A Model Useful Infidel

Noah Feldman via Infidels are Cool:

No legal system has ever had worse press. To many, the word “Shariah” conjures horrors of hands cut off, adulterers stoned and women oppressed. By contrast, who today remembers that the much-loved English common law called for execution as punishment for hundreds of crimes, including theft of any object worth five shillings or more? How many know that until the 18th century, the laws of most European countries authorized torture as an official component of the criminal-justice system?

So? Who has actually said that Western law, in all space and time, has always been better than sharia?

The debate is between a fourteen-hundred-year-old, decrepit system of law vs. the humane laws of the West in the 21st century. That's the comparison that matters.

In the Muslim world, on the other hand, the reputation of Shariah has undergone an extraordinary revival in recent years. A century ago, forward-looking Muslims thought of Shariah as outdated, in need of reform or maybe abandonment. Today, 66 percent of Egyptians, 60 percent of Pakistanis and 54 percent of Jordanians say that Shariah should be the only source of legislation in their countries.

But remember, most Muslims are moderate!

What follows is a small taste of sharia:

1. Saudi Arabia punishes the mere possession of alcohol with death.

2. The Pakistani state punishes any criticism of Islam or Muhammad with life imprisonment or death. (That's why I became a refugee in Canada.)

3. Iran imposes the death penalty for homosexuals. See this post.

4. Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, an Egyptian instructor, was denied full appointment as a professor because he was labeled an apostate. Consequently, his marriage with a Muslim woman was forcefully annulled. Several death threats followed. He is currently living in the Netherlands.

Given all this the last few sentences are stunning:

In Iran, the Islamists have discredited their faith among many ordinary people, and a similar process may be under way in Iraq. Still, with all its risks and dangers, the Islamists’ aspiration to renew old ideas of the rule of law while coming to terms with contemporary circumstances is bold and noble — and may represent a path to just and legitimate government in much of the Muslim world.

Wow. Just how much education did this person get to be this stupid?