November 18, 2009

Ask many Muslims to describe how to fix the problems of society and they will say, "More sharia law." Ask many Christians living in those same societies, and they will answer, "Less sharia." From Iran to Gaza, from Indonesia to Pakistan, Islamists are working night and day to direct their nations according to what they see as the pure dictates of Islam and away from the corruptions of modern life.

For Christians living in Muslim-majority regions, sharia is always the wrong answer.

Sharia is Muslim law handed down after the death of Muhammad in the 7^th century and solidified in its current form around the year 1000. "The root meaning of sharia is ‘way, path, road and highway,'" said Rev. Ane Mulder, former staff member with the Islam Open Doors International Study Center. "Its primary use was to designate the camel's path to the well, the path to life. It is from here that the specifically religious use emerged as the rule of law, the system of laws or even the totality of the prophet's message. This message guided the community of believers on the divine path towards the good life."

However, sharia, wherever it has been implemented, has displayed a dark side, both to Muslims and to religious minorities. Sharia allows for thieves to face the amputation of their hands, perceived adulterers to be stoned, apostates to be executed and the testimony of women to count far less than the testimony of men in court. In its extreme forms, such as in Saudi Arabia, women are covered from head to foot and are often forced to stay indoors, out of sight.

For Christians and other non-Muslim groups, sharia (or just a pro-sharia mindset) enshrines their permanent second-class status. In Pakistan, which began introducing various forms of sharia about 30 years ago, a law prohibiting blasphemy against Muhammad and Islam has been used by unscrupulous Muslims to harass, intimidate, attack, jail and even kill their Christian neighbors. According to the 2009 Open Doors World Watch List, seven of the 10 countries which are the worst persecutors of Christians are Muslim. They include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Maldives, Yemen and Uzbekistan.

Sharia's mindset is increasingly finding its way into the West. Five years ago in the Netherlands, a Muslim extremist shot and stabbed outspoken Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh on the street in Amsterdam for making films critical of Islam.

This fall, the United Nations General Assembly will vote on the Defamation of Religions Resolution, a measure backed by repressive Muslim governments as a tool to suppress religious minorities. "The protection of speech about religion is particularly important since persons of different faiths will inevitably hold divergent views on religious questions," said Hillary Clinton, the U.S. Secretary of State, about the resolution. "These differences should be met with tolerance, not with the suppression of discourse."