# They have an interesting conception of what "justice" means in Libya. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 2, 2007, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405 "2007-01-02T13:43:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![flight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bbce88/32.png) [@flight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flight)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/21 "2007-01-04T22:32:57Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Surely. those of you contemplating allowing Sharia law (in your countries): take a look and see what might happen. I’m surprised that even high salaries attract people to work in muslim countries-it could be very dangerous! :smack: [/QUOTE] While I am absolutely no fan a Sharia, you can hardly use this one case as an indictment of their legal system. We don’t want anyone condemning us based on the OJ trial. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/22 "2007-01-04T22:50:52Z")
Didn’t plenty of Americans, perhaps with good justification, condemn the legal system after that trial? There have been a number of Sharia trials (Amina Lawal comes to mind) that have been as bad as this one. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/23 "2007-01-04T22:55:41Z")
50 Libyan children dead and hundreds more at risk because of of unconscionably lax hospital standards - but blame instead goes to scapegoated health care workers while systemic problems are ignored. Can anyone supply links to the stories about outraged Muslims marching by the thousands to protest this injustice? Surely there have to be protests. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2007, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/24 "2007-01-04T23:52:17Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] 50 Libyan children dead and hundreds more at risk because of of unconscionably lax hospital standards - but blame instead goes to scapegoated health care workers while systemic problems are ignored. Can anyone supply links to the stories about outraged Muslims marching by the thousands to protest this injustice? Surely there have to be protests. [/QUOTE] This is a whoosh, right? ---
**Author:** ![Weirddave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/919ad9/32.png) [@Weirddave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weirddave)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/25 "2007-01-05T00:00:07Z")
Shame on all of you. We have no right to judge their laws and culture. They are different than ours, that does not mean ours are superior. (Do I really need to include the :rolleyes:?) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/26 "2007-01-05T00:03:45Z")
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman] This is a whoosh, right? [/QUOTE] I thought he was being ironic, but I do see stories about the families leading protests in Libya. I don’t know if others or other people in Muslim nations are protesting as well. I also don’t know how much coverage that aspect of the protests would receive. Anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/27 "2007-01-05T00:07:11Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] 50 Libyan children dead and hundreds more at risk because of of unconscionably lax hospital standards - but blame instead goes to scapegoated health care workers while systemic problems are ignored. Can anyone supply links to the stories about outraged Muslims marching by the thousands to protest this injustice? Surely there have to be protests. [/QUOTE] I realize you are being facetious, but in an authoritarian country like Libya where the government-controlled press has been relentlessly pushing the guilt of these unfortunates, it is highly unlikely that most people there have any real grasp of what is going on. **Beware of Doug** pretty much nailed it - this is par for the course in a Third World dictatorship, Muslim or no. In point of fact when the Libyan Supreme Court kicked the convictions back down the first time, _that_ engendered riots in Benghazi by people quite convinced they were guilty. Never underestimate the power of bizarre conspiracy theories in a country where they’ve been spoonfed them for a generation or two now. By the way the Libyan legal system is one of those bizarre amalgams of shari’a and various European civil codes ( especially the Italian ). See here for a brief introduction: > **[Welcome to Emory Law | Emory University School of Law | Atlanta, GA](https://law.emory.edu/)** - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/28 "2007-01-05T00:21:18Z")
[QUOTE=Weirddave] (Do I really need to include the :rolleyes:?) [/QUOTE] Depends. Is it reflexive? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/29 "2007-01-05T00:42:06Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Qaddaffi is asking for “repatriations”–in cash–for the release of the nurses & doctor. By a “coincidence” :rolleyes: it is the _exact same sum_ he paid for the victims of the Lockerbie Explosion [Pan Am Flight 103 - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_flight_103) :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: He thinks this is a game!!! [/QUOTE] It _is_ a game to him. He’s willing to piss away the lives of his own people for personal gain. Why not the lives of foreigners? ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/30 "2007-01-05T10:49:26Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Imagine this: the morally bankrupt UN wanted this guy to supervise “human rights”? As for these poor Bulgarian nurses: you now have a taste of “Islamic” justice: this case was tried according to “Sharia” “Law” (whatever that is!!). Surely. those of you contemplating allowing Sharia law (in your countries): take a look and see what might happen. I’m surprised that even high salaries attract people to work in muslim countries-it could be very dangerous! :smack: [/QUOTE] \*\*Ralph \*\* - I don’t know you, so I’m just going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you’re just ignorant or developmentally challenged rather than wilfully bigoted. First of all, even if this so-called “trial” is fucked-up (and it is, we all agree to that), it’s fucked-up because Libya is a despotic regime with a thoroughly corrupt system and because Gadhaffi is a fucking loon, NOT because the Islamic system of Sharia law is to blame. Secondly, the Libyan legal system, as I see \*\*Tamerlane \*\* has just pointed out, is NOT based solely on Sharia law and therefore to conflate or equate one with the other is just plain wrong. Finally, and more importantly, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of foreign workers are living and working in Muslim countries like Dubai, Egypt, Malaysia, etc with no problem whatsoever and at no threat to their lives. Just ask **Paul in Saudi**. To assert that such workers could be in danger because Sharia Law is is eeeevil and insidiously dangerous is so totally fucking ignorant and racist that I can only assume you must have a problem with Islam and Muslims in general, and that you’re attempting to use the treatment of the nurses as some kind of pathetic justification for your inherent fuckwitted bigotry. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/31 "2007-01-05T13:46:58Z")
Qaddaffi has made it plain: the nurses are hostages for the release of the terrorists that set the Lockerbie Bomb. [http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/connection-of-bulgarian-nurses-case-to-lockerbie-bombing-unacceptable/id\_19692/catid\_68](http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/connection-of-bulgarian-nurses-case-to-lockerbie-bombing-unacceptable/id_19692/catid_68) > [@](#): > > On January 4 Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi said that freedom for the nurses was ‘meaningless nonsense’ and if the Libyan imprisoned for the bombing was not freed, their verdicts would remain unchanged. For more, & a more complete quote– [http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/gaddaffi-connects-freedom-of-bulgarias-nurses-to-lockerbie-bombing/id\_19651/catid\_68](http://www.sofiaecho.com/article/gaddaffi-connects-freedom-of-bulgarias-nurses-to-lockerbie-bombing/id_19651/catid_68) [http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n102665](http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n102665) ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/32 "2007-01-05T14:52:00Z")
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman] This is a whoosh, right? [/QUOTE] Yeah-where are the "human rights’ people on this? Where is the traditional islamic compassion? The silence is deafening-of course, when the islamic world reacts in shock to some cartoons published in an obscure Danish newspaper, the world is in an uproar-but the judicial murder of 50 innocent nurses elicits scarcely a peep. Yeah-Sharia Law-pass it on! 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/33 "2007-01-05T15:02:10Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Yeah-where are the "human rights’ people on this? Where is the traditional islamic compassion? The silence is deafening-of course, when the islamic world reacts in shock to some cartoons published in an obscure Danish newspaper, the world is in an uproar-but the judicial murder of 50 innocent nurses elicits scarcely a peep. Yeah-Sharia Law-pass it on! 😕 [/QUOTE] Looks like you missed my last post… Again, Libyan Law is not Sharia Law. Muslims can and do protest against exactly this sort of injustice, it’s just that: [list=a] [li]They’d be shot if they demonstrated in Libya[/li][li]Not that many people in the Muslim world have the same unfettered access to unbiased media as you do, and I’m willing to bet that not a whole lot of them are familiar with this case [/list][/li] Yes there are Muslims who speak out, but evidently not loud enough to suit you. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/34 "2007-01-05T15:12:57Z")
[QUOTE=ralph124c] Imagine this: the morally bankrupt UN wanted this guy to supervise “human rights”? [/quote] You missed a couple of things here: first of all, Libya did lead the Human Rights Commission and it happened almost four years ago; Gadaffi doesn’t chair the commission, Libya does; “the UN” didn’t want it, the African nations nominated Libya and it won a vote. I agree that it’s gross, why is it relevant here? > [@](#): > > the judicial murder of 50 innocent nurses elicits scarcely a peep. You’re not reading very closely, are you? Fifty _kids_ have died of AIDS. They’re talking about executing five nurses and a doctor. > [@](#): > > Yeah-Sharia Law-pass it on! 😕 WHAT COUNTRIES ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/35 "2007-01-05T15:19:50Z")
\*\*Marley \*\* - I think our mentally challenged little friend is worried about the pernicious _eeee-ville_ of the Sharia system of Law and is equally worried that it will creep it’s way across the globe to oppress and degrade right-thinking people everywhere. He’s only trying to warn us of the obvious danger, the poor thing… I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought Islam itself a threat. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/36 "2007-01-05T15:21:14Z")
[QUOTE=Book Monster] \*\*Marley \*\* - I think our mentally challenged little friend is worried about the pernicious _eeee-ville_ of the Sharia system of Law and is equally worried that it will creep it’s way across the globe to oppress and degrade right-thinking people everywhere. [/QUOTE] Yeah, maybe, but when he said “those of you contemplating allowing Sharia law (in your countries),” it sounded like he must’ve had _somebody_ in mind. ---
**Author:** ![Bibliovore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ba0ec/32.png) [@Bibliovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bibliovore)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/37 "2007-01-05T15:28:43Z")
I just took it as anti-Islamic whack-job conspiracy fruit-cakery. AFAIK there isn’t anyone here who’s thinking of “allowing” Sharia law in their countries, hence the utter bizarreness of his warning. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2007, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405/38 "2007-01-05T19:21:16Z")
To be fair, there are some instances of allowing Islamic law in domestic cases in (IIRC) Canada, but even if that’s the case, it certainly doesn’t rise to the level of allowing full Sharia law in every instance, and even more importantly, precious few even here in the SDMB are even okay with that, let alone the full application of Sharia law. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-have-an-interesting-conception-of-what-justice-means-in-libya/386405.md?page=1)