Dennis Prager commands a calm yet penetrating line of questioning, one that commands respect without permitting non-answers or generalizations which fail to answer the core issue or suggest disturbing implications.
Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf commented: "The Shariah is nothing more than the principles of the 10 Commandments.
What are the "principles" of the 10 Commandments, exactly? The lack of clarity on this issue, with the prepositional modifications do not convey a serious answer.
"To love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength."
The King James interpolations of "thy" do not soften the blow of these rules. Since when has anyone gotten the notion that they can love God with all their being? No one can, and it is only by grace that man lives out the life that God wants to live within us!
"Shariah law, in terms of its positive law, is the protection and furtherance of six basic human rights: the right to life, the right to honor and dignity, the right to freedom of religion, the right to pursue your intellectual pursuits, to have a family and to practice the faith of your choice, and to pursue property."
These "rights" are Western, particularly Jeffersonian, in nature. They have no precedent whatsoever in Islamic Law and culture.
Dennis Prager soft-balled this portion of the interview, in my opinion. Would the Imam be able to explain the religious intolerance which harasses the Coptic Christians in Egypt, or the Christians and Animists in the Sudan? How would the Imam explain the ruthless persecution which men and women of diverse backgrounds and faiths and behaviors endure at the hands of the Iranian theocracy?
The ruthlessly cruel treatment of women in Muslim countries, which is not mitigating by the trace presence of women in power, vacates any discussion of widespread civil rights respected and enforced in Muslim countries.
But the most explosive and offensive part of the interview, for me, was the following portion:
Imam: The action of the cab driver [a Minneapolis Muslim who refused to take passengers with an open beer container] is no different than the action of a devout, fundamentalist Christian who kills a doctor who provides abortion services because he believes it is wrong.
This startling lack of moral clarity received no redress whatsoever from Prager. Appalling and disturbing, that the Imam would equate discrimination by a cab driver with a domestic terrorists killing an abortion doctor. Former Israeli diplomat and Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky has acknowledged in such examples of abortive moral relativism that terrorists who acted in the "name" of the Christian or the Jewish faith are routinely and immediately condemned by the wider community. Furthermore, one one qualify a Christian fundamentalist one who shoots another in retribution. Fundamentalism, in essence, implies a full application of Scripture, in which the Bible clearly exhorts to believers: "'Vengeance is mine, I will repay!', says the Lord."
In contrast, the Muslim Koran advocates deception and harm to "infidels".
Dennis Prager should be commended for reporting, for exposing the dangerous and dysfunctional media moral relativism which assaults the intelligence of the average media consumer. The precedent of ignoring the widespread civil rights violations and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities command no respect from those who wish to inform the world as well as impress upon Muslim communities the need for a liberal, Reformative transformation in the Muslim faith.