The Shariah4America rally is planned for March 3, 2011, because "on this day, in 1924, the Khilafah (Islamic State) was abolished by Mustafa Kamal Attaturk with the help of the British and European collaborators. It was a catastrophic day when the light of Islam was dimmed," the rally's website says.
A rally to advocate for Shariah law in the U.S. has been postponed amid a wave of opposition.
The Shariah4America rally, organized by the Islamic Thinkers Society and headed by controversial British Imam Anjem Choudary, aimed to gather Muslims and non-Muslims outside the White House Thursday afternoon to “let the tyrant Barack Obama and the American people know that a new constitution beckons the U.S. called the Shariah, and that this worldwide revolution will see it implemented inshaa’allah (God willing) very, very soon,” according to the rally's website.
But Choudary, who said last year that the flag of Islam will one day fly over the White House, now says the protest will be postponed in light of the conflicts in the Middle East, the U.S. sending troops to Muslim countries, and "in light of the fact that our message to the American people has been distorted by the media."
Critics of the rally had expressed doubt that Choudary would be able to drum up enough interest to execute the rally and questioned whether even he would show up.
Choudary, who told FoxNews.com Wednesday that all plans for the event -- including his presence there -- were still in effect, said Thursday that he is still in the U.K. and does not have another date for it.
Other groups, including members of the Muslim community, had planned their own events to show that they were not aligned with Choudary’s view that Islam requires the observance of Shariah law, which “has a solution for all affairs within society.”
Among other things, the Shariah4America website proposes ditching the U.S. Constitution for Shariah law, replacing the U.N. – whose sovereignty would no longer be recognized – with an International Shariah Court of Justice, converting the White House into a mosque, and terminating all treaties or promises made by previous governments to instead conduct foreign relations according to the demands of jihad.
“Shariah, any time it’s enacted by man, is not God’s law. It becomes man’s instrument of oppressive theocracy in the name of Islam,” Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, president and founder of American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD), told FoxNews.com. “In order to be religion, you have to have a choice to accept or reject it. Otherwise, it’s not faith.”
AIFD called on “all people of conscience” to join a counter press conference lead by the Center for Security Policy Thursday, “to counter these ideas and demonstrate the fact that these are the very ideas that radicalize Muslims.”
The conference is still set to be held at Lafayette Park Thursday afternoon and will include several speakers.
“Frankly, Shariah is already in America in many ways; we don’t need somebody from the U.K. coming over to make that point, so we will still be holding it," Christine Brim, chief operating officer of the Center for Security Policy, told FoxNews.com.
It's not just CSP,” she added. “There are a bunch of groups that will be out there and we're just going to talk about the conflict between Shariah and the Constitution, and the fact that the American people have a right to be concerned about it and speak out about it."
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
