This letter concerns itself with the inevitable introduction of Sharia law into Idaho.

The latest concern raised by certain legislators is that Sharia law will be introduced into Idaho via an international compact or treaty concerning the payment of child support. The United States has been signing treaties and agreements of one type or another with foreign countries since our existence. At no time has Sharia law been introduced into Idaho or any of the other states via these agreements. Contracting with a Catholic does not make you a Catholic, just as contracting with a country that embraces Sharia law does not make us Muslims or the enforcers of Muslim laws.

Sharia law will make its appearance along with its enforcement shortly. It will do so at the direct invitation of the Idaho legislature.

Let me explain. I believe you will find the narrative both interesting and alarming.

It all started with the passage in 1991 of Idaho Code 37-2732A. Prior to 1991 all Idaho criminal laws applied to all persons living or found in Idaho. This is consistent with Western Civilization, the U.S. Constitution, the Idaho Constitution and Idaho's cherished values and customs. In fact it is hard to conceive of any well ordered society that does not have that requirement. In 1991 the state legislature passed and the governor signed into law Idaho code 37-2732A. It remains on the books to this day. This law created an exemption to the Idaho criminal statutes, by saying that a member of a particular religious group in Idaho could use peyote legally while the rest of us using peyote commit felonies punishable by incarceration in the Idaho State Penitentiary.

To my knowledge, for the first time in the history of Idaho religion and its exercise triumphed over criminal laws of general applicability through the intervention of the political leaders of Idaho.

The political leaders then and now want you to go to jail for using peyote unless you are a member of the "right" religious group.

Example: Person A, a member of the right religious group uses peyote. The police know. He is not arrested, he keeps his job, and is able to care for his wife and children, and is widely revered for his deep religious convictions. He goes on to live a life worth living.

Person B: He is just as religious as Person A, but has another religion to call his own. He uses peyote, he is arrested, convicted of a felony, sent to prison, loses his job and/or his profession, cannot support his wife and family, and is hounded for the rest of his life for being an ex-con once he gets out of prison. He lives a life of hell on Earth.

Our legislators think nothing of this. They are comforted with the belief that they are doing God's will on Earth.

Now you are thinking that nothing can be worse than this. Think again. The genie got out of the box. And as you know, once the genie is out of the box you can't put him back in.

Seeing that one religion could easily get the Idaho legislators to vote against common sense, human decency, and western civilization, to say nothing of Idaho's values and customs, other religious groups decided that they, too, should be exempt from all criminal laws and for good measure, all civil laws with which they objected. This desire to be free of the civilizing restraints of the law came to a head in 2000.

The new Idaho law passed in 2000 doubled down - no, quadrupled down - on the awfulness of 37-2732A.

This law can be found at Idaho Code 73-401 et. seq. The law in Idaho now is that an individual's religious actions trump all criminal laws and all civil laws unless the state and its subdivisions can show that the enforcement of the law is (A) essential to a compelling governmental interest and (B) the "state action" is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest. Idaho code 73-402(3) (A) (B).

To further assist this lawlessness, the legislature passed an additional paragraph that requires any Idaho governmental body that is foolish enough to challenge a religious act as a violation of the law - civil or criminal - and if the religious person prevails in a court of law or administrative hearing he is awarded attorneys fees and costs of suit. Your tax dollars at work. (The latest civil rights award I saw contained a $700,000 plus attorney fees judgment against a golfing country club that did not want to share with its women members the good tee times. I assume that a fair share of the good tee times are available to them now.)

This is cultural and moral anarchy.

You can also see that this law acts as an invitation to Sharia law and every other religion, including satanic cults, Kentucky rattle snake dancers, and advocates of the imposition of Sharia law and a whole host of other religions known and unknown that are out there.

Do not take my word for any of this. Make up your own mind. This is still America, after all. Take this letter, and the laws that I have cited above, visit with your pastor or other religious leaders, your family attorney or better yet, the legislators who are currently so agitated about the introduction of Sharia law into Idaho, and see what they have to say. These will be interesting conversations. Remind your legislators that you know that a law passed by one legislative session that is not changed or voided by a new legislature acts as a ratification of the existing law.

This letter has been something of a polemic. So I will close with as even handed a philosophical argument as I can muster. Has the Idaho legislature by these laws conferred a special status to religious people in Idaho as a result of these laws? If you answer "yes" as I believe you will, the next question becomes very important. To paraphrase President Lincoln at Gettysburg, can we as a society, who were once conceived in liberty and once dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal but are now dedicated to the proposition that religious people are of greater status, power, and dignity than the rest of us, long endure?

Norm Gissel is a Coeur d'Alene resident and attorney.