September 06, 2019
A Muslim elected to the Virginia state legislature held his first town meeting recently and the first question posed to him was how he planned to impose Sharia law in Virginia.
Ibraheem Samirah, 27, who was born in Chicago and is a dentist by profession, was elected to the House of Delegates in a special election earlier this year as a Democrat. He represents a district from Fairfax County, an immense county just outside Washington, DC. He is the third Muslim to be elected to the Virginia House of Delegates.
Shortly after the town meeting, he tweeted about the exchange and commented, “Here’s a glimpse into being a Muslim in office.”
Virginia resident Catharine Trauernicht posed the question, “I’m wondering what would be the most accommodating way of introducing Sharia Law in the Commonwealth of Virginia? Should it start in the family court system, or some other venue?”
Samirah did not agree with being asked the question, as he told television station WUSA9 earlier this month.
“It is dangerous. It is hurtful. It is demeaning. It is obnoxious,” Samirah said.
Trauernicht, on the other hand, wrote a lengthy blog post explaining her question. “I had carefully scripted my question so as not to hold him responsible for the implementation of Sharia Law,” she wrote.
Samirah was baffled by the question.
“We live in a secular democracy. In a secular democracy, there’s separation between church and state. That’s the foundation of the government of the United States of America,” Samirah explained. “So, I’m not really sure why I’m being asked a religious question.”
“I think your curiosity is directed at my religion, being Muslim,” Samirah told Trauernicht.
Trauernicht said she approached Samirah at the conclusion of the town hall, “shook his hand and said I meant no disrespect with my question, which I thought was appropriate to ask.
“He went on to play the victim card by claiming people had been mean to him because he is a Muslim. That, too, is false. He was asked about a central tenet of his faith. A tenet that is incompatible with the Constitution of the United States of America,” posted Trauernicht.
Several of the Ten Commandments of the Jewish and Christian faiths go against the Constitution, such as the commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” which goes against freedom of religion.