She Is Not the Evidence Sharia Works—She Is the Evidence America Works
“She is not proof that Sharia produces equality. She is proof that Sharia has no legal authority in the United States.”—Perry O. Hooper Jr.
Guest Opinion by Perry Hooper, Jr.
In a recent editorial, a writer declared, “I am the evidence you’re wrong,” suggesting that her success as a CEO somehow proves that Sharia law and gender equality are compatible. That claim collapses the moment it is examined under real law instead of rhetoric.
She is not proof that Sharia produces equality. She is proof that Sharia has no legal authority in the United States.
She is a CEO in Hoover, Alabama because American constitutional law governs here, not the Quran, not religious courts, not Islamic jurisprudence, and not Sharia. Her authority, independence, property rights, and corporate power exist only because U.S. law explicitly rejects religious legal systems as civil authority and enforces one standard of equal protection for all citizens. That distinction is not philosophical. It is absolute, legal, and structural.
Under American law, she can sign binding contracts, own property without restriction, testify in court with full equal legal weight, control corporate assets, lead without male oversight, divorce under neutral civil procedure, and retain equal custodial and inheritance rights. None of those rights come from religion. None of them come from clerics. Every single one comes from the U.S. Constitution and Alabama statutory law.
Now let us be completely direct about what her argument refuses to confront. Classical Sharia law favors men. Period. Not in theory. Not in misunderstanding. Not in cultural distortion. By formal legal design.
Under Sharia, inheritance is unequal by mandate. Male testimony outweighs female testimony. Guardianship authority legally favors men. Marriage authority is male-dominant. Divorce power is asymmetrical. Polygamy is reserved exclusively for men. These are not isolated interpretations. They are embedded legal structures recognized across Islamic jurisprudence for over a thousand years.
Sharia does not treat men and women as legal equals. It never has. It was not designed to.
So when she says, “I am the evidence you’re wrong,” the truth is this. No, you are the evidence that Sharia is not operating where you live.
You are equal because Alabama law makes you equal. You are powerful because American law makes you powerful. You are free because U.S. constitutional protections make you free. Your equality does not come from religious law. It comes from a secular republic that separates faith from civil authority so that no one is legally subordinated by doctrine.
And that separation is not optional. It is the foundation of liberty.
America does not permit parallel legal systems. We do not subordinate civil rights to theology. We do not condition freedom on religious approval. People are free to believe anything they choose. No belief is free to override constitutional law.
So yes, she is living proof. But not of what she claims.
She is living proof that America’s legal system, not Sharia, is what guarantees equality. That is not hostility to faith. That is fidelity to the Constitution. And that is exactly why it must always be defended without apology.
Perry O. Hooper Jr. is a longtime Alabama Republican figure, former Alabama Legislator and Montgomery businessman. He served as Co-Chair of “Alabama Trump Victory” in 2016, and served as an at-large delegate to the Republican National Convention. He is a noted civic leader in Montgomery with deep family roots in Alabama’s legal and political history.
Opinions do not reflect the views and opinions of ALPolitics.com. ALPolitics.com makes no claims nor assumes any responsibility for the information and opinions expressed above.
