Sharia Quotes
This quotation was reported to Congress by Thomas Jefferson. Essentially, this religious justification is no different from that made by contemporary Islamic extremists. Particularly interesting is the last sentence. The Koran states that all Muslims who die defending Islam will go immediately to heaven regardless of their previous sins and transgressions. Under that justification, even criminal extortion and terrorism is justified by some Muslims whenever the victims are non-believers.
Islam forbids homosexuality and Sharia (Islamic religious law) prescribes death as the penalty for homosexuality. At that time Iran was a Muslim theocracy and if there were overt homosexuality that was officially discovered, the heretics would be killed. The logic of the government was that since they had killed the homosexuals, there were none left. At the same time all the research showed that while Muslim homosexuality was slightly less than Christian, it was still quite significant in all Muslim cultures that had been studied. If the President was to be believed, Iran was the only exception.
He fought in the Crusades with Saladin and was living in Jerusalem under Christian occupation. The cultural dissonance regarding the Christian verses Muslim treatment of women was even noted a thousand years ago. At the time women were fare from equal or emancipated, but even this degree of allowing women conversational rights was considered quite radical by the quote.
This is a very important point as most Muslims believe that the actual wording of the Sharia—Islamic Law—comes from the Prophet directly and are not the words of various legal scholars which is just what they are. Needless to say, there are many differences and even contradictions depending on time and the particular scholar. Islam however has no authority that religiously is higher than any other. In that respect, it is like Judaism. There is not a recognized religious hierarchy as there is in Christian churches.
While not all Islamic Religious legal authorities agree any more than Christian or Jewish religious experts do, this quotation is often used to illustrate that the militant Muslim fundamentalists would not only use a nuclear or other kind of weapon if they could get and deliver one, but that some actually think that would be a moral act. He gives no source for his 10 million estimate and most observers think the number wildly exaggerated, And most of the weapons in the world that end up killing people are small arms, made mostly by China, Russia and other nations providing more than the United States. But in politics, and especially in the middle East, perception is reality. See {585931}.
This is one of the early calls for a partition of India which was to be so disastrous after the Second World War. The “free Muslim state of states” turned out to be Pakistan where they have been fighting amongst themselves about how much Sharia would prevail.
Manji is a Canadian citizen who immigrated from Pakistan. Most Islamic states are highly oppressive and repressive. There is not a single Arab state, for example, where Muslims are not oppressed.
She was explaining her antipathy to Muslim Fundamentalists having French citizenship or even sing allowed into the country.
Turkey had become a modern, secular nation under the leadership of Ataturk. At the time of this interview, a religious party had won a plurality of seats in the Parliament and while not rolling back the secular nature of the Turkish state which is enshrined in the Turkish Constitution, has tried to stem the tide of secularism.
This was a document prepared by the Caliph and presented to Christians in Syria to sign if they wanted peace and to be free from assault in Islamic lands. For centuries thereafter these, and variations of them, were conditions imposed on Christians and Jews in Islam lands. Some of these can be recognized as variants of conditions that American and other coalition troops were required to adhere to in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. By today’s standards this was highly discriminatory and a gross imposition on a minority. However at the time, this was one of the more liberal doctrines. Jews and Christians otherwise could live in Muslim lands, practice their religion, work there, live where they would, acquire property, practice professions, and even achieve high office. Jews and Christians rose to the highest ranks of Islamic government administrators including Prime Ministries. Their persons were safe from assault and derisions all provided they followed the Pact of Umar or its current version. In contrast Jewish and Muslim minorities in Christian nations were treated much more harshly. They could practice only a few occupation, were constantly under physical attack, were forced to live in ghettos, had their property seized, and in many cases were tortured and killed.
At the time, the dependence on Saudi oil inhibited American criticism . This began to change in the 21st century.
