{"id":2704068,"date":"2026-11-12T09:36:55","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigncair-lies-islam-definitely-insists-its-religion-should-control-politics\/"},"modified":"2026-11-12T09:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T14:50:13","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigncair-lies-islam-definitely-insists-its-religion-should-control-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigncair-lies-islam-definitely-insists-its-religion-should-control-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"CAIR Lies. Islam Does Insist Its Religion Should Control Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigncair-lies-islam-definitely-insists-its-religion-should-control-politics%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2704068&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A Jacksonville school board meeting erupted after posts attributed to a board member questioned Islam; CAIR demanded his resignation. As an ex-Muslim raised 19 years under sharia, the author argues sharia is not merely personal morality but a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >theocratic legal-political order claiming sovereignty<\/a> and governance. CAIR\u2019s portrayal of sharia as a \u201cvoluntary moral compass\u201d obscures its governing claims; Islamic texts and jurists equate deen with law and state authority. Americans can protect conscience while scrutinizing religiously claimed powers that seek to govern, not just private belief.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/prageru-what-are-your-kids-learning-in-school\/\" title=\"PragerU: What Are Your Kids Learning In School?\">local school board meeting<\/a> in Jacksonville, Florida, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstcoastnews.com\/article\/news\/education\/duval-county-school-board-meeting-tony-ricardo-controversial-islam-repost\/77-81aebded-f8dd-4fd5-a0d2-663a5aef98b9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">morphed<\/a> into a raucous discussion of free speech and Islam Wednesday, as more than 100 people signed up to comment, primarily on the reported posts of a board member who questioned the religious nature of Islam. One week earlier on Nov. 3, the Florida chapter of CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, demanded that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virginia-democrats-say-parents-who-want-schools-to-reopen-might-be-kkk-members\/\" title=\"Virginia Democrats Say Parents Who Want Schools To Reopen Might Be KKK Members\">school board member\u2019<\/a>s resignation over an apparent Facebook share declaring, \u201cWe got lost in the myth that Islam is a religion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The screenshot was attributed to Duval County School Board member Tony Ricardo. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.actionnewsjax.com\/news\/local\/post-calling-islam-invasive-cult-appears-shared-by-duval-school-board-member-cair-wants-him-out\/PSQAVJD3XJBQ5E6H5AMZCXCVEU\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Action News Jax<\/a> said it could not independently verify that he shared it. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cair.com\/press_releases\/cair-fl-calls-for-resignation-of-duval-school-board-member-who-shared-post-calling-islam-invasive-cult\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CAIR\u2019s demand<\/a> was categorical: \u201cWe call on the school board member who shared it to resign.\u201d But this post deserves a more serious answer than a resignation campaign. <\/p>\n<p>I am an ex-Muslim who lived 19 years under sharia, the legal and political order Islam presents as God\u2019s law. Islamic sources describe an order reaching from prayer to government, courts, and punishment. That order is a theocracy: rule by divine law with God as sovereign.<\/p>\n<p>CAIR wants a public official removed while offering Americans a definition of sharia that leaves its governing authority out of view. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/CAIR-Cong.-Briefing-Memo-Weaponized-Islamophobia-The-Return-of-the-Anti-Sharia-Hoax-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CAIR\u2019s October 2025 congressional memorandum<\/a>, CAIR calls sharia a \u201cpersonal moral and spiritual framework\u201d and \u201ca voluntary moral compass, not an alternative legal code.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CAIR also assured Congress that sharia commands Muslims to obey the laws where they live. Its own <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cair.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sharia-in-American-Life-October-2025.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">factsheet<\/a> attaches the condition: Muslims obey \u201cso long as those laws do not require them to engage in indisputably evil conduct.\u201d Sharia defines what counts as evil, so American law receives a conditional loyalty, granted on sharia\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n<p>Islam names itself \u201cDeen al-Islam,\u201d a phrase usually translated as \u201cthe religion of Islam.\u201d The Quran, Islam\u2019s scripture, uses the language of \u201cdeen\u201d in its own voice. In <a href=\"https:\/\/quran.com\/3\/19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">3:19<\/a>, it <a href=\"https:\/\/corpus.quran.com\/translation.jsp?chapter=3&#038;verse=19\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">declares<\/a>, \u201cIndeed, the deen in the sight of Allah is Islam.\u201d And in <a href=\"https:\/\/quran.com\/5\/3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">5:3<\/a> it says, \u201cToday I have perfected your deen for you \u2026 and chosen Islam as your deen.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>For Americans, \u201creligion\u201d evokes belief, worship, and a congregation someone freely joins or leaves. But the Islamic concept translated as \u201creligion\u201d actually names a total order of divine government and sovereignty. English readers hear \u201creligion,\u201d while the Arabic claims \u201cgovernment.\u201d That system is a theocracy, with God as sovereign and sharia as His law.<\/p>\n<p>The Quran makes that meaning concrete in the chapter on the prophet Joseph. In <a href=\"https:\/\/quran.com\/12\/76\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">12:76<\/a>, Mustafa Khattab\u2019s English translation renders the king\u2019s deen as \u201cthe King\u2019s law.\u201d The verse uses deen for the legal system that governed the kingdom. The 11th-century jurist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.islamweb.net\/ar\/library\/content\/40\/2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">al-Mawardi<\/a>, in his treatise on Islamic government, describes the imamate, the office of the Muslim ruler, as succeeding prophethood in guarding the deen and administering worldly affairs. The ruler\u2019s office joins religious guardianship to government.<\/p>\n<p>The 20th-century Muslim thinker Abul A\u2019la Maududi is equally direct. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.muslim-library.com\/dl\/books\/English_Four_Basic_Quranic_Terms.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cFour Basic Quranic Terms,\u201d<\/a> he describes deen as the \u201centire way of life,\u201d encompassing sovereignty, submission, a \u201csystem of thought and action,\u201d and judgment. Even \u201cstate,\u201d he explains, only approximates the term\u2019s breadth. Maududi spells out the duty this theocracy creates. In a state governed according to divine law, \u201cit is the religious duty of every Muslim to obey the state and all its commands.\u201d Political obedience becomes part of religious obedience.<\/p>\n<p>This is a matter of long-held doctrine and mainstream practice. Al-Mawardi and Maududi both place worldly rule inside the obligations of deen. CAIR\u2019s \u201cvoluntary moral compass\u201d omits precisely the power these accounts assign to Islamic authority: the power to govern.<\/p>\n<p>Worship gives that theocracy its moral force. Prayer and fasting train the believer to obey divine commands. Communal expectations and the prospect of eternal judgment turn those commands into civic duties. Within a sharia order, those duties reach into marriage, inheritance, property, public conduct, and punishment.<\/p>\n<p>Because I was raised inside that system, I recognize what disappears when Americans hear only the language of personal spirituality. But a rule understood as God\u2019s command carries a weight beyond ordinary political preference, and piety and public authority can reinforce each other throughout daily life.<\/p>\n<p>Modern governments have put that theocracy into writing. The Organization of Islamic Cooperation, a 57-state body of Muslim countries, issued the <a href=\"https:\/\/humanrts.umn.edu\/instree\/cairodeclaration.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1990 Cairo Declaration<\/a>. The declaration subjects all its declared rights and freedoms to sharia. Article 25 makes sharia the sole reference for explaining its provisions, while Article 19 ties crime and punishment to sharia. Its treatment of speech makes the stakes concrete. Article 22 permits free expression within the principles of sharia and bars information that violates the \u201cdignity of prophets\u201d or \u201cweaken[s]\u201d society\u2019s faith.<\/p>\n<p>Compare that with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.constitution.org\/jl\/tolerati.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">John Locke\u2019s 1689 \u201cA Letter Concerning Toleration.\u201d<\/a> Locke, the father of the toleration tradition America inherited, confined the magistrate\u2019s jurisdiction to \u201ccivil concernments.\u201d Churches could persuade their voluntary members; civil government held the power to command through law and punishment.<\/p>\n<p>Locke was direct about Islam:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It is ridiculous for any one to profess himself to be a Mahometan only in his religion, but in everything else a faithful subject to a Christian magistrate, whilst at the same time he acknowledges himself bound to yield blind obedience to the Mufti of Constantinople, who himself is entirely obedient to the Ottoman Emperor.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>A mufti is an official Islamic legal authority. Locke warned that a Muslim\u2019s religious duty placed his political allegiance with a foreign Islamic authority, which made it a civil matter beyond private conscience. He made the jurisdictional stakes explicit. When a church\u2019s members \u201cipso facto deliver themselves up to the protection and service of another prince,\u201d he warned, this amounts to \u201cthe settling of a foreign jurisdiction\u201d in one\u2019s own country.<\/p>\n<p>That warning still applies. The same OIC that placed every right under sharia in the Cairo Declaration spent more than a decade sponsoring a United Nations resolution against the \u201cdefamation of religions.\u201d The <a href=\"https:\/\/2009-2017.state.gov\/s\/rga\/rls\/remarks\/257830.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">State Department<\/a> opposed that campaign as an effort to prohibit speech deemed insulting to religion and to justify blasphemy laws.<\/p>\n<p>CAIR\u2019s resignation demand works in the same direction, treating a public official\u2019s description of Islam as disqualifying and using religious protection to police what Americans may say. The foreign jurisdiction Locke named now arrives in America as an international speech rule, enforced through pressure at home.<\/p>\n<p>Still, Locke defended civil rights for Muslims: \u201cNeither Pagan nor Mahometan nor Jew, ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his religion.\u201d Muslims hold the same rights of conscience and civil protection as every other individual. Religious protection covers conviction and worship; its protection ends where coercion or violence begins.<\/p>\n<p>America already criminalizes conduct commanded or excused by sharia, including apostasy punishments for leaving Islam, domestic abuse, and violence against children. The law protects people, and every injunction claimed as divine answers to that same law. The moment a belief claims authority to compel, punish, or govern others, it enters the jurisdiction of civil law.<\/p>\n<p>Two days after CAIR\u2019s effort to force Ricardo to resign, on Nov. 5, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wusf.org\/courts-law\/2026-11-05\/terrorist-designation-by-desantis-forces-cair-florida-to-indefinitely-cease-operations\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">WUSF reported<\/a> that CAIR and CAIR-Florida suspended advocacy and operations in Florida after a federal judge left the state\u2019s domestic terrorist designation in effect during litigation. CAIR disputes the designation and plans an appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The larger question concerns Islam\u2019s governing claim. Calling deen \u201creligion\u201d has political consequences when protection for believers becomes a shield around a theocracy.<\/p>\n<p>I lived under the order that CAIR describes to Congress as a \u201cvoluntary moral compass.\u201d Americans can defend freedom of conscience while examining the laws and powers claimed in God\u2019s name. But a civilization serious about its liberty must understand the theocracy that seeks to govern it.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      A.J. ben Daud (a pen name) is the author and analyst behind <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AudaxFieldNotes\">Audax Field Notes<\/a>, where he examines Islamic doctrine, political power, and the future of the West. An ex-Muslim who lived under sharia for 19 years, he writes from direct experience with the system he now analyzes; his articles for The Federalist may address subjects he also discusses on X.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jacksonville school board debates Islam and free speech<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4493,"featured_media":2704069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/pexels-zahid-12763212-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[68040,26161,5894,43848,77585],"class_list":["post-2704068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-cair","tag-islam","tag-politics","tag-public-discourse","tag-religion-in-politics-2"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/pexels-zahid-12763212-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4493"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2704068"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2704076,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2704068\/revisions\/2704076"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2704069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2704068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2704068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2704068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}