Read it and weep — and you will want to weep. In Bangladesh a 14-year-old girl named Hena was raped by a 40-year-old man, Mahbub, who is described in a report as her “relative.” [Thanks to John Hinderaker for highlighting this story.] Apparently — the report is not clear on how this happened — the matter was brought to the attention of the sharia authorities in her village of Shariatpur. You’d think this was a good thing … except, in Islam, rape cannot be proved absent four witnesses — i.e., it’s virtually impossible to establish that what happened happened. That’s a dangerous thing for the victim — deadly dangerous in this instance — because if she has had sexual relations outside marriage but cannot prove she has been raped, she is deemed to have committed a grave sin. In Hena’s case, the sharia authorities ordered that she be given 100 lashes. The young girl never made it through 80; she fell unconscious and died from the whipping.
When I catalogue the horrors of sharia, I frequently hear in response that I am oversimplifying it, that I am relying on incorrect interpretations (oddly said to be inaccurate because they construe Islamic doctrine “too literally”), or that I fail to appreciate the richness and nuances of sharia jurisprudence that have made it possible for moderate Muslims to evolve away from the law’s harshness. Some even claim sharia is not a concrete body of law, just a set of aspirational guidelines — as if Sakineh Ashtiani, the woman sentenced by an Iranian court to death by stoning, will merely be having advice, rather than rocks, thrown at her.
These criticisms miss the point. I don’t purport to have apodictic knowledge of what the “true” Islam holds — or even to know whether there is a single true Islam (as I’ve said a number of times, I doubt that there is). But that’s irrelevant. It should by now be undeniable that there is an interpretation of sharia that affirms all its atrocious elements, and that this interpretation is not a fringe construction. It is mainstream and backed by very influential scholars who know a hell of a lot more about Islam than we in the West do. That makes it extremely unlikely that this interpretation will be marginalized any time soon. There is no agreed-upon hierarchical authority in Islam that can authoritatively pronounce that various beliefs and practices are heretical. The closest thing Muslims have is the faculty at al-Azhar University in Egypt, and it is a big part of the problem. Whether this fundamentalist interpretation is accepted by only 20 or 30 percent of Muslims — or whether, as I believe, the percentage is higher, perhaps much higher — that still makes it the belief system of almost half a billion people worldwide. That’s not a fringe.
Sharia is not a myth or an invention of overwrought Islamophobes. It is very real. And that some Saudi-endowed Georgetown prof will inevitably come up with some elegant explanation of how the village authorities got it wrong will have absolutely zero influence over the way sharia is understood in Shariatpur. Nor will not make this tormented 14-year-old girl any less dead.
Where is Madame Secretary Clinton? Where is Gloria Steinam? Where are all of the modern feminists?
All I hear are crickets.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf "legal" decisions such as this example are common throughout the Islamic world (and they are), no explanations or excuses can or should suffice. This brutality is unacceptable.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThank you so much Andrew! Please keep up the good fight. I know it must be hard working at NR these days, but remember that the truth will out! Hopefully, not too late for us.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAh, yes! More from that lovely "Religion of Peace" for you ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr. McCarthy proves yet again that his is one of THE most important voices writing today with a wide public audience.
Thank you, Mr. McCarthy. If the Republic survives, American citizens of the future will owe you a debt that can never be repaid in full.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe name of the village is "Shariatpur". I'm no linguist, but that doesn't sound like a coincidence.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGreat... let's bomb Bangladesh. So what does this have to do with Sharia law in the US? I think the complaint is not that it doesn't exist on the Indian Subcontinent, but that it doesn't exist here. And that states like Oklahoma are only feeding fears when they pass laws suggesting that it does. Evidence, Mr. McCarthy?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI believe it was Tertullian who asked what Athens (reason) has to do with Jerusalem (Christian faith). This atrocity and many others like it tell us that Athens has nothing to do with Mecca. The irony is that liberals, who claim to be so rational, are blind to the irrationality--and barbarism--of Islam.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEvery time I read one of these stories, I immediately recall Time's "Is America Islamophobic?" cover of Aug. 30, 2010.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOf course, the fact that they whipped a teenage rape victims to death will get less coverage than Anderson Cooper being smacked on the head.
"Where are all the modern feminists".
Great point. Apparently they are selective in their "outrage" and the moral superiority that they lord over the rest of us when some conservative male does something oafish is clearly not born of "solidarity" for women but base politics.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBut but but, you just don't understand... Not that I believe it, but some liberal was going to say it anyway.
My heart goes out to this poor girl. For her the pain is over, but for the millions of women still oppressed under the cloak of this monstrously evil "religion" lets hope help comes their way and do what we can to see that it does.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"There is no agreed-upon hierarchical authority in Islam that can authoritatively pronounce that various beliefs and practices are heretical."
That's it. You can't grapple with Islam because whatever you find unacceptable in it, the defense is simply that it's not true Islam. Islam has never done anything objectionable, because by definition anything objectionable is unIslamic.
Edward Feser put the matter neatly at Tech Central Station years ago:
External Link
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, historically there was a heirarchical structure which could pronouce divine law - the Caliph. Unfortunately, Islam is so politcally intertwined that a Caliph requires a return to a unified Islamic empire. Not to mention the fact that those who most fervently pray for a Caliph aren't inclined towards humanitarianism, quite the opposite really.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThank you Patrick J for the link. It sums up, very nicely, what I said in response to Mr. Murdock's piece on Katie Couric.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOf course the percentage of fundamentalist Muslims is way, way, way, higher than the apologists claim. Two recent Pew Research polls showed just how high that reality is. Both Pakistan and Egypt (a quarter of a billion Muslims) came in at, 80% in favour of, stoning adulterous women to death, amputations for thievery, and death for any Muslim that denounces Islam. How's that for a tiny minority? Islam is the religion of peace, is the world's second biggest lie, right after, all cultures are equal.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObserver asked for proof of sharia law in the US and stated these things don't happen in the US. Just off the top of my head a self proclaimed moderate muslim tv station owner beheaded his wife - the trial continues - look it up and then there is the mandatory Arabic in an elementary school that was recently in the news and the muslim worker who is suing Disney for either a hijab or time off to pray plus there are many other examples of muslim union workers demanding time off during the day to pray - imagine if Jews or Christians did that.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusewonder why obama doesnt come out against this vile and evil practice
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseislam is one of the worse beliefs i can think of
Keep it coming Andrew. The recent clear thinking, unambiguous statements and growing consensus among Western leaders (at least in Western Europe) regarding the existential threat of a chaotic Islamic culture which has been undermining their sovereignty, much less destabilizing this world we share, is finally bubbling to the top and clearing the field of the wishy washy, muddle headed, PC platitudes that have been dominating the discussion since 9/11.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe "blame the west" first, MuliKulti ethos is running out of steam.
The apologists for the harmlessness of a mythical secular Islam that only exists on the fringes are grasping at straws these days. The last I heard, even the moderate and honorable Imam Rauf has yet to unambiguously reject Shariah as a legitimate objective of Islam. It's ridiculous that in all the brouhaha over the GZ-Mosque that nobody in the mainstream media bothered to even ask that question when given the opportunity. They are either terrified by the answer they would get, too dismissive of religious beliefs to understand its significance, or simply too criminally naive to care.
Shariah is an abhorrent evil that is irreconcilably at odds with our values. It is the root that must be killed before any reawakening of the Arab or Islamic world that will provide its people with a better life can take hold.
Everywhere that "moderate" muslims gain in political strength, calls for sharia law are not far behind. Look it up. It is simply one more tactic of muslim imperialism.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou should also examine Talmudic law if you wish to be fair.
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