Wednesday, May 1, 2013

The Bad News: Most Muslims Want Sharia to Rule. The Good News (Supposedly; Not Really): Sharia Isn't "Monolithic"

That's the takeaway from this report in USA Today:
Devotion to Islam shapes the lives of most Muslims but their views on democracy, religious law known as sharia, and family life are varied, a new study finds. 
The research report on Muslim views on religion, politics and society was released Tuesday by The Pew Research Center's Forum on Religion & Public Life. 
It finds that Muslims in Africa, Asia and the Middle East -- no matter age, education or gender -- overwhelmingly want to see sharia be "the official law of the land," said James Bell, primary researcher for the report and director of international research for Pew, in a press phone-in discussion of the report. 
That includes 99% in Afghanistan, 89% in the Palestinian territories, 74% in Egypt and 72% in Indonesia, for example.  
However, they don't agree on what sharia means. "There is no monolithic code. … No common understanding from Africa to Asia to the former Soviet Union," said Amaney Jamal, professor of politics at Princeton University and special adviser to Pew for the report...
Does it matter? The salient point is that if you want sharia to be the law of the land you are ipso facto a supremacist and a totalitarian. That's the monolith.

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