Should religious beliefs trump secular law?

I recently saw a link on one of my Facebook friend’s wall, which had a disclaimer warning the reader the link provided, was to a “right wing” website. http://www.newsrealblog.com/2010/07/27/“normal”-domestic-violence-in-morocco-is-a-crime-in-the-united-states/ The site was indeed “right wing” as evidenced by advertisements for right wing pundits like Ann Coulter or David Horrowitz.

The article dealt with the case of a young woman, married at 17 to an abusive man who took her from Morocco to New Jersey. Once in the United States the woman found herself trapped with a husband who not only beat her up, but also raped her. She ended up pregnant at which point her tormentor decided to divorce her. Her case went to court and a judge initially ruled in favor of the husband citing his religious beliefs which apparently made him immune to any sort of sense of wrongdoing. The article went on to warn the reader about the dangers of Shariah law creeping into the United States, which is quite a stretch based solely on this one tragic case.

The right wing website reported an important story but drew the wrong conclusions, hence the warning from my friend. I think the issue with this case was how a judge decided that the law did not apply to someone because of his religious beliefs. A judge in the United States actually implied that someone’s religious practices trumped secular law! I am sure the followers of the Rastafari faith would approve but in their case it doesn’t involve beating and raping one’s wife. Not helping a helpless woman in the hands of a violent husband was clearly a very bad decision which was recently overturned by a different judge with obviously more common sense than the first one. Religious beliefs should never trump secular law whether it’s a Jehovah’s witness parent refusing a blood transfusion for his child, a Muslim husband beating his wife or a Mormon marrying four women.