Slate's Dahlia Lithwick debunks the absurd claim that Harold Koh, the dean of Yale Law School and President Obama's nominee to serve as legal advisor to the State Department, wants to institute Islamic sharia law in this country's courts -- a claim that is based on a single person's recollection of a talk Koh gave in 2007.
Are we seriously having this debate? As my friend and co-author Jason Reifler pointed out, a Fox News report hyping the claim (via HP) appears to show Koh wearing a gay rights pin:
Let's just say that most people who are secretly bent on imposing sharia law aren't also gay rights supporters.
More generally, there's no way this allegation would be getting traction if so many Americans didn't think that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Pew just reported that the misperception is holding steady at pre-election levels: 11% of the public and 17% of Republicans say Obama is Muslim and an additional 13% say they don't know and have "heard different things" (via MJ). As long as this myth persists, Obama's opponents -- like Bill O'Reilly, who questioned tonight whether Obama supports the "global justice jihad" -- will continue to push garbage like the Koh allegations that plays on the misperception.
Well, of course Obama wants Sharia law. How else will he impose his global currency?
Posted by: rone | April 03, 2009 at 03:13 AM
Okay, so 11% of the public, and 17% of Republicans, think Obama is a Muslim. Meanwhile, 22% of American voters, and 35% of Democrats, believe George Bush knew in advance about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (Other polls reach essentially similar results.) And 79% of Americans believe in angels. All this proves is that there's nothing so preposterous that a substantial number of people won't believe it. The surprise isn't that 11% of the public think Obama is a Muslim, but that it's only 11%.
Posted by: Rob | April 03, 2009 at 09:09 AM
BTW, prominent Republican legal figure Ted Olson has rejected attacks on Koh. Looking back twenty-two years, we can remember all the prominent Democratic legal figures who rejected attacks on Robert Bork by those who took Bork's writings out of context and vilified him. There was . . . gosh, I'm having trouble remembering any. Can someone refresh my recollection?
Posted by: Rob | April 03, 2009 at 10:47 AM
And I suppose you have examples of Bork's writings being taken "out of context?"
Posted by: daniel rotter | April 19, 2009 at 01:54 AM
Also, I see that Rob, in his 4/03/09 post at 9:09 a.m. implicity equates "Muslim" with "wingnut belief that then-President Bush knew in advance about the 9/11 terrorist attacks." Real nice.
Posted by: daniel rotter | April 19, 2009 at 05:02 AM