Shari'ah and the South It is interesting how abhorent most Westerners find the idea of Islamic law, of shari'ah.

Just the thought that the revolutionary governments of Tunisia, Libya or Egypt would consider its implementation in some way caused many to shutter and bemoan how those Muslims had no concept, as do enlightened Americans and secularist Europeans, of separation of church and state. But that concept, so ensconced in Americans thought, stares stupidly out at a world in which it remains just a concept, paid lip service in a society that is anything but secular and at laws that lack secular justifications.