not so far fetched
Reader comment on item: Can a Free People Vote in a Shar‘i Order?

Submitted by Darren (United States), Sep 24, 2006 at 16:33

Ditto your comment Daniel. Donner has at least drawn a few lines that point to two sides to this issue. I used to think it unlikely/near impossible any Western European nation, with their Judeo-Christian heritage, would 'go Sharia' in my lifetime. However, my thinking had been muddled - I had assumed that heritage was valued.

Secularized post-modern Europe, while professing an enlightened humanism as its driving philosophy, is largely pagan. It is a void Missionaries should step into. So far, immigration has mostly filled it with Islam. A society respectful of either a Christian or Jewish heritage might see preservation of that heritage, even while tolerant of others differences, as having some merit. It seems most of the political leadership (I only have their quoted utterances to go on, admittedly a filtered picture) and, more certainly, the media/commentariat, have no interest or open hostility to their nations' religious heritage.

This does raise the possibility that, if at the margin, the native population don't care and provided their wealth is not appropriated, they could go along with a vote in favor of Sharia, even if its not their thing. Government bureaucracies, with their vision limited to 1-5 year budget planning cycles, will not be a force against this and may actually help through wrapping any reversal steps in inertia. Based on demographic trends, this raises the possibility of a European nation going Sharia within 5-10 years.

Such a system is problematic for capital formation and, ironically, many of the cherished tenets of post-modernist liberalism that will in large part permit it to happen. Internal failure on these and other fronts would then likely set off external frictions to keep such a system in place, not a prospect any of us should ever hope to see.

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