be intimate with? Or to live with a man she does not want to live with? Allah has placed love and mercy between spouses. If a marriage cannot be contracted unless she hates him and he is repulsive to her, then where is the love and mercy in that?
Source: Majmū’ al-Fatāwá 32/25
Imam al-Nawawi writes:
Know that Al-Shafi’i and his companions encouraged a father or grandfather not to marry off a virgin girl until she reaches maturity and he obtains her consent, that she may not be trapped with a husband she dislikes.
Source: Sharḥ al-Nawawī ‘alá Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 9/206
GB News conveniently ignores the following bible verse:
“If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her, and he can never divorce her as long as he lives.” Deuteronomy 22:28–29 (NIV)
GB News interestingly does not report or even comment on the following facts in any of its broadcasting:
It was reported that 84% Of 12 million married children under 10 are Hindus. Similarly, researchers at ‘Unchained at Last’ concluded about child marriage in the USA, that from 2000-2018, 300,000, 10 year old girls were married to adult men legally in the United States, and that child marriage is legal in 42 states in America.
They have also never referenced the following institutionalised issues within the church:
Cousin Marriage
Cousin marriage is permitted in Islam. However, islamophobes like to completely ignore Queen Victoria’s marriage to Prince Albert who were first cousins. Their descendants, including many European royals. intermarried extensively, earning Victoria the nickname “the grandmother of Europe. How about Charles Darwin who also married his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, reflecting how common cousin marriage was among Britain’s upper classes at the time.
Female Genital Mutilation
Once again, there is no evidence that this practice is permitted in Islam; it is a cultural practice primarily observed in parts of Africa.
Narrated by Ibn ‘Abbas (RA): Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:
“There should be no harm nor reciprocating harm.”
Perhaps GB News should focus on the following:
A Harvard study illustrated how 100,000 13-14 year olds underwent a gender‑affirming surgery in 2019. a study conducted between Jan 2000 and Jan 2007 by Thomas D Steensma determined that 80% of young people experienced Transgender regret. Although the study involved a relatively small sample of approximately 200 participants, it was nevertheless a longitudinal analysis.
