Tuesday, May 13, 2003
SHARIA IN ACTION
Here's a report at MEMRI about "the Al-Madina regional branch of the Saudi religious and morality police, formally known as 'The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vices,'" which gives a glimpse into what a theocratic sharia state (Saudi Arabia) is like. I thought this was a particularly interesting item:
The Authority's website posted the text of a book written by Dr. Fadhel Alha of the Department of Islamic Preaching and Communications at the University of Riyadh, which discusses the Authority's activities. Dr. Alha wrote: "There are those who say that we must leave people alone and not interfere in personal matters of virtue from which they refrain, because this conflicts with their individual freedom which is set out in Islam. Those preaching this approach quote the words of Allah in the Koran: 'There is no coercion in religion…'"
"First of all, there is no such thing as 'personal freedom.' It is a lie. We would like to ask those who argue in this matter: Have you found personal freedom in the east of the land or in its west? In Eastern or Western regimes? None whatsoever, neither here nor there. Man is required to obey rules and regulations against his will everywhere. Is a man permitted, in the East or the West, to cross the street at a red light? In the West, is a man permitted to build a house with his own money… without observing the municipality's regulations? In the East, the situation is even more clear, and he has no right to own a house at all."
"Second, the personal freedom granted by Islam to the Muslims lies in [Allah's] liberating them from enslavement to men. This does not mean that man is liberated from enslavement to the God of these men…"
"Third, the verse 'There is no coercion in religion' does not mean that everyone can do what they want and refrain from doing what they don't want, or that no one is entitled to require them to do the good that they have abandoned or to refrain from the evil that they do. The meaning of the verse… is that a person must not be forced to convert to Islam – and this too does not concern all non-Muslims, but only the People of the Book [i.e. Jews and Christians], [regarding] the Bedouin polytheist idol worshippers, you must either force them to convert to Islam, or fight them."
I'm sorry, but when I see this kind of thing, I'm not at all hopeful about the idea of spreading values of liberty to the Middle East.
GB, THHotA
posted by Greg 7:49 PM
