16 Thirty Shariah Laws That Are Bad For All Societies
Can Modern Islam Reform Old Islam?
by James M. Arlandson, Ph.D.
This list of shariah laws is intended to be read by judges, lawyers, legislators, city council members, educators, journalists, government bureaucrats, think tank fellows, TV and radio talk show hosts, and anyone else who occupies the "check points" in society; you initiate the national dialogue and shape the flow of the conversation in society. You are the decision and policy makers.
As intellectuals, you believe the critics of shariah exaggerate (and maybe some are guilty of it). They're just "Islamophobes." Ignore them. Islam is a worldwide religion, after all. It deserves respect.
You are also thorough relativists who believe in tolerance for all religions, in all their parts. At first glance, this is a commendable outlook.
You like what Thomas Jefferson
said, "But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my legs."
It is a true that beliefs that do not harm us monetarily or physically should be tolerated. Shariah has positive aspects to it – or, rather, they do no damage in those two ways. Therefore, parts of shariah should be tolerated in a religiously diverse society like America.
The
Five Pillars are examples. They are part of shariah – divine Islamic law, which traces its origins ultimately back to the Quran (or Koran) and Muhammad's example or life, the sacred traditions, which were eventually written down in the hadith. None of those five rituals and policies picks our pockets or breaks our legs, if the five are done privately or in the mosque.
Unfortunately, however, this list is not about the harmless parts in shariah, but the ones that are
incompatible with the modern era.
Even Thomas Jefferson had
his limits. He sent the marines to take back captured American merchant sailors and to open up the trade routes that were hampered by the Muslim Barbary pirates in North Africa, who had sold the captives into slavery or demanded ransoms.
Do the elites have any limits?
In some cases, a religion does indeed pick our pockets and break our legs.
Each item in the list has one or more back-up articles. Readers should click on them to find out that the thirty points come right out of original Islam and are not invented out of thin air. Each back up also has a section on modern Islam, mentioning Muslims – too few – who advocate reform.
And if readers would like to see various translations of the Quran, they may go to the website
quranbrowser.com and type in the references. If readers are in doubt about the meaning of a verse, they may go to the
tafsir (commentary) written by
Ibn Kathir (d. 1373), one of the most authoritative and highly regarded classical commentators in the Sunni world, at
qtafsir.com; or the readers may search through the modern commentary by Sunni Indo-Pakistani religious scholar and politician
Sayyid Abul A'la Maududi (d. 1979) at
englishtafsir.com.
1. The mosque and state are not separate.
To this day,
Islamic nations that are deeply rooted in shariah, like
Iran and
Saudi Arabia, do not adequately separate the two realms, giving a lot of power to courts and councils to ensure that legislation does not contradict the Quran (never mind whose interpretation).
Most of the laws listed below come from this confusion.
Back-up article:
Mosque and State
2. Jihad may be waged against injustice or an unjust nation, as Islam defines the terms.
Classical texts say Islam is justice, and no Islam is injustice. Therefore, a "just war" can be waged against a nation or people who do not submit to Islam.
Yet we are told in the 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights, which is based on shariah, that humane rules must be followed (
Article Three) . Does that article offer hope that modern Islam can move past old Islam? Maybe.
However, the Quran, sacred traditions, classical law, and historical Islam contradict or balance out some elements in Article Three. Would there be a conflict between the old Islam and modern Islam, if war broke out?
Many Islamic clerics issue fatwas (religious rulings) to wage jihad.
Back-up articles:
Jihad and Qital and
The Early Muslim Community and the Sword.
3. Jihad may be waged to spread Islam and force conversions – a holy war.
Waging jihad to
spread Islam and
force conversions is a
perfect description of "holy war." See Quran 8:39, 9:5, 9:11-12, 9:14, and 9:29; and then see
9:
33; 61:9 and 48:28.
Yet, we have been
told for many years now that holy wars and forced conversions were never done in Islam. That's a myth imagined by Westerners.
However,
read those verses and click on the back-up articles:
Back-up articles:
Jihad and Qital,
The Mission of Muhammad and the Sword, and
The Early Muslim Community and the Sword.
4. A captive in jihad may be executed, enslaved, ransomed for money, exchanged for other prisoners, or released freely.
Quran 47:4 and 33:25-27, 4:24 says those things (and the last option – free release – is positive). Yet we are
told that in a jihad today everything must be done humanely and justly.
However, the back-up article, this fourth item, and the next four items in this list
balance out that claim. Would there be a
conflict between
old Islam and modern Islam, if war broke out?
Back-up articles:
Jihad and Qital and
Slavery
5. A woman captive of jihad may be forced to have to sex with her captors (now owners).
Quran
4:24 and especially the sacred traditions and classical law allow this. The sacred traditions say that while out on military campaigns under Muhammad's leadership, jihadists used to practice coitus interruptus with their female captives.
Women soldiers fighting terrorists today must be
forewarned of
the danger.
Back-up articles:
Jihad and Qital and
Slavery
6. Property can be destroyed or confiscated during jihad.
Quran 59:2 and 59:5 discuss those rules. Sacred traditions and classical law expand on the Quranic verses. Modern Islamic law officially improves on the Quran: see
Article Three of the 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights, which is nonetheless based on shariah, but it outlaws wanton destruction of property. Would there be any conflict between
old Islam and modern Islam in a war today?
Back-up articles:
Jihad and Qital and
The Quran and the Sword
7. Jihad may be waged to collect spoils.
Quran 8:1, 8:7, 8:41, and 48:20 show this clearly. Early Islam followed the old Arab custom of raiding caravans, but as its military grew, the raids were elevated to jihad. The spoils of war were coveted. Which Islam would prevail in a war today –
the old one or
the modern one?
Back-up articles:
Jihad and Qital and
The Quran and the Sword
8. A second-class submission tax, called the jizyah, must be imposed on Jews and Christians (and other religious minorities) living in Islamic countries.
Quran
9:
29 offers three options to Jews and Christians: (1) Fight and die; (2) convert to Islam; (3) or keep their religion, but pay a tribute or submission tax, the
jizyah, while living under Islam.
In Islamic history, vanquished Jews and Christians became known as
dhimmis. This word appears in Quran 9:8 and 9:10, meaning a "treaty" or "oath," but it can also mean those who are "condemned" "reviled" or "reproved" (Quran 17:18, 17:22; 68:49). The word "submission" in Quran 9:29 can also be translated as "humiliation," "utterly humbled," "contemptible" or "vile." It can mean "small" as opposed to "great."
Islamic nations today
still seek to
impose this second-class religion tax.
Back-up articles:
Jihad and Qital and
The Quran and the Sword
9. Slavery is allowed.
It is true that freeing slaves was done in original Islam (Quran 5:89 and 24:33), and the Quran says to be kind to slaves (Quran 4:36), but that is not the entire story.
In addition to those verses, Quran
4:24,
23:1-7;
33:52 allow the institution. Muhammad owned slaves, even one who was black (so says a sacred tradition). He was militarily and politically powerful during his later life in Medina, but he never abolished slavery as an institution.
Officially, Islamic nations have outlawed slavery (
Article 11, which is still based on shariah). That proves Islam can reform on at least one matter. Can it reform on the other shariah laws? And we are
told that "no other nation or religious group in the world treated slaves better than the Muslims did." The back-up article and next two items in this list contradict that claim.
The
legacy of
slavery still
runs deep in
Islamic countries even today.
Back-up article:
Slavery
10. A male owner may have sex with his slave-women, even prepubescent slave-girls.
See Quran
4:24 and
23:1-7; but it is classical law that permits sex with prepubescent slave girls and describes them as such. Some
Muslim religious leaders and others
still advocate this practice, taking the slaves as concubines (though sex with prepubescent slave-girls is another matter).
Back-up article:
Slavery
11. Slaves may be beaten.
That's what sacred traditions and classical laws
say. See
Islamic Jihad: A Legacy of Forced Conversion, Imperialism, and Slavery
Back-up article:
Slavery
12. Apostasy laws, including imprisonment or execution, may be imposed on anyone who leaves Islam (an apostate).
Normally this is a prescribed punishment, but it is also political, since it is about freedom of religion. Surprisingly the Quran does not cover punishing apostates down here on earth, though in the afterlife they will be punished. Does this modern Islam can reform old Islam? Quran 4:88-89, 9:73-74, and 9:123, read in that sequence, might deal with earthly punishments. Mainly, however, the sacred traditions and classical law permit harsh treatment for anyone who leaves Islam.
Islamic courts and laws still
impose these
punishments today, or
religious scholars today argue for the law.
Back-up article:
Freedom of Religion
13. Blasphemy laws, including imprisonment or execution, may be imposed on critics of Islam or Muhammad.
These verses should be read in historical sequence, for they show that as Islam's military power increased, the harsh treatment of mockers and critics also intensified, as follows: Quran 3:186, 33:57-61, 9:61-66, 9:73 and 9:123. Sacred traditions, classical laws, and historical Islam are unambiguous about the punishments, recording the people, often their names, who were assassinated for mocking Muhammad and the Quran.
Islamic nations and
pockets of Islam in
non-Muslim countries still impose these punishments today.
Back-up article:
Free Speech
14. Drinkers and gamblers may be flogged.
Quran 2:219, 4:43, and 5:90-91, in that sequence, show that Islam gradually prohibited alcohol. The last passage also prohibits "gaming" of sorts. The sacred traditions and classical law discuss punishing gamblers and alcoholics. One tradition says to execute unrepentant alcoholics who do not stop. But usually drinkers were flogged forty or eighty times, with garments, palm branches, or sandals in early Islam.
Islamic
countries can impose these punishments today, or
religious and
legal scholars still argue for it.
Back-up article:
Muhammad, the Quran, and Prohibition
15. An injured plaintiff (a private citizen) has the options of forgiving or exacting legal and literal revenge – physical eye for physical eye.
Categorized as
qisas (like for like), Quran 5:45 is the main verse (and see 2:187-189). Sacred traditions and classical laws spell out which punishments should be inflicted on which offenses.
Islamic courts, depending on which way the plaintiff directs, today may ask a doctor to surgically remove an eye or
disfigure the face or
body in some other way. Currently,
qisas can be applied to children in Iran.
The whole purpose of courts is to remove the punishment of wrongs and injuries from the plaintiffs who are private citizens; otherwise,
blood feuds and personal revenge make punishments uneven – never mind excessive.
Back-up article:
Law of Retaliation
16. The hand of a male or female thief may be cut off.
Quran 5:38 imposes this punishment. The traditions and classical law clarify that the theft has to be a valuable item; or mutilation might not be inflicted during a famine,
But amputation is
still done today in
Islamic countries and
argued for by
religious leaders or legal
scholars to
understand it as if it is still valid.
Back-up article:
Thieves, Give Muhammad a Hand!
17. A highway robber may be crucified or his alternate hand and foot cut off.
Quran 5:33 permit these punishments. Yes, from that verse other punishments can be inflicted, but the point here is that execution for first-degree murder with aggravated circumstances is one thing, but mutilation and crucifixion is excessive.
Some Islamic
nations can still
impose them today, or
religious and legal
scholars still
argue for
understanding the punishments, as if they are still valid.
Back-up article:
Crucifixion and Mutilation
18. Homosexuals may be imprisoned, flogged, or executed.
Surprisingly, the Quran is not all that clear on this subject, but the traditions and classical laws are.
Islamic nations to
this day still impose those punishments, and religious
leaders still
argue for harsh punishments.
Back-up article:
Homosexuality
19. Fornicators may be flogged.
Quran 24:2 says this. The hadith and classical laws can impose additional penalties like exile of the male for a year.
Modern Islamic nations still
inflict this penalty, and
religious or
legal scholars still
argue for it.
Back-up article:
Adultery and Fornication
20. Adulterers may be stoned to death.
The verse that says to stone adulterers to death went missing from the Quran, so says Umar, a companion of Muhammad and the second caliph (ruled 634-644). But he left no doubt that this penalty was done under Muhammad's direction, and the sacred traditions and classical laws confirm it. But a few rules of evidence must be followed, like confession of the adulterer or four eyewitnesses. In
some interpretations of the law, if a woman is raped, but cannot produce four just and pious men who witnessed it, then she is slandering the alleged rapist (or gang rapists) – never mind that the four just and pious eyewitnesses did nothing to stop it, but stood there and watched it.
Some
modern Islamic nations still do this, and
religious and legal scholars argue for it.
Back-up article:
Adultery and Fornication
21. False accusers of sexual crimes may be flogged eighty times.
Quran 24:1-4 speak of corporal punishment for sexual sins. Verse 4 says that if an accuser cannot produce four eyewitnesses to corroborate his accusation, then he will be flogged (see Quran 24:13).
Some modern
Islamic nations can still impose the penalty for slander, and
religious scholars still
argue for it.
Back-up article:
Adultery and Fornication
Quran
2:228 and
4:34 states that mankind is superior to womankind in a variety of legal and domestic contexts. Quran
2:223 says wives are fields, and their husbands can go into them whenever and however they like. How does this inferiority work out in the law and society?
22. A woman inherits half what a man does.
Quran
4:11 says it, and the hadith (traditions) and classical law confirm it.
Modern Islamic nations still do this, and
religious leaders still argue for it.
Back-up article:
Women's Status and Roles
23. A woman's testimony in a court of law counts half of a man's testimony, since she might "forget."
Quran
2:282 says it in the context of business law. But the hadith (traditions) explains that women's minds are deficient; classical law expands this curtailment to other areas than business.
Modern Islamic nations still do this, and
religious scholars still
argue for it.
Back-up article:
Women's Status and Roles
24. A man may legally and irrevocably divorce his wife, outside of a court of law, by correctly pronouncing three times "you are divorced."
Quran
2:229 says this, and the traditions and classical law explain and confirm it. A judge in a modern Islamic country will ensure that the husband did not speak from a fit of irrational rage (anger is okay) or intoxication, for example. Then the court will validate the divorce, not daring to overturn it, since the Quran says so.
Sometimes this
homemade and
irrevocable divorce produces
a lot of
regret in the
couple and
manipulation from the
husband in
Islam today.
Back-up article:
Divorce and Remarriage
25. A wife may remarry her ex-husband if and only if she marries another man, has sex with him, and then this second man divorces her.
Quran
2:230 says this, and the traditions and classical law confirm it. Supposedly, this rule is designed to
prevent easy divorce (see the previous point), but it produces a
lot of pain, in Muslims
today.
Back-up article:
Divorce and Remarriage
26. Husbands may hit their wives.
Quran
4:34 says it, and the traditions and classical law confirm it. There is a sequence of steps a husband follows before he can hit her, but not surprisingly this
rule creates all
sorts of
abuse and
confusion in
Islamic society today.
Back-up article:
Domestic Violence
27. A man may be polygamous with up to four wives.
Quran
4:3 (and 33:50-52) allow this, but only if a man can take care of them. The traditions and classical law confirm it.
Modern Muslims still push for this old marital arrangement even in the USA, and
many Islamic nations still allow it. But
some Muslims are
fighting polygamy. The hadith (traditions) paints a picture of Muhammad's household that was full of strife between the wives.
Back-up article:
Polygamy
28. A man may simply get rid of one of his "undesirable" wives.
Quran
4:128 says this. The traditions say about the verse that the wife whom Muhammad wanted to get rid of was "huge" and "fat." She gave up her turn to his favorite girl-bride Aisha. He kept the corpulent wife. There is
heartbreak in
Islam today.
Back-up article:
Polygamy
29. A mature man may marry a prepubescent girl.
Quran 65:1-4, particularly
verse 4, assumes, but does not command, the practice. The hadith says Aisha was six years old when she was engaged to Muhammad (he was in his fifties), and their marriage was consummated when she was nine. The hadith indicate she was prepubescent at nine. She never did bear him any children. Classical law says a father may give away his prepubescent daughter, but she also has a few rights.
Officially many Islamic nations have
raised the
legal marriage age, but pockets in the Islamic world still follow this old custom. The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia okays
marriage to ten-year-old girls. Work is still needed to be done for the rights of
girl brides, particularly for their
sexual health.
Back-up article:
Marriage to Prepubescent Girls
30. A woman must wear a head covering and maybe a facial veil, according to sound traditions and authoritative classical law.
Quran 24:31, 33:53 and 33:59 are not as clear about
the veil as one might first think. The verses say to dress modestly, but should the head be covered or just the neckline? What about the face (except the eyes)? Thus,
modern Muslims are now in a big debate over the veil. However, the traditions and classical law are clearer than the Quran: the veil over the face (except the eyes).
Back-up article:
Veils
Conclusion
Compiling this list would not have been necessary if modern Muslim religious leaders and jurists argued that all of those laws have expiration dates – back in the seventh century. Instead, they are eager to impose
those archaic laws today (with the exceptions duly noted as the list went along). They believe all of the Quran is universally and timelessly good.
However, most of the public, since 9/11 and the countless posts about Islam since then, are laughing at Islam behind its back. The traditionalists, whom we have kept track of in the series, appear very foolish, when they defend the thirty rules. Do they really intend to tell us to our faces that the thirty laws should be imposed on all of humanity for its own good? Apparently so. But you traditionalists are gradually becoming a laughingstock, in the eyes of most people.
Most people. Why not all?
The allies of the traditionalists in the
Western world and elsewhere
seem oblivious to the dangers built into the laws.
Are
all of these laws on the brink of being imposed on the West, by the next day? No, but many of them, especially the ones about marriage and family, can gradually be lobbied for and slowly make their way into our culture and
legal system and advocated in school curricula, in the name of multiculturalism.
But will modern Islam reform old Islam? Will the Western elites encourage reform, or do they believe
Islam is fine the way it is? Rather than they and traditionalists defending the thirty laws and calling critics "Islamophobes," traditionalists and their allies
should work hard to
reform the laws or, better yet, set them aside completely.
For example, the Quran and traditions, classical law, and Islamic history promote slavery, but modern Muslim states have outlawed it – officially (see nos. 9, 10, 11, above). This prohibition shows that modern Islam can improve on original Islam – the one that Muhammad preached and practiced. Slavery was done throughout the world in the old days; that's the (outdated) historical context. Original Islam conformed to it. Can modern Muslim scholars recognize that all of the other laws in this list were part of the same obsolete historical context and throw out these archaic laws?
In the meantime, while we wait patiently for this Islamic Reformation and Modernization (if it happens), the Western elites may want to remember three universal rights that are self-evident, according to the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
The hallmarks of those three rights are, among other things, freedom of conscience to follow a religion of one's choice (or no religion at all) without being harassed. Freedom of speech – even the kind that criticizes the Quran and Muhammad – are signs that democracy and justice have taken root. Equality before the law for both sexes also defines the three universal rights.
However, all of those thirty laws suppress everyone's highest quality of
life before the law and in society; they suppress our maximum
liberty; and they suppress individual
pursuit of happiness as he or she defines it.
Finally, a religious utopia which is imposed from the top down in Islam, which harshly punishes sins or crimes by disfigurement or mutilation or flogging, and which denies the basic human dignity of the female sex, is the wrong direction for modern society.
Over the centuries, and after many mistakes, the West has learned from its mistakes and
is still learning. Islamic leaders say the West is arrogant. Maybe sometimes it is. But Islam's refusal to learn from the West is also a sign of arrogance. Islam must bend to us, not we to it. Islam is behind the times.
Tolerance of religions in their harmless aspects, like prayer, is one thing, but capitulation to their civilly and socially oppressive parts is another. Let's preserve our cultural and legal advancements without compromise. Let's keep religion and the state (government) separate.
Not one word, phrase, or clause of these thirty shariah laws and even the Five Pillars should ever enter our
legal system, legislation, policy formulations, or school curricula.
Most of all, let's keep (or return) to our three universal and foundational rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of (individual) happiness.
[1]
[1] This series does not compare Islam and Christianity, but the readers may be curious about it. It may also seem strange to the intellectual elite who have pretty much chucked religion out the window that people often ask about the Old Testament. Doesn't it have severe laws? How can we talk about shariah?
Reply: no one of significance today advocates bringing those severe Old Testament laws forward to the modern era, with the possible exception of the death penalty for first-degree murder with aggravated circumstances (yet countless traditional and ultraconservative jurists and religious scholars today are eager to impose those thirty laws). Second, in the very last endnote to each back-up article is a brief discussion of the question. Basically, Christians believe that the New Testament reinterprets the Old. See my studies
How Christ Fulfills the Old Testament and
How Christians Benefit from the Old Testament. And Jews today don't read the severe old laws without the Talmudic literature. Thus, there should be no straight line between 3,400-year-old laws in the Torah of the Old Testament and the modern era, without a reinterpretation of them (can modern Islam reinterpret or throw out those thirty laws that are 1,400 year old?).
James M. Arlandson has written a book: Women, Class, and Society in Early Christianity. He has recently completed a series on The Sword in Early Christianity and Islam.
, demonstrates that Darwin has two worthy 21st Century successors of comparable insight and ambition: co-authors Gregory Cochran and Henry Harpending. (They've set up an official website for The 10,000 Year Explosion here).
