Is sharia law part of the core of Islam?

This is one thing that frustrates me about many denominational Christians. For people who claim to know the Bible so well, they really struggle to understand the difference between the new and old testament.

 

Do you care to name a few of these laws?

 

I am not a Muslim so I cannot say what is or is not a core part of the faith. I can say that Sharia law is terrifying and there should more public Muslim support for its elimination than currently exists. I do not personally know any Muslims who are vocally supporting it however. I guess I am not really qualified to answer this poll haha.

 

I've heard Christians, for example my brother and sister and the churches they attend, say if you call yourself Christian while supporting LGBT equal rights or are pro-choice, you're not a real Christian. These same two people who have lied to my face as well as commit adultery.

 

I guess I'm talking more about religion losing priority in the West. If you're dirt poor and living in the streets fearing that you will lose your life on a daily basis then I guess religion would take a large foothold in your life, however most Western Muslims I know, while some are admittedly attached to their religion, would rather make bank, marry a nice woman, and get a big house; live the American dream. Religion is like something you do on the side, not something that drives you in life.

Kinda like how some "radical" Christians here, may be vehemently opposed against gays, but many don't care enough to round up gay people and kill them, or anything of that sort; instead they just vote against them. I honestly think this is less about religion, and more about opposing and resisting western culture. And same enough the Muslim friends I know denounced the hell out of the Paris attack.

You are absolutely right though, that the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam is a huge problem here and we're probably not going to see modernization of the Islam religion anytime soon.

 

It seems to be currently, although there are already different views toward them. Will it stay that way exactly in 10 years? 20 years? 50 years? 100 years? Nay, it will change. How it change is on society and government as it has for the West.

 

Again... A common theme amongst many theists. They preach only what is easy.

 

I was corrected via rep. Its Peter who has the vision, not Paul. Thanks for keeping me honest.

 

You must distinguish the difference between personal conviction (aka ones rules and regulations and interpretations) versus what Jesus or the Apostles taught.

Essentially, Christianity is divided between two sects: Followers of Jesus and followers of the Apostles. The differences are noticeable, however they are not exactly contradictory.

Jesus chastised the hypocrites and preached peace, love and forgiveness. This can be found in Mathew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Apostles formed the church, aka the birth of modern day Christianity. This is where the rules and regulations began to form into the shame of what we call Christianity today.

 

Sorry - I guess there are sort of two questions here. The poll question is a bit different than the one I was responding to - I didn't see that in my original comments. My response was in relation to the one in the first post:

can you really be a Muslim but against sharia law?

I think the simple fact that there are hundreds of millions of people that consider themselves devoutly Muslim but don't necessarily follow sharia law suggests that the answer to that one is unequivocally yes. Not emphasizing sharia law is clearly not some crazy minority sect or anything like that. It's a pretty substantive portion of the Muslim world, and different sects interpret sharia very differently.

That said, I agree that the poll question (Is sharia law part of the core of Islam?) may have a different and more complex answer. The answer to both questions probably also depends on how we define sharia law - I suspect far more Muslims may value the personal code, but may not agree with the penal/legal system aspects or things like that. So I think the first step would be to really define what we're talking about with sharia law.

 

As always, there is a difference between pure theological arguments and actual practice.

My understanding is that the Hadeth, and thus the Sharia that is derived from it, are not the direct word of "the prophet", but rather written by the scholars who came later. Only the word of "the prophet" should be considered direct from God, and beyond reproach By the internal logic of Islam, it should be considered suspect and fallible in a way that a true believer wouldn't question the Quran.

In practice, the people who teach Islam to the masses are the practical functional decedents of the people who wrote the Hadith, and thus have an inherent in bias towards teaching them as being inseparable from the Quran.

Historically, the keepers of the mysteries of the gods in every religion have an inherent bias in making sure that they are the only direct mediator between between the great unwashed masses and the heavens.

Its called job security.

I think where most of these arguments fail, and people start talking past each other occurs when one group is thinking of things in terms of the practical - examining the subject by external observation, while the other is thinking in terms of theoretical theological framework.

So I guess my answer is technically it should not be part of the core belief system, but in actual practice there are very few people who understand the distinction.

 

Try getting married in Israel.

 

I don't think anyone is listening, Sam. Besides, without religion, how are people supposed to know who to hate?

 

Not anymore, but the Catholic Church/Empire certainly imposed their version of God's will across Europe and into the Middle East then across the oceans.

History is cyclical, Christians and Muslims have taken turns being enlightened and being brutal.

 

So then how can it be considered a part of it's core when you have hundreds of millions on both sides. The thing about a religion is that there are many denominations and factions within one religion as people generally can't agree on much.

 

I agree. It means there are lots of different sects and views within Islam, as with any of the other major religions. But they are all real Muslims, and they all believe their interpretation is the "correct" one. Some are just, as you said, crazy.

Would anyone argue that the 1000 Muslims that did the "ring of peace" thing in Norway aren't real Muslims? I really doubt they are hardcore sharia law types. Are the Orthodox Jews that won't sit on airplanes next to women not real Jews (or vice-versa)?

I think the problem comes when we try to define a religion and then put people into the neatly categorized boxes we created. Faith is just not that simple - there's a starting point with a historical book, but after that, there are different leaders that teach varying philosophies, and after that, every individual is going to have their own interpretation.

 

You have to understand this extremism is being targeted to a very large segment of young males who have little education and are generally unemployed or poor.

Like Latin America, the West's meddling and resource extraction has turned the area into a poverty stricken and violent region.