Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Could the arrest of Warren Jeffs set a precedent?

On August 29, 2006. Warren Jeffs, leader and Prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), was arrested on charges of fleeing prosecution, bigamy, and sexual molestation of a child, among many others. He was on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list.
The FLDS, not to be confused with the LDS (Mormons), is more than a cult, for it has thousands of members and has been in existence for nearly one hundred years.
One may ask if this isn't persecution of one's religious beliefs. To answer that, one must be familiar with the concept of natural law. Natural Law is that law pertaining to the rights we were all born with, no matter where we live or what form of government we live under. Those rights, in the words of Thomas Jefferson are "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." When one's expression of these rights infringes on the rights of others, it is a crime of Natural Law.
Natural Law makes it a crime to enslave women, which is basically the practice of the FLDS under Warren Jeffs. Girls are treated as property, and at the age of twelve, are given to grown, married men as wives. They are basically bought and sold among FLDS families as slaves, and are barred from contact with anyone outside of the community. In short, the FLDS treats women much the same way as Taliban did in Afghanistan. This is a violation of human rights under Natural Law.
Therefore, Jeffs is not a criminal because of his religion, but because he has violated and advocated violation of human rights. This case will probably go all the way to the Supreme Court.
In the same vein, there are some schools and mosques in the United States, financed by our "friends" in Saudi Arabia, which indoctrinate students and worshipers in the Wahadi discipline of Islam. Wahidi is the jihadist and fundamentalist view of Islam that teaches that all infidels must die and that women are property. This is the philosophy followed by the likes of Usama Bin Ladin, the Taliban, Hezbollah, and Hamas, and which justifies such acts as suicide bombings, the 9/11 attacks, and the public stoning of women. If the arrest of Jeffs is a precedent, then the same rules should apply to the leaders of the Wahadi mosques and schools. If a Wahadist Imam cannot be arrested for his beliefs, he could be arrested for inciting others to take the lives of innocent people.
Though CAIR (Center for American Islamic Relations) denies that there are jihadist factions of Islam, refuses to condemn Al Qaeda or Hezbollah for their actions, there are other American Muslim groups which are more mainstream. It has been reported by both CNN and Fox News that these groups are working to counteract the influence of Wahadists and Jihadists in the United States. The mainstream Muslim activist movement is growing, and has shown some success in Las Angeles, where Islamic citizens are assisting the authorities in identifying those who are a threat to the lives of others. Several mosques in the US have banned politics and incitement against other religions from the pulpit. This movement could be awarded and aided by the arrest of those who incite violence against others.
It is a fine line, between rights and violation of the rights of others, so we most likely will not see such action as that taken against Warren Jeffs, but the precedent should be kept in mind. This would go a long way, with the help of mainstream Islam, in protecting us from jihadist violence within our own country.

No comments: