Seventh Century Justice

     With all the furor over the Afghan apostate who was threatened with execution last week I’m surprised we haven’t seen more serious discussion of the very real and difficult issues Muslims face with Islamic law. These folks are attempting to take their place in the modern era with ideas about humanity stuck in the middle ages. Not only were a lot of fellow Afghans calling for the poor Christian’s head, there were very few prominent Muslims around the world willing to protest. The Council on American-Islamic Relations did, but only in muted tones. I suspect precious few Muslims see it as the barbaric relic of medieval times that most Westerners see. We view it as a straight forward issue of religious freedom. Muslims see it as treason and they are on very solid religious ground. There is no direct call in the Koran for executing Muslims who turn from the faith but there is at least one passage that is often interpreted to mean that and the hadith is full of it. The hadith is the written record of the sayings and practices of Muhammad and his companions and together with the Koran is a principle source of authority. The first four Caliphs were particularly unforgiving of backsliders.
     All Islamic scholarship is grounded in the Koran and the hadith and neither has changed in more than thirteen hundred years. Together they represent all revealed truth. As best I understand it Muslims believe that everything worth knowing is contained in those two bodies of documentation. Beginning about a thousand years ago the Imams took control of schools in the Muslim world and since then have taught nothing else. Talk about a problem!  Imagine if our law were based on the mores of the Spanish Inquisition. We would be asking Torquemada for advice on how best to deal with separation of church and state. Picture our university system focused exclusively on the gospels and Acts of the Apostles. Everything else is either irrelevant or blasphemy. That sounds absurd but it is precisely the problem Muslims face in trying to move beyond attitudes extant when Muhammad was alive. And it isn’t just a few Muslims. Two years ago I attended an open house at our local Mosque and a very well spoken Muslim teenager explained to me that all answers were in the Koran. He was serious and he didn’t mean just moral issues and man’s relationship with God. He meant all answers. I think the boy was representative of mainstream Islam.
     I was hoping the current flap would cause at least a few Muslims to think seriously about what to western eyes is an obvious double standard. If it has they are keeping quiet about it. I think the key for Muslims is education, especially among women. Men may see chastity but when women think about it they will see misogyny. Education doesn’t always make people think but sometimes it does and it is those who actually do think that move us forward. It’s happening with Muslims, if only slowly. Most Muslim countries no longer enforce the more archaic practices of Islamic law. Slavery is nowhere still legal though it is specifically allowed in the Koran. It isn’t because it is morally wrong. It is banned as a concession to modern secular pressure much as polygamy is officially banned in Utah but it is banned. It is still common for Muslim police to turn a blind eye to family “honor” killings. Only a few Muslims have begun to see something wrong with that. This is going to take time.