Sharia Advocacy Becoming More Prevalent in US

Is support for Sharia law creeping into American society and other Western nations?

Professor Ryan Mauro of The Clarion Project, a group that aims to bring to light the dangers of Islamist extremism, addressed that topic in an interview with CBN News Tuesday.

"I would say advocacy for Sharia law certainly is," Mauro said. "Islamists who treat their faith of Islam as a political doctrine, a constitution that believe(s) in the type of things like this Florida professor was advocating, that certainly is prevalent across the United States."

Watch CBN News' interview with Professor Ryan Mauro about Sharia law above.

Mauro is referring to Dr. Bassem Al-Halabi, a computer science and engineering professor at Florida Atlantic University. Last week, CBN News reported that a startling video exposed Al-Halabi promoting the benefits of Sharia law.

United West, a Sharia watchdog organization, shot the footage during a panel on Islamaphobia at the school on May 23.

The video shows Al-Halabi saying Sharia law is necessary to shut down organized crime. He explains that cutting off the hands of a thief is a good example of Sharia in practice.

"It sounds very severe -- it sounds very barbaric I know," he said. "But if it takes one or two people to have their hands cut off and then there's no more stealing in the whole nation, that's a much better resolution than having hundreds of people die every day."

Mauro said the incident involving Al-Halabi at Florida Atlantic is not isolated.

"There's another video where he was talking about jailing people, prosecuting people in accordance with Sharia blasphemy laws for those that criticize Islam. So we have two videotapes of him endorsing Sharia law," Mauro said.

Mauro told CBN News there's a real danger in advocating that type of legal system.

"You see it in high-level Islamic activists that might have even met with your congressman," he continued. "The problem here is the radical ideology -- if you are espousing the radical Islamic ideology, then you are contributing to the threat of violent jihad."

"The danger of Islamists that are promoting Sharia law is that they see it as a form for governance for today," Mauro said. "And that is the common denominator between all the jihadist groups."

"And so that is what we really need to target from a counter-terrorism perspective in order to stop ideology from inspiring acts of violence, acts of hatred, anti-Semitism and other things detrimental to our society," Mauro continued.

Mauro told CBN News, at this time, there is no indication that leaders at Florida Atlantic University have taken any action against Al-Halabi.  

"And this is something that we see across the country, where even in Ohio, there is a pro-ISIS, pro-al Qaeda professor that got a lot of attention, and the school did nothing," Mauro told CBN News. "The example of Julio Pino, at Kent State University, immediately comes to mind, where the FBI was investigating him for recruiting for ISIS, and he kept his job."

"The FBI actually interviewed students to see if they knew about his recruiting, and he kept his job, and the university said, 'Well, he hasn't been arrested,'" Mauro continued.