MINNEAPOLIS – Minneapolis residents and local Muslim leaders are enraged over a man who has been “policing” the Cedar-Riverside area to enforce what he calls “the civil part of sharia law,” the Star Tribune reports.
The report explains 22-year-old Georgia native Abdullah Rashid moved to the Cedar-Riverside area in 2016. Since then, he has been “policing” the neighborhood telling people they cannot drink, use drugs, or interact with members of the opposite sex. Furthermore, if he sees Muslim women dressed “inappropriately,” he tells them to wear a jilbab.
Rashid said his goal is to transform Cedar-Riverside into a “sharia-controlled zone” where Muslims are instructed about the proper practices of Islam and that “non-Muslims are asked to respect” it, reports the Star Tribune.
Local Muslim leaders are speaking out against the actions of Rashid. In the Star Tribune report the executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Jaylani Hussein, said, “What he’s doing is wrong and doesn’t reflect the community at all.”
According to the Star Tribune, Rashid is recruiting others to aid in his policing efforts.
