Islamic Sharia Law in America: An Orthodox Christian Perspective (AUDIO)

Not integrating well into Western Civilization. Notice the black flags of jihad.

This is a very challenging talk by Fr Josiah Trenham, providing an in-depth look at Islam and sharia throughout history and in America today. Fr. Josiah also contrasts the threat from sharia with the threat from secularism, homosexualism, etc.

Though I agree with much of what Fr. Josiah says, including his warning that we are facing these threats because we have allowed ourselves to be co-opted by the world, and have become too interested in our own comfort and prosperity, I most adamantly disagree with his belief that we can partner with Muslims against the pressures of secularism, and that the United States should enable the implementation of Islamic sharia law for religious matters. Sharia never stops at merely "religious matters," as can be seen in the implementation of sharia courts in the UK.

As seen in Londonistan.

Though Fr. Josiah is obviously extremely well educated and widely traveled, a lover of the Church and Patristic teaching, in this case he seems to prefer to ignore what has happened in England, France, and throughout Europe, where Muslims have been allowed to apply sharia within their communities. Wherever Muslims get close to 10% of the population, sharia no-go zones develop, where even the police fear to go. Witness the wild, fiery Muslim riots in recent years in France, Sweden, Denmark, London, and so on. This is what Raymond Ibrahim has documented and termed "Islam's Rule of Numbers."

Even though Muslims in America are still well below 10%, there are growing enclaves in Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Tennessee, and elsewhere, where Muslim population density and political clout is prompting the virtual enforcement of sharia, with Christians stoned by Muslims in broad daylight, arrested at "Arab" festivals, prohibited from speaking in public, etc. These are not-so-early warning signs of creeping sharia and stealth jihad.

Furthermore, four separate studies over the past fifteen years have consistently found that upwards of 80% of mosques in the U.S. teach jihad, disseminate jihad reading materials, and preach the replacement of the Constitution with sharia law.

Sharia advocates.

Fr. Josiah acknowledges that Muslims will always strive to advance the dar al-Islam in order to make the whole world Muslim, yet he seems to think secularism is the greater threat. (I personally see Orthodoxy caught in a multi-pronged attack from Islam, secularism, and the heresy of pan-ecumenism from without, and spiritual deception, lukewarmness and hesitancy within.) In holding such a position, he seems to dismiss the lessons of history of which he is fully aware. The Islamic approach could be described as three stages of jihad: peaceful, incremental and stealthy when Muslim numbers are small, assertive and demanding when they can get away with it, and open violence as soon as Muslim numbers reach critical mass. It seems odd to me that in affirming America to be still a "Christian nation," that Fr. Josiah would hold a position enabling the enemy of mankind to freely sow tares among the wheat.

On the positive side, Fr. Josiah shows great faith and bravery, and a sincere evangelical love for Muslims, suggesting that we welcome Muslims to our communities with a copy of the New Testament! That is a touch that I think New Martyr Fr. Daniil Sysoev would endorse. Advocating for sharia law and collaboration with Muslims? Definitely not.

Worth a carefully guarded listen.


Islamic Sharia Law in America: An Orthodox Christian Perspective
by Fr. Josiah Trenham, Patristic Nectar Publications
Free download or listen in browser.
h/t anonymous

Muslims practicing sharia in the UK.

This is a 72 minute long lecture given at the St. Barbara Orthodox Monastery in Santa Paula, Ca. The lecture provides a general survey of what Christian life is like under Islamic rule for the past 14 centuries and the current judicial and financial trends in the West today. This lecture reflects upon the growing intersection between Islam and the West, with a special focus on the Islamic request of Western governments to be governed by Islamic Sharia law instead of Western law. What is Sharia law? Why are Muslims asking for it to be applied in the West, and how should Americans respond? Why are Muslims in the West forming a growing Islamic identity instead of assimilating to their new countries? 

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