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“Encroaching Sharia law in US: ‘Serious issue.'”

“Encroaching Sharia law in US: ‘Serious issue.'”

Last updated on: March 13, 2026 at 11:37 am by Dan Peterson

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“Encroaching Sharia law in US: ‘Serious issue.'” 2026-03-13T11:37:23-06:00 Dan Peterson

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It seems to me that America faces at least 27,824 more urgent threats right now.
(Public domain image from Wikimedia Commons)

I must have been sleepwalking through recent American history: “Speaker Mike Johnson warns of encroaching Sharia law in US: ‘Serious issue.'” And I hadn’t even noticed.

I’m seeking testimonials from readers who can tell me about the imposition of Islamic shari‘a in their communities. Remember, it’s a serious issue. I’m looking for specific details. Are your local police detaining women in your town for failing to wear the hijab? Does your mayor issue fatwas? Is your state supreme court citing the hadith collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim in its rulings, along with the works of Ahmad b. Hanbal, Ja‘far al-Sadiq, al-Shafi‘i, Malik b. Anas, and Abu Hanifa? Is your state legislature turning to Islamic fiqh for the formulation of new statutes? Does your congressman advocate the replacement of conventional American criminal law with the traditional hudud of Islamic law? Do you find yourself outnumbered at PTA meetings by Afghan Taliban demanding that girls be confined at home and not educated? Please. Inquiring minds want to know.

“Muslims,” says Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN), “are unable to assimilate; they all have to go back.” Right. In my judgment, Mr. Ogles should go back to his home district, get a job for which he’s actually qualified, and stay there. And perhaps he can find a position for Mike Johnson.

The John Taylor Building on the Rexburg, Idaho, campus of Brigham Young University (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph). As the Church’s Commissioner of Education, Elder Rasband will oversee BYU-Idaho, as well as BYU, Ensign College, BYU–Hawaii, BYU-Pathway Worldwide and Seminaries and Institutes.

I’m quite pleased at the announcement of the new commissioner of the Church Educational System for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

And here’s an Instagram comment, from Jasmin Rappleye, on Elder Rasband’s new assignment and his background for it: “New Commissioner of Education James Rasband.”

Incidentally, not long before his call to serve as a General Authority of the Church, Elder Rasband kindly agreed to my request to write a very brief “Foreword” to the two-volume Festschrift that we were preparing in honor of Professor John W. Welch. You can read it here: “To Seek the Law of the Lord”

The Joseph Smith Memorial Building in Salt Lake City, originally built between 1909 and 1911 as the Hotel Utah (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

I spent the first part of the day up at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building (JSMB) in Salt Lake City, watching the recording of a conversation between my Becoming Brigham co-hosts Camrey Bagley Fox and John Donovan Wilson and, representing the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Matt Grow and Christopher Rich. The conversation focused on the Church’s former policy of Black priesthood exclusion, as well as on Black and Native American servitude in nineteenth-century Utah Territory, and it will eventually form the basis for at least one episode (and probably several) of our ongoing series of Becoming Brigham mini-documentaries.

I wasn’t compensated for my travel to and from Salt Lake City, nor was I paid for my time spent on set. After the filming was completed, though, the three members of Redbrick Filmworks had lunch together at the JSMB’s Garden Restaurant. I joined them, and Redbrick picked up the tab for the small bowl of potato soup that I enjoyed and for the cold tap water (on ice!) with which I washed that soup down. Not only that, but the Church History Department arranged complimentary parking for me under the Conference Center.

As a few of my most perceptive critics have discerned, it’s the chance to grab lavish perks such as these — and the luxuriant lifestyle that they typify — that inspired my involvement in filmmaking (e.g., first with Robert Cundick: A Sacred Service of Music and then with The Witnesses Initiative) and that keep me involved still today in Becoming Brigham.

The Conference Center in Salt Lake City (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)

And, of course, speaking of Becoming Brigham, I would be remiss in my duties as president of the Interpreter Foundation and executive producer of its film efforts, not to mention undeserving of the opulent material rewards that I receive in those roles, if I failed to mention the fact to you that Episode 7 of Becoming Brigham is now available for free viewing online, and that all of the six prior installments of the series are likewise up online for your viewing pleasure.

The London Symphony Orchestra, in London’s Barbican Hall (Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph). In a sense, I had the LSO in my car, traveling both northwards and southwards. What would Brigham and Heber and their friends have made of THAT?

Incidentally, I found myself marveling, during my drive from Orem up to the Conference Center and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, at some of the wonders of modern technology. What would Brigham and his contemporaries have made of that drive? Our technology has come so remarkably far from his time in the nineteenth century. What marvels might we see come the Millennium?

First of all, the drive took me less than an hour. During that time, though, while listening to BYU Radio, I was able to enjoy (through a sound system of quite good quality) a performance by John Williams of Antonio Vivaldi’s famous Concerto for Guitar And Strings in D Major, a recording of Richard Wagner’s Festmarsch from the opera Tannhäuser, and — something entirely new to me, but very agreeable — a rendition by the London Symphony Orchestra of the second movement of Sarikiz, a 2008 composition by Sir Karl Jenkins based on musical elements from Kazakhstan. And my good luck continued on the return trip from Salt Lake City to Orem, as BYU Radio offered a performance by the London Symphony Orchestra of Beethoven’s magnificent Symphony No. 7 that lasted for my entire drive, ending almost exactly when I left the freeway.

One can only assume that BYU Radio’s musical programming is created solely for my benefit, on the basis of donations that I’ve unethically diverted from the Interpreter Foundation. That’s the most reasonable assumption, right?

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