Why Americans Should Pay Attention & What Could Happen in Our Country

Most Americans assume that the Constitution and our legal traditions will automatically protect freedom indefinitely. But Part 1 established a critical reality: wherever Islam becomes a demographic or political majority, Sharia has historically followed (formally or informally) across cultures and eras.

Even relatively small, well-organized communities can influence local laws, school policies, and cultural norms. The global record demonstrates that Sharia is not merely a private spiritual framework. It functions as a legal, social, and political system.

This matters for the United States.

Demographics Are Destiny

Traditional Muslim communities tend to maintain higher birth rates than surrounding populations and place a strong emphasis on religious continuity. Combined with tight community cohesion, this creates long-term demographic momentum.

  • In Europe and parts of the United States, Muslim populations remain a minority, but they are growing faster than the general population.
  • As population increases, communities can begin demanding religious accommodations in law, education, and public life.
  • Over decades, incremental changes can reshape local culture, policy, and legal norms.

This demographic pattern has been well documented in research and has contributed to sustained Muslim population growth in Western countries.¹

Legal and Cultural Encroachment

Even without overt enforcement, Sharia influence often enters Western societies through legal and cultural accommodation:

  • Family law: Requests for recognition of Sharia-based divorce, custody, or inheritance rulings.
  • Education: Pressure to censor materials deemed offensive to Islamic beliefs or to include religious accommodations in curricula.
  • Public policy: Demands for prayer spaces, halal food requirements, or exemptions from generally applicable laws.
  • Speech restrictions: Efforts to classify criticism of Islam or the Quran as “hate speech” or blasphemy.

In countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and Canada, courts have considered or permitted Sharia-based arbitration agreements in family law disputes. While often framed as voluntary, these arrangements demonstrate a legal pathway through which Sharia norms can influence secular systems.

Cultural Enforcement and Community Pressure

Part 1 in this series showed that even when Sharia is not codified into state law, communities often enforce it socially. The United States is not immune to this dynamic:

  • Social pressure, ostracism, or intimidation surrounding religious conformity
  • Attempts to influence schools, employers, or public institutions
  • Informal enforcement of dress codes, dietary rules, or moral expectations

A frequently cited example is Dearborn, Michigan, home to one of the largest Muslim populations in the United States. Over the past two decades:

  • Schools and businesses have increasingly accommodated Islamic dietary and prayer practices.
  • Community norms exert influence over public behavior and social expectations.
  • Public events and policies are often adjusted to avoid religious offense.

Dearborn remains fully under U.S. law. But it illustrates how demographic growth and cultural cohesion can shape public life without formal Sharia enforcement. It is a localized example of broader global patterns.

Liberal Blindness

Modern Western liberalism often assumes:

  • All religions function as private belief systems.
  • All religions are compatible with secular law.
  • All belief systems respect freedom of speech and conscience.

History and global experience contradict these assumptions. Orthodox Islam does not recognize a separation between religion and state, nor does it affirm pluralism in the Western sense. Where Muslims become the majority, Sharia consistently shapes law, culture, and governance while pushing out ideological competition.

Naively treating all religions as functionally identical leads to policy blindness.

At bottom, this is not simply a demographic or policy question, but a question of which vision of law and liberty will shape the moral and constitutional future of the nation.

The Stakes for America

If Americans remain unaware or unwilling to confront global patterns, several big risks emerge:

  1. Incremental legal accommodations that privilege Sharia norms over equal application of the law.
  2. Cultural pressure that discourages criticism or open discussion of Islamic doctrine.
  3. Demographic tipping points that translate into political leverage.
  4. Gradual erosion of religious liberty for Christians and others who do not submit to Islamic law.

Freedom, equal protection, and constitutional governance are not self-executing. They depend on a shared moral vision of law, human dignity, and responsibility that must be taught, defended and passed down.

The issue confronting Americans is neither hypothetical nor distant. The growing influence of Islam shows that these dynamics are already observable within Western societies, including the United States.

This does not mean America is destined to lose its freedoms, nor does it justify fear or hostility toward individual Muslims. But it does mean liberty cannot be preserved by ignorance or wishful thinking. Legal systems and cultural norms evolve over time—often quietly and incrementally.

That leaves an unavoidable question:

What should American citizens, churches, and policymakers do now to safeguard constitutional freedom, equal justice, and the rule of law for our great-grandchildren?

In Part 3, we will address that question by examining the lessons America can learn and the steps required to preserve liberty before incremental changes become entrenched.

Footnote

¹ Pew Research Center, Europe’s Growing Muslim Population: Projections for 2010–2050 (2017), documenting higher fertility rates, younger median ages, and stronger religious retention among Muslim populations compared to non-Muslims; see also Pew Research Center, Faith in Flux: Changes in Religious Affiliation in the U.S.