"Sharia"

The Perry:

"I think in America from time to time we have to go through some difficult times — and I think we’re going through those difficult economic times for a purpose, to bring us back to those Biblical principles of you know, you don’t spend all the money."

The Bible (Mt 19:21, NASB):

"Jesus said to him, 'If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.' "

Let's just flush the toilet, already. The reason North American theocrats constantly worry "Sharia"* is because they fear the competition to their real and well funded project of theocratization. But, it's all in their heads. They're the only ones even remotely within reach of imposing religious law. There's no Muslim invasion navy. There will never be a Muslimy Red Dawn. The world's billion Muslims live an ocean (or two) away. And they are, as a rule, still burdened by the crises and problems of colonialism. They were the conquered peoples. Look at a world map. See all those Muslim majority countries. Former colonies and client states. Wicked dangerous, that Muslim thing...

In North America, the people looking to use the state to impose obedience to religious precepts and a religious worldview are Christians. And they can't even read their own Book that well, now can they?


* - As opposed to bugbear Sharia, actual Sharia is voluntary. Muslim theology excludes a priesthood which can impose a divine standard on the Ummah, or body of believers. Napoleonic and English common law, retooled after the fall of European colonial empires, have been mixed with Islamic jurisprudence, especially in Wahhabi Saudia Arabia and the degraded post-colonial states of the Sahel. To disastrous result.

According to nearly fourteen centuries of Islamic theology, jurisprudence, practice and debate, the "divine will" cannot be mediated by a priesthood. Islam lacks a sanctioned hierarchy. It is up to each individual Muslim to follow his or her conscience, which is the final arbiter for any Muslim person. Islam gives conscience the imprimatur of Allah. The Qur'an places the reception of Islam and the divine will entirely within the grasp of the individual believer, who alone must judge how best to live it. There are, obviously, communal standards, best understood as the collective sharing of the Five Pillars - but Muslims are not enjoined by a legal fiat, Sharia. Sharia is similar in function to Christian grace. God offers. The believer must negotiate his or her own acceptance of it. It has only, and very spottily, been reconceived as an enforceable state mandate following the collapse of the colonial system, and the failure of the first successor post-colonial states, whose leaders used the colonial law and enforcement apparatus available to them. Most of the world's Muslims still live as if Sharia is what it has traditionally been - the divine gift of God which the believer must judge and live by way of conscience.