How Scary is the Shariah?

In keeping with the good writing spirit, I’d like to state that this post was inspired by an excellent article written on the topic by Noah Feldman – a law professor at Harvard University.
It is extremely well written and I strongly recommend you read the full article.

He writes, and I quote;
“To many, the word “Shariah” conjures horrors of hands cut off, adulterers stoned and women oppressed....

In fact, for most of its history, Islamic law offered the most liberal and humane legal principles available anywhere in the world."

Although I would like to disagree on his opinion that the Shariah was alright only “for most of history”, seeking to imply that it probably isn’t anymore, I would like to take this opportunity to thank him if I could for setting things right in his own way so far as the image of Shariah goes.

In his article Professor Feldman writes, when Rowan Williams – the archbishop of Canterbury – suggested in his lecture that it might be a good idea to allow Islamic and Orthodox Jewish courts to implement their religious law, it was “the word “Shariah” that was radioactive”

Now, thinking back on how this whole image thing got where it is now, I think we form part of the problem because we don’t tell people what our religion and our principles are all about.

This reminds me of an incident when I was still in India last year when a friend of mine and I had the opportunity to discuss Islam with a student of architecture on a train with us.
To our surprise, she hardly knew anything about Islam - in spite of her claiming to have ‘several Islam friends’.

While we explained to her on some of the aspects of Islam – this also included the usual questions on polygamy, hijab and the implications of the Shariah – it occurred to me that this was probably all the information what most people who don’t have much contact with muslims had.

And if this is the case in a country where Muslims form a sizeable part of the population, I’d hate to think on how much people know about Islam in places where you don’t have that many Muslims.

And like I always say, it’s up to us – every single one of us – to set things straight.