How do moderate Muslims view Sharia Law?

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15 Sep 2010, 9:38 am

I don't know a lot, but I'm pretty sure the barbaric things of Sharia (stoning women to death, cutting off hands) are written somewhere in the Koran and/or the Hadiths. So I'm wondering what moderate Muslims would think of whats written in what they consider sacred text. Do they believe that it's fine to impose it in Muslim countries but not Western democracies?

skafather84
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15 Sep 2010, 9:43 am

What do Christians and Jews think of similarly prescribed punishments in their holy texts?

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ruveyn
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15 Sep 2010, 9:50 am

skafather84 wrote:

What do Christians and Jews think of similarly prescribed punishments in their holy texts?

Under Halacha (Jewish Law) the death penalty is virtually impossible to impose. It requires two unimpeachable eye witnesses and it also requires that the wrongdoer be warned in advance that what he is about to do entails the death penalty. If forget which Rabbi said it, but he said that a court which imposes the death penalty one every seventy years is soaked in blood. There is a general reluctance (historically) for Rabbinic courts to impose either the death penalty or the application of forty blows from the rod of chastisement. Most of the penalty were monetary penalties.

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jc6chan
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15 Sep 2010, 10:53 am

skafather84 wrote:

What do Christians and Jews think of similarly prescribed punishments in their holy texts?

Well, Jesus did prevent the stoning of a woman who commited adultery.

ruveyn
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15 Sep 2010, 10:56 am

jc6chan wrote:

skafather84 wrote:

What do Christians and Jews think of similarly prescribed punishments in their holy texts?

Well, Jesus did prevent the stoning of a woman who commited adultery.

The description in the gospel was totally distorted. The women would not have been put to death except by a Rabbinic court and the mode of stoning was depicted incorrectly.

The idea of a mob chasing a poor women down in the streets and tossing rocks the size of baseballs at her is not how it was done, when it was done and it was done rarely.

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15 Sep 2010, 11:00 am

skafather84 wrote:

What do Christians and Jews think of similarly prescribed punishments in their holy texts?

I'm not trying to be snarky here, but do any countries actually use those holy texts as the foundation of their law? I don't think so many people would be so critical of sharia if it wasn't actually being practiced at the national level in a number of countries, where as similar sentiments in other religions are simply treated as anachronisms from thousand + year old texts.

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visagrunt
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15 Sep 2010, 12:39 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Comparable restrictions apply in Sharia. Stoning requires 4 male eyewitnesses or a confession.

Of course, as with all systems of law, the text is only valuable if it is given effect by courts. I am sure that the Sanhedrin were just as liable to excess as Sharia courts are today.

There are few jurisdictions in which Sharia forms the basis of public law, and the largest muslim states (e.g. Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Malaysia) have, by and large, secular public law.

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17 Sep 2010, 9:08 pm

Sharia law is far from being evenly enforced in Muslim countries. Saudi Arabia continues to enforce it in its entirety.

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ruveyn
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17 Sep 2010, 9:10 pm

Where are there moderate Muslims?

You mean all twenty three of them?

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skafather84
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17 Sep 2010, 10:06 pm

ruveyn wrote:

Where are there moderate Muslims?

You mean all twenty three of them?

ruveyn

26. I used to live next door to three of them. Every now and then we'd hang out and drink together. They were cool guys and very very "moderate".

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18 Sep 2010, 7:40 am

"Moderate" Muslims view the Sharia the same way "moderate" Christians view abortion: In theory they think it's dreadful and heinous and everything, but in practice they really have better things to worry about.

Oh, and by the way:

BBC Religions wrote:

Many people, including Muslims, misunderstand Sharia. It's often associated with the amputation of limbs, death by stoning, lashes and other medieval punishments. Because of this, it is sometimes thought of as draconian. Some people in the West view Sharia as archaic and unfair social ideas that are imposed upon people who live in Sharia-controlled countries.

Congratulations, you're just like many people.

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