The Centrality of Sharia

Homeland Security Committee chairman Joe Lieberman, sorta gets it

We’re in a global war that affects our homeland security with Islamist extremists. To call our enemy violent extremism is so general and vague that it ultimately has no meaning. The other term used sometimes is ‘al Qaeda and its allies.’ Now, that’s better, but it still is too narrow.

but sorta doesn't:

The Homeland Security Committee chairman concluded: “[I]t is vital to understand that we’re not just fighting an organization, al Qaeda, but we are up against a broader ideology, a politicized theology, quite separate from the religion of Islam that has fueled this war. Success in the war consequently will come not when a single terrorist group or its affiliates are eliminated, but when [a] broader set of ideas associated with it are rejected and discarded. The reluctance to identify our enemy as violent Islamist extremism makes it harder to mobilize effectively to fight this war of ideas.”

Jihad expert Frank Gaffney tells him where he went wrong:

As it happens, Mr. Lieberman is, like Mr. Obama, right up to a point. If we are properly to recognize the enemy we face, however, we must appreciate two facts the senator misses, as well: (1) Adherents to the “politicized theology … that has fueled this war” are also using nonviolent - or, more accurately, pre-violent - techniques to wage it against us, and (2) that ideology is not “separate from the religion of Islam.” Rather, this politico-military-legal doctrine known as Shariah is derived from the sacred texts, interpretations, rulings and scholarly consensuses of Islam. The reality that many Muslims around the world practice their faith without following the dictates of Shariah simply means that some believe this code is separable from Islam. But it surely is not “separate” from it.