Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the american National Basketball Association (NBA) legend who holds the record of being a 6 time NBA Champion and cited as the league’s ‘Most Valuable Player’ has shared his opinion in Times on Indiana State’s ‘Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)‘ signed into law recently by Governor Mike Pence. Kareem is also a Time columnist has expressed his opinion that Indiana State is on the wrong side of history by enacting RFRA and equating this law as an ‘American version of Sharia Law.’
“I ain’t no freakin’ monument to justice! That line echoes in my head when I think about Indiana’s hypocritical and anti-American Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA). At its core, rather than being a monument to justice, RFRA is a step toward establishing an American version of Shari’a law.”
Criticisms have mounted on this reactionary law especially by most of the Fortune 500 Companies that have businesses in the State, especially from Apple Computer President Tim Cook. Other multi-national companies that have expressed strong opposition are Pharmaceutical giant Elly illy and Walmart. It was the criticism from Corporate America that Governor Mike Pence has requested the State House to amend its original version to make it more compatible to the Federal Religious Freedom Restoration law so that the LGBT community is not discriminated. The original version of the RFRA contains passages that allows business to deny services to gays and lesbians due to religious ground.
“Shari’a law, when imposed on a population by force, makes a single religion’s teachings (often a single sect of that religion’s teachings) the law of the land. The mission is to force everyone to follow the teachings lest they be punished. Although RFRA supporters aren’t physically assaulting people, they certainly are attempting to punish those who don’t follow their own very specific interpretation of God’s teachings.”
