December 12, 2011   180 notes

Mohandas Gandhi on Sharia Law

thecallus:

mohandasgandhi:

I find that those who have the biggest aversion to Shari’a law are those who haven’t studied the various schools at all or know anything about Islam. I’m saying this as an Atheist. The responses I received sound like they came straight from Western right-wing talking points. Yes, there are countries with statutes in place that claim to be based on Islamic doctrine that are rather brutish and what we would consider to be unjust. For instance, a lot of you came to me concerned about honor killings but the Qur’an doesn’t say anything about honor killings. It says not to kill.

Actually, the Qur’an observes the classic paradox observed by the Bible and many other foundational scriptures: it simultaneously denounces and demands killing. In a variety of contexts. Scholars would note that deities have historically mirrored societies in making the hypocritical assertion that we should all be peaceful
while perpetrating mass murder in the name of something or another.

Remember, god closed the Red Sea over Egyptians before instructing us not to kill, definitively. “Dad can be a mean drunk or something,” local priest notes.

It’s a lot like all those damn stop lights that simultaneously say “stop” and “go” at the same time. I mean, one light turns great at the same time another turns red. Could it get more confusing? Talk about mixed signals!

Or, maybe we could use some of the intellectual tools about context, perception, and so on that we generally master right after object permanence.

(via thecallus)

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    If we’re talking about ideological contradictions (or, at least, tensions)...text...
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