British Army troops returning home from Afghanistan were met by a demonstration of "Muslims Against Crusaders" in Barking, Essex, this week. See this for details.
Putting aside everything that event tells us about Britain and its Afghan immigrants, just take a look at one of the signs the demonstrators carried:
Shariah law in London, versus democracy in Afghanistan. Both are alien concepts. Both are equally unlikely. But, both seem to have just a slight outside chance of occurring.
2 comments:
Oh, TSB. What a heart-tearing sign.
Do you really think that both are equally unlikely? I keep feeling like we're all so "nicey nicey" that we'll have Shariah before long, regardless of whether or not democracy will ever be in Afghanistan. But maybe I'm just too much of a woeful pessimist.
I knew that both Britain and Canada now allow Shariah law to be used in alternative dispute resolution (private, voluntary, conflict mediation services). But I have to believe that it would take a total - total - collapse of those societies before Shariah law could ever be imposed involuntarily.
There is an absolute conflict between Western Civilization - with its social contract theory of government, individual rights, representational politics, Federalism, independent judiciary, etc. - and Shariah. The West can tolerate Shariah law in isolated voluntary situations, but Shariah can never tolerate any man-made law or political institution since that would be to put man's will ahead of God's will.
I notice that the new constitutions in both Iraq and Afghanistan contain provisions guaranteeing Shariah law supersedes any man-made law. Saudi Arabia cut out the middle man and simply adopted the Koran as their constitution.
This sort of thing goes to fundamental civilizational values. I think most people in the U.S. and Europe have lost sight of how their legal and political systems are not univeral, but arose from specifically Western historical context, which simply isn't shared - and can't be shared - by non-Western civilizations.
Whoa! I've got to step away from my lectern now, and save this for when I'm teaching History in a High School someday.
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