Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

April 22, 2011

Last year, the Oklahoma State legislature enacted a bill banning the courtroom use of Sharia law. This reflected public concerns over the possible infiltration of the state?s legal system by the authoritarian tenets and draconian punishments imposed in some Muslim nations in the name of Sharia law.

The same Oklahoma legislature that banned Sharia law appears determined to emulate one aspect of it as practiced in countries such as Saudi Arabia: In early April, the state senate approved a bill that would inflict severe prison sentences for converting marijuana into hashish. Prison terms would begin at two years, and double with a subsequent offense. Nobody convicted under the act would be eligible for probation or a suspended sentence. And first offenders could be sentenced to life imprisonment.

State drug control officials admit that there are few hashish-related narcotics prosecutions in Oklahoma, but insist that this measure is necessary to ?send a message.? The unintended message here is that the state?s political class is as sanctimonious and authoritarian as the Sharia-promoting Mullahs they abhor.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.