Why are Ilhan Omar and Linda Sharia Sarsour Pro-Abortion?

by Nonie Darwish

Recently representative Ilhan Omar attacked Christians for being pro-life in a lengthy rant on the House floor. Also recently Muslim activist Linda Sarsour tweeted: “I am trying to understand how you can be pro-life and pro-death penalty at the same time.” To which someone tweeted back: “I guess the same way you claim to be a feminist while supporting Sharia Law.”

One would think that hijab wearing Muslim women would be vehemently pro-life and against abortion but that is not the case when it comes to Islam. Many Westerners and even some Muslims mistakenly believe that all religions, including Islam, are against abortion but it is a fact that Islamic law never prohibited abortion and never took a stand against it one way or the other.

In fact Islamic law goes as far as protecting parents from prosecution if they kill their children (no age limit mentioned). Such a law was designed to protects parents from prosecution if they kill their kids for honor; honor killing. Honor killing is widespread in the Muslim world usually against girls if they disobey their parents and Islam and usually over sexual misconduct. It also exists against boys, rarely though, if the boy becomes an apostate or is discovered as homosexual. Below is the law, with its number and page number from the mainstream sharia book “Reliance Of The Traveller”:

“Parents and/or grandparents will not be prosecuted for slaying/killing their offspring or offspring’s offspring.”

(O2.0 p584)

Even though many Muslims brag about Muhammad having protected life of girls when he stopped the killing of infant girls, which supposedly was an Arabian custom before Islam, the above law, is significant in getting those who honor kill their kids off the hook.

Islam and its laws are full of values, statements and laws that conflict with Western Biblical values and culture, especially regarding life and human rights. But we often see Muslims choose one statement in the Koran that talks about the value of life that was abrogated and stands in total contradiction to the many commandments to kill and get killed for the sake of Allah. It is not a secret that most punishments for what Islam considers sin (such as apostasy) with a long list of cruel and un-usual punishments some of which are torturous and humiliating execution. In fact Islam does not believe that ‘infidels’ have a right to live.

As to Islamic culture itself regardless of sharia, from my own personal experience of having lived 30 years as a Muslim in the Middle East, I have never heard a mosque sermon preaching against abortion or against honor killing of one’s children. In fact Islamic society forces parents through expulsion, boycott and a life in disgrace if they do not kill their apostate children especially girls who have committed sexual. In the movie, The Stoning of Soraya, before the village started stoning Soraya, her father was given the first stone to throw at his daughter. This indicates how society pushes parents to punish through honor killing otherwise the parents themselves will be banished and disgraced.

Like life, Islamic culture does not have concern or taboos regarding abortion. I have never read an article against abortion in Arabic. Many doctors perform abortions without obstruction from the state or Islamists. Islamic society is not tearing itself over the moral dilemma of life and when it begins like it is the West. I grew up hearing Muslim women in the Middle East casually and openly talking about their abortions pretty much like removing a pimple and without any fear of societal backlash. My own grandmother talked openly about her abortions because she did not want to have more than three kids.

That brings us to the fake outrage against Sarsour by some Islamic reformers who live in the West. In a recent article https://clarionproject.org/what-does-islam-say-about-abortion/ dated May 16, 2019, Muslim reformist Shireen Qudosi said that “Linda Sarsour disses Islam’s view of abortion for political gain.” In her article Qudosi forgot to mention what specific sharia laws regarding abortion she has in mind that prohibit abortion. This is because there are none. Instead, Ms. Qudosi tried to prove that Sarsour’s pro-abortion views as wrong not by quoting sharia but by quoting herself writing against abortion in the Federalist. She also quoted writings by a London-based niqab wearing Muslim female chaplain who wrote a tweet against abortion expressing her own personal opinion.

The misinformation spread by the so-called Islamic reformers regarding Islam, its doctrine and foundational principles is staggering and misleading to say the least. But one point the West could learn from Islam and abortion is that despite that there are no laws in Islam regarding abortion and in fact there are laws protecting parents who kill their offspring, the birth rate and population growth in Muslim societies is among the highest in the world.

When it comes to abortion Ilhan Omar and Linda Sarsour are right. Sharia does support their views regarding the taking away of life in the womb. Life and the preservation of life is simply not a priority in Islamic law. In that sense radical Liberal Democrats and Islamic Sharia enforces share similar values.

First published in the Geller Report.