Separate but equal?

Interview | Islam expert Patrick Sookhdeo on efforts to radicalize Muslims in the West | Priya Abraham

Patrick Sookhdeo grew up in a Muslim family in Guyana (South America) but converted to Christianity in the United Kingdom. He directs the Barnabas Fund, which helps persecuted Christians around the world, and advises NATO and the British military on Islamic terrorism.

WORLD: A controversy has been brewing in Minneapolis-St. Paul over an attempt to get the government to enforce a Muslim American Society fatwa against taxi drivers transporting passengers who carry alcohol. Are there other such cases of the MAS or similar groups trying to impose Islamic rulings in the United States?

SOOKHDEO: Such incidents occur repeatedly in the UK, where one accommodation of Islamic law has followed another. That is not yet the case in the United States for the most part because the Muslim population is small, diverse, and rather spread out. But as the Muslim population grows, several elements are working for its radicalization. Within the United States, groups like the Muslim American Society (MAS), The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and others are working to advance Islam and to establish their own positions as religious authorities.