Bravo to Eliyahu Stern, assistant professor of religious studies and history at Yale, who eloquently defends Shariah law in the U.S. This is a welcome and well-reasoned argument that needed to be heard from a Jewish source to counterbalance the activities of David Yerushalmi who has been crusading against Shariah law, as noted in a story in the Times, July 30, and in this blog and elsewhere months before that. Stern concludes:
Anti-Shariah legislation fosters a hostile environment that will stymie the growth of America’s tolerant strand of Islam. The continuation of America’s pluralistic religious tradition depends on the ability to distinguish between punishing groups that support terror and blaming terrorist activities on a faith that represents roughly a quarter of the world’s population.
I disagree with my learned friend Tzvee. Sharia is inherently coercive, intolerant of other religions, and un-American. Of course,many apologists pretend it is something other than what it really is.
ReplyDeleteSadly, people say all of that about Talmudic law too.
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