Dear Plano Independent School District Trustees, Superintendent and Deputy Superintendents,

I urge the Plano Independent School District Board NOT to succumb to the East Plano Islamic Center request to teach ‘Sharia based values.’

A report is circulating that the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC)  influenced Plano Mayor John B. Muns to provide special access to your school district for the purpose of teaching about what their imam calls “Sharia based values.”

Dr. Yasir Qadhi, the apparent leader headlined at the EPIC website, said “Jews and Christians are filthy, their lives and their property can be taken in Jihad by the Muslims.”

Qadhi has publicly declared that:

•    Democracy is illegitimate: “No Supreme Court, no system of government, no democracy where they vote… What gives you the right to prohibit something or allow something?”
•     Any legal system outside Sharia is disbelief: “To believe that it is permissible to follow a system of laws other than the Sharia negates one’s testimony of Islam.”
•     Rejecting full Sharia is rejecting Allah: “To compartmentalize Islam… shows that you really don’t believe in Islam, you don’t believe in Allah.”
•     Apostates: He declares that believing in any law other than Sharia negates one’s Islam, effectively labeling Muslims who accept democracy as apostates.
•     He has previously asserted that a true Muslim cannot be neutral about Islam—he must either accept it or reject it and become an enemy.

All of this is derived from Sharia law.  None of it is suitable for teaching children.  Much of it conflicts with the United States Constitution.  These tenets of Sharia law are sadly some of the 'Sharia values' to which the EPIC imam is referring. 

Many of the tenets of Sharia law are antithetical to the rights afforded under the United States Constitution.  Sharia law deprives women, apostate Muslims and infidels of many of the legal protections that are otherwise afforded them under the United States Constitution.  Additionally, Sharia law calls for cruel and unjust punishments, fatwas, honor killings, genital mutilations, discrimination, religious persecution and a host of other unconstitutional tenets.

Federal, state, county, city and school board officials take an oath to uphold the United States Constitution.  Advancing or allowing Islamist Sharia law violates that oath.  Additionally, giving special access to and empowering Islamists to elevate Sharia law above the United States Constitution is reckless and puts the values of all Americans at risk.

I urge the Plano Independent School District NOT to succumb to the East Plano Islamic Center request to teach ‘Sharia based values.’