“There’s really no such thing as just Sharia, it’s not one monolithic Continuum – Sharia is understood in thousands of different ways over the 1,500 years in which multiple and competing schools of law have tried to construct some kind of civic penal and family law code that would abide by Islamic values and principles, it’s understood in many different ways…” — Reza Aslan
Not really. Everywhere it is implemented today, and everywhere that it has been implemented historically, it has looked pretty much the same. That’s why the Christians in Libya are afraid: they know what this will involve for them.
“Christians Fear Libya’s Islamic Laws,” from BosNewsLife, January 5:
TRIPOLI, LIBYA (BosNewsLife)– Minority Christians in Libya have begun the New Year with concern after parliament voted to make sharia, or Islamic law, the source of all legislation.
A special committee has begun reviewing existing laws to ensure that they comply with sharia, BosNewsLife learned Sunday, January 5.
Last month’s vote was seen by Christians as an attempt to counter criticism from “militant Islamists”, who called some of the country”s lawmakers “un-Islamic”.
Advocacy group Barnabas Fund, which supports Christians in Islamic nations, expressed concern about growing influence of Islamists.
After the ‘Arab Spring’ pro-freedom demonstrations toppled autocratic leaders across the Arab world, it “initially appeared that Islamists had not gained the upper hand in Libya as they had done in Tunisia or Egypt,” the group noted.
MILITANTS POWERFUL
Though a “broadly liberal and secular coalition took the most seats in Libya’s first election,” Islamic militants remain powerful, Barnabas Fund explained.
“Groups such as Ansar al-Sharia, the militia suspected of carrying out a deadly attack on the US consulate in September 2012, have grown in strength. Islamists now have an increasing influence both within politics and outside of it,” the group said, adding that “militias control parts of the country.”
Barnabas Fund said, the “strengthening Islamism intensifies the threat to Libya’s already vulnerable Christian community, which is composed of expatriate believers and a very small number of Libyan converts from Islam.”…