As a Christian, I hesitate to criticize other religions. Nothing human is perfect, no culture is perfect, no religion (the root and heart of culture) is perfect. And pointing to others’ flaws has the double downside that it misdirects attention both from one’s own weaknesses and from others’ strengths. But faced with this question, I cannot avoid a few comments on Islam and violence: “A journalism student in Afghanistan has been sentenced to death for distributing an internet article that was considered an insult to the Prophet Muhammad. Do Islamic beliefs preclude freedom of speech? What about other faiths?”

1.....I preface these remarks with what I said in prefacing my teaching of Islam in the University of Hawaii: "This is a noble religion of high contributions to humanity and with a high potential for contributing to global peace and prosperity." I am pained to have to speak of any downside of any religion. Would that we could speak of the downside each of one's own religion and only of the upside of all the others! But we can honor truth and hope only by admonishing as well as affirming one another.

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In thousands of Islamist madrasas worldwide, Muslim youth are being told that their fundamental choice is between going to hell or struggling (“jihad”) to cover the world with sharia governments.

No matter our respect for Islam as contributive to world civilization, and our recognition that the ummah (Muslim community) in the form of a political state is entitled to have its own laws (in the case of Muslim states, sharia), in Islamists’ hearts and hands sharia is not only the legal structure of Muslim states but also a programmatic sword for penetrating and conquering “dar es harb” (war territory, meaning all the world not presently under sharia).

Now to the question: “The Archbishop of Canterbury has suggested that English law must accommodate some aspects of sharia – the body of Islamic religious law. Do you agree? Should U.S. law make room for sharia?”

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