Sharia Law Isn’t Coming To Walmart, Don’t Let Confused Conservatives Fool You
Sharia Law is not coming to a Walmart near you, nor has it ever happened, despite what a handful of conservative pundits – most recently Allen West – would have you believe.
Writing on his own website, conservative writer and former Congressman Allen B. West recounts the details of an incident Sunday morning that has him convinced that Sharia Law has come to Walmart. West writes that he and his daughter were at a Dallas Walmart when he noticed an employee do something that probably happens at every Walmart in the U.S. every day.
“There was a young man doing the checkout and another Walmart employee came over and put up a sign, ‘No alcohol products in this lane.'”
If you’ve ever tried to purchase alcohol at Walmart, you probably already know why a particular lane that day was closed off to alcohol purchases, and it has nothing to do with Sharia Law: cashiers who are under the age of 21 are not allowed to scan alcoholic beverages (and in some places, they aren’t allowed to handle any transaction involving alcohol at all).
But Allen West, apparently not a regular drinker, decided that something more nefarious had to be afoot.
“So being the inquisitive fella I am, I used my additional set of eyes — glasses — to see the young checkout man’s name. Let me just say it was NOT ‘Steve.'”
So, because the cashier had a (we’re assuming) Muslim-sounding name, the reason there were no alcohol sales at his register had to be because of Sharia Law, because what else could it be if not Walmart adopting Sharia Law and furthering Christian persecution?
“I pointed the sign out to [my daughter] and her response was a simple question, how is it that this Muslim employee could refuse service to customers based on his religious beliefs?”
Oddly enough, when he later got confirmation from Walmart that the entire episode in fact had to do with Texas liquor laws and not Islam, West’s blog still insisted that Walmart is becoming Sharia-ized anyway.
“EDITOR’S UPDATE: We spoke to the Walmart store, and apparently employees under 21 years old are prohibited from selling cigarettes and alcohol. However, that isn’t to say Walmart isn’t selectively caving to Muslim demands.”
So, in other words, even though this supposed act of Sharia law at a Texas Walmart was clearly shown to be nothing of the sort, Walmart is still caving to Sharia Law, so there.
West’s blog refers to an Oxford, Ohio Walmart “caving to Muslim demands,” according to Young Conservatives, and offering Halal meat – that is, meat butchered and prepared according to strict guidelines put forth in Islamic law.
What West’s blog and the Young Conservatives apparently fail to realize is that offering your customers what they want is not “Sharia Law” – it’s good business. If the Oxford Walmart had gotten rid of all non-Halal meats at the request of their Muslim customers, then we could say that the location submitted to Sharia Law. But since nothing of the sort appears to have happened, it looks like any claims of Sharia Law being enacted at the Oxford, Ohio Walmart are, at best, a misunderstanding.
But of course, none of that matters to a conservative pundit looking for another juicy story about Sharia Law coming to the U.S., even if there is none.
[Image courtesy of: Shutterstock/Martin Good]
