Is Islam a Valid Religion?

To most people that's a pretty straightforward question, with an easy answer. Yes, Islam is a valid religion. People who spend time arguing it isn't are bigots. The actions of a few do not define the religion as a whole.

Unfortunately, Townhall chooses to employ a few of those bigots, like Frank J. Gaffney Jr., who's latest article takes the New York Times to task for writing an unbiased article on Shariah.

Totalitarians have an uncanny appreciation for the subversive effect of foreign propagandists. The Nazis had Lord Haw-Haw, Imperial Japan its Tokyo Rose, the Soviets the World Council of Churches (among many others) and the North Vietnamese Jane Fonda. Now, our time’s totalitarian ideologues – the Islamofascists – have the New York Times.

He references the reporting that the New York Times has done on the War on Terror, accusing them of revealing to our enemies things that our President had already revealed (details humorously presented here). But then he gets down to cases. An article written by Noah Feldman at the New York Times on Shariah law, which Gaffney read at least the first few paragraphs of.

Gaffney's big problem with the article seems to be that it doesn't present Islamic Law as something intrinsically wrong and heretical. Rather it looks at the history of Shariah, noting both it's positive and negative aspects. For something to have survived thousands of years, it must have some positive aspects, right?

Wrong. Terrorists are in favor of the Shariah and in the small mind of Frank Gaffney that means Islamic Law must be an enemy to right thinking people. The fact that Shariah is revered by billions of Muslims is an inconvenience; but surely right thinking Muslims will one day realize the heretical nature of being Muslims and accept the truth.