*Photo: Prof Kehinde Yusuf*
In US politics today, one emotionally-potent word is ‘Sharia’. In a 6 May, 2026 Encyclopedia Britannica entry, Noel James Coulson states: “Sharia is the fundamental religious concept of Islam, representing God’s command for Muslims and a system of duties based on religious belief. Known as the sharīʿah, it is considered a divinely ordained path of conduct that guides Muslims toward religious expression in this world, with the goal of divine favor in the afterlife.”
Ms. Amanda Tyler, Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, also noted at a US House Judiciary Committee hearing on Sharia on 13 May, 2026: “Sharia … is a set of rules on how to pray and dress and fast and other dietary restrictions. And in that way, it’s very similar to other kinds of religious laws that Christians or Jews or members of other faith communities follow to guide them in how they practice their religion.”
Moreover, in a 1 June, 2026 article in IslamLesson.com, Ashraf Ali states: “Sharia … is the divinely ordained moral and legal framework revealed to guide human beings toward ethical living. It is not simply a list of punishments but a holistic system that encompasses worship, personal ethics, social etiquette, economic transactions, and state governance.”
Coulson further observes: “The main sources of Sharia (Islamic law) are the Qur’an, Sunnah, Ijma, and Qiyas. The Qurʾan provides the basic standards of conduct, while the Sunnah embodies the traditions, customs, and practices of the Islamic community, based on the Prophet Muhammad’s words and actions. Ijma refers to the consensus among Muslim scholars or the Muslim community on specific matters. Qiyas involves analogical reasoning, used to derive legal principles from the Qurʾan and Sunnah.”
With respect to Islamic Banking and Finance which is a critical component of Sharia, the Academy for International Modern Studies (AIMS Education), registered in the UK, states in an article accessed on 1 June, 2026: “Islamic finance does not view money as a tradable good in itself when exchanged within the same currency. Profit should arise from trade in goods, usufruct, services, or business performance. That is why interest-free banking aims to connect financial return to real activity rather than to the mere passage of time.”
AIMS Education further notes: “[H]alal banking practices include screening for prohibited sectors. A transaction may be commercially attractive, but it is still rejected if it supports alcohol, gambling, pornography, or other prohibited activity. … Islamic banking does not reject profit, markets, or private ownership. It rejects an unrestricted model in which profit is detached from social responsibility. … [S]ocial justice is central because Islamic banking tries to prevent wealth creation through exploitation, unjustified certainty, or financing that harms moral and economic life. That is why interest-free banking is often described as ethical finance.”
It is noteworthy in this regard that then-Nigerian-President Olusegun Obasanjo agonised about exploitative usurious loans when, in a letter dated 15 August, 2000 and addressed to Mr. Adrian Rogers, Chairman, Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board, Richmond, Virginia, USA, the President specified the debt-overhang of the non-Sharia-compliant economic model Nigeria had subscribed to as follows: “Nigeria borrowed $5 billion from Western creditors in 1978. Since then, we have paid back $16 billion. It may also surprise you to know that we still owe $31 billion! This is largely due to compound interest and interest rate fluctuation.”
With respect to giving debt relief or debt forgiveness, Sharia stipulations are compatible with major Western alternative moral, ethical and legal codes. Concerning relaxing debt payment terms or even cancelling debts outrightly, the Qur’an, in Chapter 2, Verse 280, enjoins: “If the debtor is in difficulty, give [them] time until [their] circumstances improve; but if you forego the debt as charity, that will be better for you, if you truly understand.”
Consistent with the above Sharia principle of debt forgiveness, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report accessed on 2 June, 2026 notes: “The IMF and World Bank launched the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative in 1996 to ensure that no poor country faces an unmanageable debt burden. … This allows countries completing the HIPC Initiative process to receive 100 percent relief on eligible debts by the IMF, the World Bank, and the African Development Fund.”
Nigeria qualified for and secured this kind of Sharia-compliant debt-relief during President Obasanjo’s administration between 1999 and 2007. It is worth noting, however, that, in the first place, the debt burden for which relief was granted was caused by IMF-World-Bank-dictated or sanctioned usurious economics.
All the same, and in spite of its support for ethical economics which forbids the kind of burdensome usury outlined above and in disregard of other noble aspects of Sharia, the term has been infused with intensely negative nuances or shades of meaning. ‘Sharia’ has therefore become a word of choice for religious scaremongers and emotional and psychological manipulators who deploy it with evangelical fervour.
A notable manipulative political deployment of the word Sharia is in Donald Trump’s 8 December, 2015 statement on C-SPAN where he called for a total ban on Muslims entering the United States, because “as part of the global Jihad, they want to change your religion.” He continued, by claiming as follows regarding a purported Center for Security Policy poll: “51% of [Muslims] polled agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to Sharia. … You know what Sharia is? … It’s terrible. Sharia authorizes such atrocities as murder against non-believers who won’t convert, beheadings and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to Americans, especially women.”
This demagoguery showed that Trump was oblivious or willfully neglectful of relevant injunctions of the Qur’an which is the primary source of Sharia. First, the Qur’an, Chapter 2, Verse 256 enjoins: “Let there be no compulsion in religion, for the truth stands out clearly from falsehood. So whoever renounces false gods and believes in Allah has certainly grasped the firmest, unfailing hand-hold. And Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.” The Qur’an Chapter 109, Verse 6 underscores religious liberty as follows: “To you is your religion, and to me is my religion.”
Second, a 17 April, 2025 article by Ahlan Editor titled “Why do Western women convert to Islam?” in ExplainIslam.com notes: “The 2017 Pew Research study indicates that … a significant portion of … new Muslims in Europe and America are women. American women are 4 times more likely than men to convert to Islam, according to surveys conducted through the Council on American Islamic Relations. And in Britain, around 75% of the 5,000 people who embrace Islam annually are women, as reported by the Independent.”
In her 2011 account of her attraction for Islam, Kristiane Backer, a 45-year-old Television presenter and author in London said: “I converted to Islam in 1995 after Imran Khan introduced me to the faith. At the time I was a presenter for MTV. I used to have all the trappings of success, yet I felt an inner emptiness and somewhat dissatisfied in my life. … Islam is also about dignity and respect for yourself and your femininity.”
Moreover, about Sharia-compliant Islamic Republic of Iran, Professor Muhammad Marandi noted: “In Iran, we have women pilots, we have women taxi drivers, we have women scientists. I’m a Professor at the University of Tehran. I’ve been a professor for 22 years now. Of those 22 years, 18 of those years, the Dean of my Faculty has been one woman or another. So, 18 of my 22 years at University of Tehran, my boss has been a woman.” Ironically, Trump who was posturing to be enamoured of protecting women against Sharia ordered an attack on Iran in which about 200 female pupils were killed in a girls school; and he has been noted for serially denigrating women.
Besides Trump, some Republican members of the US Congress have demonised Sharia. In the 13 May, 2026 House Judiciary Committee hearing on ‘Sharia-Free America’, Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal asked Baptist leader Amanda Tyler the following questions: “Has there ever been a piece of legislation introduced in America to adopt Sharia law? Does Sharia law require Muslims living in the United States to violate American law? And are there any state or federal courts that follow Sharia law instead of American law? Have you seen any poll in this country to your knowledge that puts Sharia law at the top of the concerns of Americans today?” Ms. Tyler’s answer to each of these questions was “No.”
Representative Jayapal then noted: “Yet, the policies that are being proposed [by some Republican Representatives] include the establishment of a Sharia-Free Caucus and the introduction of a bill that would deny immigration status to anyone who, quote, ‘adheres to Sharia law.’ Now these policies are based on a myth that Sharia is infiltrating our American legal system and endangering our way of life as envisioned by our founding fathers.”
Congresswoman Jayapal further noted that the obsessive and unnecessarily repetitive congressional hearings on Sharia, the demonising of Islam and the derogation of all mosques as “the beachhead of terrorism across the country,” when the same is not done for churches though Christians have perpetrated terrorist acts, are a bizarre ploy by Republicans to divert attention away from the illegal, unconstitutional and citizen-impoverishing policies and misgovernance of the Trump administration. She also remarked that Islam “is a very important religion around the world and certainly here in the United States.”
In consonance with Sharia, Chapter 24, Verse 27 of the Qur’an stipulates: “O believers! Do not enter any house other than your own until you have asked for permission and greeted its occupants. This is best for you, so perhaps you will be mindful.” By extension and analogical reasoning, it is a violation of Sharia for one nation, having not been welcomed into another one, to invade that country with the force of arms. It is doubly anti-Sharia to pillage the invaded country. It is also a principle of Sharia to fight oppression and injustice and defend the weak, whether they be individuals, groups or nations, to the fullest of your capacity, as the Qur’an enjoins in Chapter 2, Verse 193.
Today’s magisterial anti-Sharia ignorance, prejudice, bigotry and demagoguery put into question the image of the US as an enlightened, compassionate and exemplary nation. In fact, 76-year-old veteran American Actor Richard Gere lamented on a Euronews English programme on 2 June, 2026: “America has never been a perfect place, but it has a perfect ideal that it’s moving towards and always has. And it’s been self-corrective. First day, this guy [Donald Trump] dismantled almost everything that was good about the US government and the US people. How is this even possible? Because we went to sleep. … We didn’t care. We didn’t vote. We didn’t really listen.”