It appears to be a popular topic, that sharia law is going to be legislated and implemented any moment. Where on earth did this fear come from? Did it have a source, an incident?
Tabloid newspapers and ignorance. Sharia law is used in the UK , IF (and only if) all parties agree to it as an arbitration method. So is any other religious method including Jewish and Christian ones.
But “OMG Jewish councils are deciding divorce cases when both parties agree” doesn’t quite get readers outraged the same that “SHARIA IS ALREADY IN THE UK” does in huge red letters.
And there’s no coercion of women to agree, right?
I don’t think that the fear is that it will be implemented, as in will supplant the current rule of law for the average person. It’s that it will be practiced at all, and I think what opponents are most concerned about is the effect on women.
I don’t see it as a ‘right-wing panic’ issue…though it does seem to be conservatives who are most concerned. I would think, considering how women are treated under sharia, that liberals/progressives would have as much of an interest.
Yes, but liberals/progressives,* on average*, use facts, and the fact is that sharia law is only being “implemented” in a very small way in a very few situations in a very few places in the “West”. And, no reason to believe it will ever be much more than that. So there’s no reason to panic.
I don’t mean to stray into GD territory here. Maybe I’d better state it differently: that, if there were a real danger, you’re right – liberals/progressives would have every reason (probably more reason, given their general distaste for theocracy as compared to many conservatives) to be concerned.
But since there isn’t, then the question is just about who gets panicky about, and has reason to exaggerate, anything which can be mis-perceived as threatening values which Sharia law might threaten.
On the left, I could see people who are truly panicky about universal human rights, including women’s rights, falling into this. And on the right, people who are truly panicky about protecting “Christian values”, whatever that means.
But the thing they have in common is being “panicky”, not whether they’re right or left.
As fact lovers all, lets stress that "It appears to be a popular topic, that sharia law is going to be legislated and implemented any moment. " is indeed not particularly factual.
Its not?! Someone in another thread mentioned seeing a anti -sharia law bumper sticker. Rush Limbaugh apparently will spend whole shows talking about it for hours.
There does seem to be a fear that it could happen, why would people get worked up about something that don’t believe would ever happen in a million years?
Good point. I dunno, maybe a “popular topic” just on some panicky web forum or “news” channel or something.
ETA: Grude, I think you answered your own question there. Rush + bumper sticker = “popular” only in the sense of bouncing around the same 20%-of-Americans echo chamber that represent maybe a third of the white-voters-group currently being analyzed in an interesting “Elections” thread.
Well I assumed that, but I was wondering where the idea came from to begin with(it is also present in Britain and Europe.) I mean just to even have a chance of happening there would have to be a majority of voters who were not only muslim but hard core fundie muslims, is there any scenario of that happening in the USA or any other western country? Then what is anyone even talking about?
Or is the real issue non-legal voluntary religious based arbitration? :dubious:
I’m going to guess that here in the US it coincided with the election of a black guy as president that a lot of ignorant people think is a Muslim. Maybe it started before, but that had to give the “theory” a shot in the arm.
I forgot to mention in my OP that a few laws have been passed in US states banning sharia law in state courts. So legislators and their constituents believe the threat is so great it has to be explicitly banned in law, but no one is taking it seriously?
Just to expand on this - bills have been introduced in two dozen states to ban Shariah law. Bills have already been passed in Tennessee, Louisiana and Arizona which forbid judges from consulting Shariah law.
It probably came from guys like this:
http://sheikyermami.com/2012/04/25/salafist-in-germany-they-love-life-we-love-death/
His professed goal in life is to get everyone to follow sharia law, or else die trying.
So what if there is? Women who can be coerced into agreeing to particular arbitration methods can be coerced into agreeing to unfair divorce settlements anyway.
You’re mostly talking about the same states who have passed laws banning same-sex marriages when they were already illegal.
Demonizing Sharia law is an easy way some elements in our society can indirectly demonize certain people. If those people can be demonized and identified as the “other”, it will be easier to de-humanize them, and easier to justify killing them.
I also suspect the attention on Sharia law is another way for certain elements to fan fear of those “others” that are going to dirty our purity. The comments above regarding women’s rights and Christiandom are also relevant.
Forgive my ignorance, but aren’t some of our own laws already based on concepts of Islamic justice?
I think some of the “panic” is with regard to the courts and not the legislature.
Conservatives are extraordinarily alert and concerned/opposed to “theocracy” in the US. It is more nefarious when, in leftist thought, discrete moral, ethical (“theo,” as simplistically used here) are considered de riguer instituted and mandated by law, by the government, which is dangerous, as has been noted.
[annoyed long term bitch]At this point or near enough, it’s off to GD this thread gos because of a counter-argument. Whereas historically it would continue for a while in GQ w/o such
counterpoint.
The left-wing self-congratulating crowd on GQ often pisses me off.[/annoyed long term bitch]
Unless it’s their theocracy.
Oh, I know that they can’t actually re-structure the government to create an actual theocracy. They’d just rather elect evangelical politicians who will enact their agenda through the current system, which is in effect the same thing.
Can somebody explain what any of this is supposed to mean?
“Liberals suck. Conservatives rule.”