Sharia Law vs Civil Law
In defining Law, Wikipedia states that “Law is system of rules and guidelines, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people”.
Law has to be inspired by the society’s already agreed upon practices, and the practices they wish to integrate into their lives. Rules for one geographical location may not be good for the other. A visitor to the Netherlands may find it weird that soft drugs are allowed in certain coffee shops and bars, while their use in public is illegal, and a visitor to India might find himself in jail for preparing a month stock of beef. However, those visitors are expected to, not just follow, but respect the laws legislated by the location inhabitants, as this is the life they have chosen to live.
Some people in the middle east are promoting the inadequacy of Sharia law, and to prove it, they actually have conversations, forums, and chitchats with philosophers, authors, and ideologists who are very competent, but sadly, not from the region, they don’t have the passions and fears of the our people. The way we will rule ourselves must be driven by the average man’s opinion, not by some foreigner who, in the best case scenario, doesn’t know the whole image of our aspirations.
On the other hand, for an average Muslim, who has all faith in Allah’s law, it would be very insulting to listen to some foreign philosopher applying his critical thinking expertise on his divine law, especially that this philosopher can never claim to have the recipe for a perfect law, laws throughout history have always been to a certain limit penetrated and abused.
I suggest that, instead of following outer sources for ideas, we better start promoting internal dialogue, because we will understand each other, we will tolerate each other, we are the ones who will be directly affected by the law. Foreigners are expected to, not just follow, but respect our agreed upon law, be it sharia law or civil law.
