BY CARL S. BERG - ILLUME REPORTER
Tea Party circles in East Tennessee might seem an unlikely environment for launching a Muslim organization. Will Coley, a 31-year-old Tennessee native, Muslim convert and Tea Party activist did just that.
His one person outreach project to Tea Party conservatives and libertarians grew into the first national organization countering Islamophobia on the Right.
Their message: Islam is compatible with an anti-big government or libertarian philosophy. They do not denounce sharia, but defend it within a libertarian framework.
"Our approach is different," says Coley. "We use principles within sharia like maqasid (primary goals) to show their connection with John Locke's principles of life, liberty and property."
Coley claims this strategy makes an impact.
"I have noticed everywhere we go it is about the same," says Coley. "We talk to 50 people. The five to six that pointed the group in an anti-Islam direction still hate us, but the rest start thinking, researching."
Most notably, in 2011 Coley persuaded the majority of Tea Party organizations in East Tennessee to take a stand against Islamophobia.
After speaking with fourteen Tea Party chapters about Muslim beliefs on liberty and sharia (Islamic religious law code), twelve of them agreed to reject anti-Muslim appeals. They even publically supported a petition opposing a proposed "sharia ban" in Tennessee.
Coley's efforts drew the attention of members of the small but growing community of Muslim libertarians, especially after an initial article on the anti-Islamophobia website Loonwatch.com.
Read more at: http://shariaunveiled.wor...
We were also kicked off of a Newt Gingrich site, remember? Seems the followers of Romney told me this is what Newt would want! Those people were pushing for Romney and, was it Ryan they wanted as his running buddy on the Newt site?
I am wondering IF this is reall...
If I remember correctly.....some of those Tea Party sites had groups that were discussing Islam also! The ones I had been connected with didn't seem to be that fuzzy and warm towards Islam.