Abdul El-Sayed has attracted national attention after invoking Jesus Christ while defending political ideas critics describe as radical.
“Jesus, peace and blessings be upon him, was considered radical in his time too,” the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat recently said.
But whether a Muslim politician accurately understands Jesus is not the most consequential question surrounding El-Sayed’s faith.
There is another question that reaches directly into the responsibilities of public office:
What role does Sharia play when a politician who considers it an obligation before God is making laws for Americans who do not believe in it?
That question deserves an answer because El-Sayed has previously described his adherence to Sharia in unusually serious terms.
While discussing his decision to obtain Sharia-compliant financing in a 2009 interview, El-Sayed explained:
“When I die, and I stand before God and go through everything I did in my life, I don’t want to say I did it the easy way instead of the Sharia-compliant way.”
Then came the important part:
“Not because of fear but because of obligation.”
That isn’t casual cultural identification.
It describes a religious conviction El-Sayed believes he will ultimately answer to God for.
Americans therefore have every right to ask what happens when that conviction enters the United States Senate.
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