I recently heard Nonie Darwish speak at the University of Toronto, her subject being the contrariness of Sharia Law to Western societal norms and judiciary. I had expected something similar to the courageous address given by Wafa Sultan in Grapevine, Texas a couple of years ago. I was sorely disappointed. If anything, Nonie Darwish inculpates obedient and conscientious Muslims while simultaneously exculpating the simplistic but malefic religion they zealously submit to.

As is the timid recourse of those "activists" who defer from criticizing Islam directly, Darwish decries Islamic terrorism, Sharia law, and the cultural peculiarities of those countries where the religion of Islam is preponderant, as though such egregious manifestations were tangential of Islam proper. One hears the words "Islam" and "Muslim" and "Koran" quite often in her delivery, but never once does she connect Islam with the devastating effects found wherever this religion takes root and begins to motivate its adherents. Her avoidance of this connection was obvious to more than me, as I discovered when she welcomed questions from the audience.

Sam Harris has written, "Any honest witness to current events will realize that there is no moral equivalence between the kind of force civilized democracies project in the world, warts and all, and the internecine violence that is perpetrated by Muslim militants, or indeed by Muslim governments." For Darwish to advise impressionable Jewish university students with the idea that Canadian and American governments need only reject Sharia Law while leaving Islam proper untouched by much deserved criticism will save them from future Muslim anti-Jewish hatred is at once both shameful and inept. To equate the androcratic simplicity of Islam's Sharia Law with the intricate and orderly guidance prescribed in the Torah as reserved for the purpose of governing a future sovereign Jewish State is not only both shameful and inept but also essentially anti-Jewish. Because Islam's Sharia Law has been an abject failure in nurturing humane behaviour in Muslims cannot justify Darwish's insinuation that the "Halacha" of the Torah is likewise detrimental to mankind.

Byron wrote that "Truth is stranger than fiction." And fiction is nothing more than fiction. And strange as the truth may be, it is always far more effective than the familiar sophisms peddled about by imprudent activists like Nonie Darwish. It would be far more helpful to Jewish university students if she would tell the truth about Islam, because to say otherwise is to perpetuate the terrorism, angry intolerance and anti-Jewish hatred this religion elicits from its followers. As the proverb teaches, "A bad excuse is worse than none."

Michael Devolin,

B'nai Elim Canada