Law and Order and Religious Freedom, Islamic Style
I have sometimes heard Islam praised for its strict criminal law system. The practice of chopping off hands for petty theft, for example, is admired as a no nonsense path to the paradise of perfect law and order. I am not sure as to the proper context for problems with "civil unrest" currently plaguing Gaza, and Iraq, in battles between Shiites and Sunnis, and Hamas and Fatah. Replacing petty crime with civil war is not quite my idea of perfect justice. Leaving those questions aside, it is also true that some strict law and order types fail to consider that under Islamic law, theological questions are also matters for the criminal courts. There is not doubt that Moslems take these matters very seriously. For example, the penalty for apostasy (dropping out of Islam), sometimes called changing your mind in the west, is death . If this be the case, what would be a reasonable and just punishment for merely thinking about leaving the faith, such as by talking to Christians or re...