Where's your argument?

Submitted by Fred Schlomka (Israel), May 20, 2011 at 04:11

To blithely condemn Sharia as fascistic denies the tempering factors of democratic societies which have influenced and modified the extreme behavior of Christianity in particular. Not so long ago one could be executed in a horrific fashion, for witchcraft in some of the states of the USA. Just as Jewish religious courts in the USA are no longer permitted to sentence Jews to corporal punishment for Sabbath infractions, so too will Sharia courts be restricted in their jurisdiction to areas of consensual submission to their rulings. They cannot violate existing civil and criminal laws in their rulings.

It's the job of every citizen in democratic countries to make sure that the democratic system remains in place so that no religion can coerce anyone and infringe on their freedoms. Christian, Muslim or Jewish coercion should be opposed. The power of the Catholic Church for instance remains great in many European countries, and laws are based on the dictates of the church, to the detriment of practitioners of other religions. Evangelical Christians in the USA also have extreme elements that have used violence and terror to try and influence the political process, and force their views on others. Focusing only on the extreme elements of Islam does none of us any good and only gives the appearance of prejudice, even when not intended.

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