Thursday, February 16, 2017

Sharia Law

"Most Muslims are not ruled by and do not condone Sharia law." -- Ron Hurst, "On Prejudice and Bigotry," Nacogdoches Daily Sentinel, 14 February 2017, p. 4a

In his letter to the editor of the newspaper Mr. Hurst may have intended to limit his statement to Muslims in the U. S., but he did not say that. The answer nevertheless is somewhat complicated. First, what is Sharia? According to, Sharia broadly is Islamic law, "seen as deriving from the Koran, hadith, ijma, and qiyas." As such, there is not one Sharia law as many Americans may tend to think, but it varies with Muslim sects and their interpretations of their faith documents.

According to Tolerance.Org, "Currently, 35 countries incorporate Sharia into their civil, common or customary law. The diverse manner in which these countries apply Sharia to daily life highlights how Sharia is neither static nor rigid but instead a reflection on how different communities interpret it."

According to Professor Abdullahi Ahmed An-Nai’m at Muslims for Progressive Values, "Many Islamic countries believe they are following Shari’a in family law matters, but Shari’a is not a legal system.

Based on this and other reading my conclusion is that Mr. Hurst's statement that "Most Muslims are not ruled by and do not condone Sharia law" is incorrect -- but many others have an incorrect vision of one monolithic "Sharia law" that governs all Muslims.

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