When you go to vote in ten days, please keep in mind the many doctrines and policies that are not just preferred but required by those who identify with the ideologies of Islam.

Every election presents a choice between candidates, some of whom may be more supportive of your individual freedoms than others. There are many candidates whose primary loyalty is to the United States: they put America first, seek to improve it, and defend its core constitutional values: freedom of speech and of the press, equal justice under the law, the right to due process, separation of powers, an independent judiciary, the right to keep and bear arms, and the full range of the rights of individuals -- not groups.

Those individuals whose identity is bound to an Islamist framework, however, are committed to implementing their version of Sharia law. Unfortunately, this seventh-century version of justice will not improve our country or the West; it will only move them backwards.

As someone who grew up in Iran and Syria and experienced these realities, I have seen firsthand people who identify with Islamist Sharia law. Islamists and jihadists do not treat Sharia as one policy preference among many. It is not just their identity; it is what they are committed to advancing as the sole identity for everyone.

Their entire sense of self, their purpose in this life, and their belief about the next life depend on implementing Sharia completely. It outweighs everything else. They will die for it. Changing this commitment would mean changing who they are. It is like expecting the Pope to denounce Jesus on Easter or a rabbi to enjoy a pork chop on Yom Kippur – only more — to the zillionth power. Nothing external — prosperity, compromise, or democratic norms — can override it.

As we were taught for years and saw with our own eyes, Islamist Sharia law stands in complete contradiction to American values in every major respect. The very reason that the United States grew and became a superpower in technology, the economy, and influence is that its founding values run directly in opposition to Islamist Sharia.

Look, for example, at countries taken over by Islamic ideology: Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Pakistan, and Iran are clear examples. Iran, for instance, possesses one of the world's largest oil and gas reserves and should be wealthy. After the Shia Islamists seized power and imposed their version of Sharia, the economy became one of the worst performing for a resource-rich nation, and its citizens, ordinary people, like you, have paid the price.

Under Sharia, one cannot have it both ways. If someone truly believes in Islamic Sharia law, they must follow it point by point. One of the central points is the rejection of free speech. Just look at Pakistan's blasphemy laws. One can be killed not only for criticizing Islam, Mohammed or Sharia, but even for the suspicion that you might have done so. The slighted questioning of the religion or the rulers who claim to implement Allah's will makes you a blasphemer or an infidel, the punishment for which can be death.

In countries where Islamists have taken power, people are imprisoned, tortured, raped and executed for words or online posts. Asia Bibi spent eight years on death row for taking a few sips of water from a well, and, because she is Christian, of thereby having "contaminated" it. Supporting those people identified with this Sharia means supporting people who do not believe in freedom of speech or freedom of much else, especially individual rights.

There are few extenuating circumstances in Sharia. There is no freedom of conscience. If you are raped you are guilty of committing adultery and can be stoned to death — unless four males witnessed the incident! If you are gay, you must be thrown to your death from a high place. Apostasy — leaving Islam — is punishable by death. A person raised in that system is taught that conversion is not a private choice; it is a capital offense. Do you really want someone who genuinely believes that you should not be free to choose your own faith or your own actions and choices holding power over your city, your state, or your country – and seated on intelligence committees?

This same ideology holds that men are legally superior to women in inheritance, testimony, and nearly every legal domain. Women are regarded as inferior by doctrine and design. It is astonishing that some self-described, apparently masochistic feminists and women's rights advocates still support policies that so openly abuse them.

The policy and priority of those committed to this worldview is not the equal rights, prosperity, health, or livelihood of the American people. Their priority and main policy is advancing and imposing their Islamist version of Sharia. That is what they believe earns rewards in this world and the next. Failure to pursue it makes them bad servants of Allah. They will promise free electricity, free everything, social benefits, and moderation — exactly as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and others did before consolidating power. Once in power, the rules change. This pattern is called taqiyya — dissimulation — the permission to conceal true intentions and present a milder face until the moment of strength arrives. It has happened in Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, Pakistan and Iran, among other places. It has been repeated elsewhere. Americans would do well to recognize the pattern.

Wherever this ideology has taken control, countries that once had greater openness and potential have sped backward. The process starts gradually — gaining positions in education, government, building influence, and waiting. Then the enforcement comes: mandatory dress codes, suppression of dissent, and restrictions on faith and speech. Few in Iran expected the sudden total transformation that followed the advent of the ayatollahs. Once power was secured, new laws appeared virtually overnight.

Similar patterns have already become entrenched in the United Kingdom and parts of Europe Informal Sharia councils have proliferated, supposedly handling "just" personal and family matters — marriage, divorce, and inheritance according to Islamic principles — but heaven help anyone who might try to protest a ruling. These bodies lack all formal legal authority under national law and operate as voluntary or advisory forums, yet their growth — estimated in the dozens across Britain — has fueled parallel systems: unequal treatment of women in divorce and inheritance rulings, and pressures against free expression or freedom of action.

Broader Islamist networks, including those associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, have drawn attention in several European countries for violent societal pressure, parallel communities, and increasing political pressure at the ballot box that accompanies demographic proliferation. Only occasionally are there calls for countermeasures. They usually amount to nothing -- both from fear by the leaders of violent opposition on the streets, as seen now in France and as far as South Korea, from fear of being abandoned at the altar of the ballot box.

Supporting candidates whose identity is bound to Islamist Sharia law risks sending the country backward — for you, your children, and your grandchildren. The examples around the world are clear: once these forces reach significant numbers or high levels of power, they show their true face. If you care about the values of the West, you would be better off voting instead for people whose loyalty is to this country, whose identity is not an imported Islamist ideology, and whose priority is the opportunity for a freer, more prosperous life and constitutional guarantees that send America forwards. Going backwards — fast — can happen here too.