In Allah We Trust
IHAVe ReCeIVeD A nUMBeR of interesting questions regard- ing the passage of health care reform but none so much as from one person who asked me to verify an internet rumor that Muslims had been exempted from ppACA’s individual mandate as part of president obama’s secret Muslim agenda—
specifically to help establish sharia law in the United States, and
to grant benefits to Muslims (including free health care) without
requiring them to pay taxes like everybody else.
The rumor includes mistaken notions
that those who fail to abide by ppACA’s
individual mandate will face hard prison
time, and that the Muslim exemption
to ppACA is part of a larger practice of
“dhimmitude,” a derogatory academic
term used to denote the subservience
of a conquered people to their Muslim
overlords. All of this is, as my grand-
mother might say, balderdash. Codswal-
lop. nonsense.
normally, I would write off such a
thing to internet detritus, but this came
from a National Underwriter reader, and
this audience is educated, intelligent and
skilled. Moreover, while the reader ob-
viously had internet access enough to receive a spooky e-mail
about dhimmitude and health care, and e-mailed me asking to
look into it, the reader apparently could not just Google this or
draw up a copy of ppACA and word-search it himself. Given that
this notion of a Muslim exclusion is obviously a fraud, but it is not
obvious to everyone, a little debunking is in order.
ppACA does grant an exemption to the individual mandate to
maintain health insurance coverage to those who are members of
a recognized religious sect, that objects to receiving health care
of any kind. But to qualify, you’ve got to be a member of a recognized sect that has already gotten exemption from Social Security
in accordance to section 1402(g)(1) of the Internal Revenue Code.
A quick look at the list of sects to date that have gained such approval shows that they are almost entirely Anabaptist or Mennonite congregations. Those that are not also appear to be Christian.
not a single Muslim group is on the list. More to the point, ppACA
does not single out any religious sects as exempted from the
mandate. (I would presume it is vague either because it is a hastily
compiled government document, or because the authors did not
want to accidentally exclude anyone.)
It is also worth noting that nowhere in the ppACA text are the
words “Muslim,” “sharia” or “dhimmitude” used. not once. And
why would it? After all, ppACA was not written by obama (who is
not a Muslim, by the way), but by members of Congress, a body
politic that is overwhelmingly Christian.
The rumor also notes that the Muslim exemption was based
off of Islamic law’s prohibition on insurance. There is a grain of
truth here, but a small and misplaced one. Insurance as we know
it is prohibited by a strict reading of sharia (Islamic law) because
it breaks the tenets of riba (interest), al-maisir (gambling) and
al-gharar (uncertainty). Basically, modern
insurance entails paying something for
nothing unless there is a claim, and given the interest involved with insurance
investments, it all trips off sharia’s rules
against usury. That said, Muslims are
not fools, and they have devised a kind
of sharia-compliant insurance model
called takaful, that basically functions
as a risk pool rather than a traditional
insurance contract. This lets them enjoy
modern finance without compromising
their religious beliefs. This also provides
them with means of complying with
the individual mandate for health care
by simply joining a sharia-compliant
health insurance arrangement.
As for the presence of sharia in the United States—which appears to be the real issue in this rumor—let us not forget that not
all Muslims practice sharia as we know it. American Muslims in
particular are not very fundamentalist, and are just like anybody
else: hard-working, freedom-loving and seeking the American
Dream. Are there aberrant, radical members of that culture? Indeed. Just as there are with any culture. Let’s not take things out
of proportion here.
In the end, those few American Muslims who do abide by a
strict reading of sharia and who might theoretically object to the
individual mandate on religious grounds could certainly abide
by that mandate if they did so through a takaful arrangement,
thereby negating the notion that there is a specific exemption for
Muslims in ppACA.
This odious rumor going around is little more than a toxic
intersection of people’s ignorance of ppACA, ignorance of the
Muslim faith, a lingering suspicion that obama is a secret Muslim, and resentment that somebody might be getting a free ride
when it comes to the individual mandate. There is plenty of stuff
to criticize about ppACA, but let’s not get sidetracked chasing
whacky conspiracy theories and internet hokum. NU
