Barack Obama won a Nobel Peace Prize on a nomination submitted ten whole days into his term of office in part due to his effort in “easing American conflicts with Muslim nations.”  Helming that effort is Dalia Mogahed, Obama’s advisor on Muslim affairs, who gave British television viewers a taste of how Obama won the Nobel.  She explained that the oppressive shari’a law that results in stonings, mainly for women, is actually “gender justice”, which might be news to women’s-rights groups around the world:

President Barack Obama’s adviser on Muslim affairs, Dalia Mogahed, has provoked controversy by appearing on a British television show hosted by a member of an extremist group to talk about Sharia Law.

Miss Mogahed, appointed to the President’s Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, said the Western view of Sharia was “oversimplified” and the majority of women around the world associate it with “gender justice”.

The White House adviser made the remarks on a London-based TV discussion programme hosted by Ibtihal Bsis, a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahrir party. …

During the 45-minute discussion, on the Islam Channel programme Muslimah Dilemma earlier this week, the two members of the group made repeated attacks on secular “man-made law” and the West’s “lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism”.

They called for Sharia Law to be “the source of legislation” and said that women should not be “permitted to hold a position of leadership in government”.

Miss Mogahed made no challenge to these demands and said that “promiscuity” and the “breakdown of traditional values” were what Muslims admired least about the West.

Gender justice?  Under shari’a, a woman’s testimony in court only counts for half of that of a man.  If a woman is raped, she needs four male witnesses to prove her case.  If she makes the accusation and doesn’t find four witnesses, the victim gets charged with fornication or adultery and faces death.

Under what definition of “gender justice” does that fall?  The laws of shari’a deliberately make women chattel to their husbands, fathers, or brothers.  Its application keeps women in some countries from being allowed to venture out in public on their own, without an adult male family member to accompany them.

Instead of defending the rights of women and secular application of law, which is the basis of our law, the advisor of the President of the United States fails to answer a demand for the imposition of an extreme religious code on free people. Mogahed also never rebutted the notion that women should not hold public office, which directly challenged her own status, but also insulted many women in American public life in both parties.  I wonder what Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton think about that performance.

If that’s the kind of outreach that wins Nobel Peace prizes, then the Norwegians must value the oppression of women in Muslim countries and the Western nations that appease that oppression.

Update: Apologies to all Swedes.  I know it’s Norwegians that hand out the award, but for some reason I wrote “Swedes”.  Coffee deficiency.