But if anyone even dares to suggest in the U.S. that there might be an incompatibility than Western ideas and Sharia, the condemnations will rain down. “Saudi sharia judges decry Westernizing ‘stench’ of legal reforms,” by Angus McDowall for Reuters, November 6 (thanks to Block Ness):
(Reuters) – Saudi judges who enforce sharia (Islamic law) have condemned what they see as “the stench of Western ideas” in sweeping legal reforms pushed by King Abdullah, underscoring friction between government modernizers and religious hardliners.
In a letter to Justice Minister Mohammed al-Issa seen by Reuters, eight judges complained about foreign trainers who shave their beards contrary to purist Islam, the minister’s meetings with diplomats of “infidel” states and plans to let women practice as lawyers….