Above Image: Photo purporting to be a Mormon family in Utah around 1878.
In 1874, a Mormon in Utah was indicted and convicted for bigamy—the crime of marrying more than one woman. He was then fined $500 and sentenced to two years of hard labor.
The Mormon appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. He claimed that he was deprived of the “free exercise” of his religion guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. He said he was a long time Mormon, a member of the Church of Latter-Day Saints.
He said that as a male member of that church, he had a duty to have more than one wife “if circumstances permitted.” He said that any male member of the church who “refused to practice polygamy, circumstances permitting . . . would be punished. . . with be damnation in the life to come.” He established that he was married in the church, according to church law, by an authorized minister of that church.
The United States Supreme Court upheld his conviction in Reynolds vs. United States, 98 US 145 (1878). However, it vacated the “hard labor” part of his two-year sentence.
The Supreme Court first described how the First Amendment was drafted and added to the U.S. Constitution. The Court held that the First Amendment prevented Congress from making laws to control “opinions”. However, Congress had the power to control behavior. It stated,
“Polygamy has always been odious among the northern and western nations of Europe and… was almost exclusively a feature of the life of Asiatic and of African people.”
The court found that “polygamy leads to the patriarchal principle” and in large communities “fetters people in stationary despotism”.
The court went on, “Suppose one believed that human sacrifices were a necessary part of religious worship. . . Or if a wife religiously believed it was her duty to burn herself upon the funeral pyre of her dead husband; would it be beyond the power of the civil government to prevent her from carrying her belief into practice?”
The Supreme Court concluded, “To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect, to permit every citizen to become a law until himself. Government could exist only in name under such circumstances.
In 1887, Congress revoked the charter of the Mormon Church and seized its assets. It did so because officials of the Mormon church used those assets to promote the practice of polygamy in defiance of U.S. law. In 1890, the United States Supreme Court upheld that action in the case of Mormon Church vs. United States, 136 U.S 1 (1890).
The Court stated:
“No doubt the Thugs of India imagined that their belief in the right of assassination was a religious belief, but their thinking did not make it so. The practice of suttee by Hindu widows may have sprung from a supposed religious conviction. The offering of human sacrifices by our own ancestors in Britain was no doubt sanctioned by an equally conscientious impulse. But no one, on that account, would hesitate to brand these practices now as crimes against society and obnoxious to condemnation and punishment by the civil authority.”
The Mormon Church formally ended polygamy in 1890, when Church President Wilford Woodruff issued the “Manifesto” on September 25, 1890, instructing all Latter‑day Saints to obey U.S. anti‑polygamy laws
Islamic (sharia) law permits polygamy and also permits up to four wives. It also has other doctrines, which are even more incompatible with a free and civilized society that recognizes certain “unalienable rights” of each individual. They include:
- Death or other severe punishment for anyone Muslim who attempts to leave the religion, or anyone who ridicules or criticizes Allah, Mluhammad, or anything about Islam. (This justifies “honor killings” of family members who appear to be too “American” or socialize with non-Muslims.
- Death penalty for adultery (This includes child brides who try to leave arranged marriages, and married women raped by men not their husbands. A women’s testimony carries less weight than that of a man.)
- Limited rights for women. Married women may be beaten by their husbands. All women must where specified coverings and other restrictive clothing.
- Islamic law is supreme over the Constitution and all laws enacted by elected representatives.
- Dying in a jihad against non-believers is the only certain way to achieve forgiveness of sin and eternal life in Paradise.
- Most young Muslims and a large number of older Muslims believe that Jihad (war against non-believers) is the “peak of Islam.’
- Muslims cannot have close friendships (awliya) with non-Muslims
- Obligations to defend Muslims attacked by non-Muslims. (Which explains why militant Muslims often barbarically attack non-Muslims to provoke retaliation.)
- Muslims may own non-Muslim slaves captured in war, including sex-slaves.
Most public opinion polls show that at least half of Muslims in America want America to be run by Islamic (sharia) law. They vote for candidates who promise to do that. Most young Muslims, said they are willing to fight and die to enforce Islamic (sharia) law in America.
What is happening in America today was outlined and predicted in this memo written in May, 1991 by Mohamed Akram, a.k.a. Mohamed Adlouni. He wrote it for the Shura (Advisory) Council of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States and Canada. Click here for link to detailed post: An Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for the Brotherhood in North America :: Archive Documents :: The Investigative Project on Terrorism
In the introductory letter, Akram referenced a “long-term plan…approved and adopted” by the Shura Council in 1987. Akram proposed this memo as a supplement to that plan and requested that the memo be added to the agenda for an upcoming Council meeting.
Notable quotes:
- “Enablement of Islam in North America, meaning: establishing an effective and stable Islamic Movement led by the Muslim Brotherhood which adopts Muslims’ causes domestically and globally, and which works to expand the observant Muslim base, aims at unifying and directing Muslims’ efforts, presents Islam as a civilization alternative, and supports the global Islamic state, wherever it is…
- “In order for Islam and its Movement to become “a part of the homeland” in which it lives, “stable” in its land, “rooted” in the spirits and minds of its people, “enabled” in the live [sic] of its society and has firmly-established “organizations” on which the Islamic structure is built and with which the testimony of civilization is achieved, the Movement must plan and struggle to obtain “the keys” and the tools of this process in carry [sic] out this grand mission as a “Civilization Jihadist” responsibility which lies on the shoulders of Muslims and – on top of them – the Muslim Brotherhood in this country…
- “The process of settlement is a “Civilization-Jihadist Process” with all the word means. The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and “sabotaging” its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God’s religion is made victorious over all other religions. Without this level of understanding, we are not up to this challenge and have not prepared ourselves for Jihad yet. It is a Muslim’s destiny to perform Jihad and work wherever he is and wherever he lands until the final hour comes, and there is no escape from that destiny except for those who chose to slack. But, would the slackers and the Mujahedeen be equal.
At our Liberty and Prosperity business meeting on May 9, 2026, we agreed on nine key issues to promote during the year. Two issues were tabled until our next business Meeting on June 6. They include this Issue #8:
#8. Teach Americans how followers of Muhammad attacked, murdered, robbed and enslaved Christians, Jews, Hindus, Persians, and Buddhists, and destroyed civilizations for more than 1,400 years since 623 A.D.
We invite your opinions on this issue during the next three weeks.
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Would this apply to Estate law?
Muslims loyal to Islamic (sharia) law can undermine all of our laws when they are appointed as judges or sit on juries. They can repeal or amend all of our laws if elected to the legislature. Militants and bribe, bully or even kill people who try to assert their American rights in court, rather than “voluntarily” submit to arbitration by private “sharia courts.”