Re-interpretation of Sharia is good but it is not enoough

Submitted by Abhi (United States), May 9, 2009 at 14:38

Dear Dr Pipes:

Reinterpretation of Sharia to accommodate the needs of the time is good but not enough. A general question that all human societies should ask themselves is whether it is necessary to put religious labels on secular ethics. No state should ever deny a person's right to choose the spiritual path that suits him.

But social laws that govern how we interact with each other should be as secular as they can be because putting religious tags on them gives an unfair advantage to the person who belongs to the religion whose tag is put on the law. This rule applies to even those countries 100% of whose people belong to the same religion because it may hamper the right of a citizen who wants to try a different religion.

Often times, very small actions have very far reaching consequences. I believe the turmoil in the Islamic world is primarily due to the desire to make every thing Islamic -- ethics, red-crescent, finance, law, nuclear bomb. Some day they will invent Islamic road-signs to create a separate identity for themselves. It will be absurd but you never know. That is the direction the things are moving.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".