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I feel the need to fact-check this. Wikipedia's explanation of Sharia is more complex than what you say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia http://en.wikipedi
by jacoblyles 16y ago
I feel the need to fact-check this.
Wikipedia's explanation of Sharia is more complex than what you say: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia. Perhaps you could share why you think Wikipedia is wrong? The article states:
"Sharia (Arabic شريعة Šarīʿa; [ʃaˈriːʕa], "way" or "path") is the sacred law of Islam. Muslims believe Sharia is derived from two primary Sources of Islamic law; namely, the divine revelations set forth in the Qur'an, and the sayings and example set by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh ("jurisprudence") interprets and extends the application of Sharia to questions not directly addressed in the primary sources by including secondary sources. These secondary sources usually include the consensus of the religious scholars embodied in ijma, and analogy from the Qur'an and Sunnah through qiyas. Shia jurists replace qiyas analogy with 'aql, or "reason"."
The article further explains that Sharia covers areas of life such as diet, dress code, sexuality, personal morality, and the punishments prescribed for crimes - the aspects of law in Islamic countries that Westerners view as harsh and sometimes barbaric. For example, punishing theft with hand amputation is part of Sharia. In five Islamic countries under Sharia law the crime of Sodomy is punishable by death.
"Sharia" is no more a specific set of laws than Anglo-Saxon "Common Law". But it is a certain way of creating and judging law based on Islamic religious tradition that is incompatible with a modern secular state.
So if I were to use the term "Sharia" to refer to a strict and expansive system of law based on the Muslim religion, I would be correct.
- jonhendry 16y ago"Perhaps you could share why you think Wikipedia is wrong? " Sharia is a topic of highly emotional argument right now, with lots of bigotry, ignorance, and fear-mongering. That's enough reason to suspect Wikipedia might be wrong. Wikipedia is terrible on anything like that. On things nobody much cares about, like the history of the Marvel villain MODOK, it's great.
- jacoblyles 16y agoThere is such a big difference between the claim that Sharia means six very non-controversial universal values (which the original poster claims) and that Sharia is a system of law based on Islamic beliefs as refined and interpreted by Muslim holy men, that I believe we ought to be able to determine which statement is closer to the truth regardless of interfering emotion. I suspect the original poster is being disingenuous by portraying Sharia law as such a bland and harmless thing.
- kragen 16y agoActually, my experience is that Wikipedia is excellent on subjects like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology. It's generally uncontroversial topics with little interest among Wikipedia readers that have poor-quality articles; see e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhus_coriaria http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhus_coriaria.
- piguy314 16y agoWikipedia has an excellent political system that decides disputes on the basis of the quality of the arguments rather than voting or autocratic declarations. For this reason and the fact that one of wikipedia's 5 pillars is a neutral point of view (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view) I would tend to think that their articles on controversial topics are much like controversial laws after they have been extensively litigated: settled and accurate.
- kloncks 16y agoSharia law is based on two things: 1. Things from the Qur'an 2. Things from the Hadith (sayings of the Prophet) ------------- Modern Sharia law is based on three things: 1. Qur'an 2. Hadith 3. Fiqh (which is the interpretations) ----- That's the issue. The Fiqh part is very different from region to region and from sect to sect. Often, the really obscure laws that are brought up in arguments (take female genital mutilation for example) are often part of the Fiqh than the Sharia. That's also why, like I mentioned before, "Sharia" can be very different in Egypt compared to in Saudi Arabia.