Saturday, October 28, 2017

The Moral Decline of Religion and the Seven Woes of Jesus

   By Rudy Barnes, Jr.

            Christianity is in decline.  It is projected that by 2030 a third of Americans will have no religious preference.  While over 70% of Americans still claim to be Christians, that’s down 10% from 10 years ago.  Surprisingly, in spite of the decline in Christianity, Catholicism is holding its own, and that’s likely due to the moral leadership of Pope Francis.

            The moral decline of Christianity was on display at the Values Voter Summit earlier this month.  The “family values” celebrated by evangelical Christians are more like the self-centered objectivist values of Ayn Rand than the altruistic values taught by Jesus, which are summarized in the greatest commandment to love God and to love our neighbors as ourselves—including neighbors of other races and religions.  It is a common word of faith for Christians and Muslims.

            Thomas Jefferson considered the teachings of Jesus “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man.”  And Reinhold Niebhur, perhaps the greatest Christian theologian of the 20th century, emphasized Christian morality in politics.  But their enlightened views have been lost on Christian evangelical leaders like Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr., Paula White, Joel Osteen, Robert Jeffress and Tony Perkins, whose prosperity gospel conflicts with the gospel of Jesus.
           
            Islam is growing, but it is also experiencing a moral decline.  Mustafa Akyol has noted that the moral teachings of Jesus are relevant to Muslims, and that Islamists advocate oppressive Islamic laws (Shari’a) that deny fundamental freedoms.  Jesus issued a scathing, seven-fold indictment of hypocritical religious leaders like Christian evangelists and Islamists who ignore the moral imperative of the greatest commandment and promote oppressive radical right politics:

1. Woe to you religious leaders who misrepresent God’s kingdom as a worldly kingdom.  You will not be able to enter God’s kingdom, and you prevent those who follow you from entering. (Mt 23:13)
2. Woe to you who convert people to your corrupted beliefs and make them children of hell worse than yourself. (Mt 23:15) 
3. Woe to you who misrepresent your personal selfish desires as God’s will. (Mt 23:16)
4. Woe to you who put your faith in worldly power and its rewards rather than in the gift of God’s love. (Mt 23:17-22)
5. Woe to you hypocrites who preach justice but promote injustice. (Mt 23:23-24)
6. Woe to you who deceptively equate worldly power with God’s power; you appear to be Godly but you are corrupted by Satan’s evil. (Mt 23:25-26)
7. Woe to you who disguise yourselves as righteous and honor the prophets in word, but then refute them with your hypocritical and evil politics. (Mt 23:27-32)          

            Jesus concluded the seven woes with a final condemnation and a personal lament:

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? (Mt 23:33)
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.  Look, your house is left to you desolate.” (Mt 23:37, 38)

            Jerusalem remains desolate to this day, as a crucible of religious conflict between Jews, Christians and Muslims.  Its desolation illustrates the relevance of the seven woes to religious leaders today who are responsible for the moral decline of their religion.  Jesus condemned such religious charlatans, and enlightened Christians and Muslims should do likewise.  They should then lead an interfaith revival to give the moral teachings of Jesus primacy in their religions. 


Notes:

On projections that Christianity is declining in America and that by 2030 a third of Americans will have no religious preference, see https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-u-s-is-retreating-from-religion/.
 
For a BBC report on the 2017 Values Voter Summit, see http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41617793.  For the VVS website, see http://www.valuesvotersummit.org/about.


 
Thomas Jefferson embraced the moral teachings of Jesus but condemned the institutional church.  He wrote Henry Fry on June 17, 1804: "I consider the doctrines of Jesus…to contain the outlines of the sublimest morality that has ever been taught; but I hold in the utmost profound detestation and execration the corruptions of it which have been invested by priestcraft and kingcraft, constituting a conspiracy of church and state against the civil and religious liberties of man."  Thomas Jefferson, The Jefferson Bible, edited by O. I. A. Roche, Clarkson H. Potter, Inc., New York, 1964, at p 378.  See also, Introduction to The Teachings of Jesus and Muhammad on Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy, an interfaith study guide that compares those teachings of Jesus selected by Thomas Jefferson with comparable provisions of the Qur’an and hadith, with commentary, posted at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3gvZV8mXUp-aTJubVlISnpQc1U/view

Reinhold Niebuhr (1872-1971) is considered by many to be America’s foremost theologian, who “…wrote and spoke frequently about the intersection of religion, politics and public policy, with his most influential books including Moral Man and Immoral Society and The Nature and Destiny of Man.”  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinhold_Niebuhr.

 
Kim Ghattas has noted that Muslims have allowed political Islam (Islamism) to deny them fundamental freedoms over the last 50 years, citing Purifying the Land of the Pure by Farahnaz Ispahani.  See  http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/20/how-the-muslim-world-lost-the-freedom-to-choose/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=New%20Campaign&utm_term=Flashpoints.   

The following are the Seven Woes in Matthew 23:13-36:
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. [14] [b]
15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.


Related Commentary:

(12/8/14): Religion and Reason
(12/15/14): Faith and Freedom
(1/11/15): The Greatest Commandment: A Common Word of Faith
(1/18/15): Love over Law: A Principle at the Heart of Legitimacy
(4/12/15): Faith as a Source of Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy
(5/3/15): A Fundamental Problem with Religion
(6/7/15): The Future of Religion: In Decline and Growing
(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?
(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
(2/27/16): Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy in Faith, Freedom and Politics
(6/18/16): A Politics of Reconciliation with Liberty and Justice for All
(6/28/15): Confronting the Evil Among Us
(7/5/15): Reconciliation as a Remedy for Racism and Religious Exclusivism
(8/2/15): Freedom and Fundamentalism
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/08/freedom-and-fundamentalism.html (8/9/15): Balancing Individual Rights with Collective Responsibilities
(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?
(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
 (2/7/16): Jesus Meets Muhammad on Issues of Religion and Politics
(4/23/16): Standards of Legitimacy in Morality, Manners and Political Correctness
(4/30/16): The Relevance of Religion to Politics
(5/7/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation
(6/18/16): A Politics of Reconciliation with Liberty and Justice for All
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2016/06/a-politics-of-reconciliation-with.html (8/5/16): How Religion Can Bridge Our Political and Cultural Divide
(9/10/16): Liberty in Law: A Matter of Man’s Law, not God’s Law
(9/17/16): A Moral Revival to Restore Legitimacy to Our Politics
(11/19/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation Based on Shared Values
(11/26/16): Irreconcilable Differences and the Demise of Democracy
(1/21/17): Religion and Reason Redux: Religion Is Ridiculous
(1/28/17): Saving America from the Church
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/01/saving-america-from-church.html (2/25/17): The Need for a Revolution in Religion and Politics
(3/4/17): Ignorance and Reason in Religion and Politics
(3/18/17): Moral Ambiguity in Religion and Politics
(4/22/17): The Relevance of Jesus and the Irrelevance of the Church in Today’s World
(6/24/17): The Evolution of Religion, Politics and Law: Back to the Future? http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/06/the-evolution-of-religion-politics-and.html.
(7/1/17): Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy
(7/15/17) Religion and Progressive Politics
(8/5/17): Does Religion Seek to Reconcile and Redeem or to Divide and Conquer?
(8/12/17): The Universalist Teachings of Jesus as a Remedy for Religious Exclusivism 
(8/19/17) Hate, History and the Need for a Politics of Reconciliation
(9/2/17): The Evolution of the American Civil Religion and Habits of the Heart http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/09/the-evolution-of-american-civil.html.
(10/7/17): A 21st Century Reformation to Restore Reason to American Civil Religion http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/10/a-21st-century-reformation-to-restore.html.
(10/21/17): The Symbiotic Relationship between Freedom and Religion

Saturday, October 21, 2017

The Symbiotic Relationship between Freedom and Religion

  By Rudy Barnes, Jr.

            The ideal of liberty and justice for all begins with the freedoms of religion and speech.  Those freedoms have been the hallmark of American democracy, and have allowed diversity in America to be its strength rather than its weakness—that is, until recently.  Now evangelical Christians are making our diversity a weakness by claiming that their freedom of religion allows them to discriminate against those they consider sinners, including homosexuals.

            There is a symbiotic relationship between freedom and religion.  When some demand religious freedom that denies the rights of others, it undermines the freedom for all of us.  And if political freedom is eroding in America, it doesn’t even exist in Islamic nations, where apostasy and blasphemy laws deny the fundamental freedoms of religion and speech.

            Political freedom originated in the natural law of the Enlightenment, not in religion; but the fate of freedom in religious nations depends on religious values.  Religions in the libertarian democracies of the West have long conformed their doctrines to political freedom and the secular rule of law, but not so in the East, where Islamic law (Shari’a) continues to stifle freedom.

            But even in America political freedom is threatened by extremist religious values.  When religions promote unlawful discrimination they undermine equal justice under law.  Edmund Burke warned Americans before their revolution that in a democracy they would forge their own shackles.  The evolution of American democracy indicates that Burke may well have been right. 

            The greatest challenge for America’s democracy is to balance individual rights with providing for the common good, and religion plays a pivotal role in striking that balance.  The ancient scriptures of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all emphasize providing for the common good, especially for the least of those among us.  That’s a common word of faith expressed in the greatest commandment to love God and our neighbors as we love ourselves.          
               
            It is ironic that evangelical Christians in America advocate extending their freedom of religion to allow them to discriminate against those they consider sinners.  It not only denies equal justice under law, but it also contradicts the moral imperative taught by Jesus to love all our neighbors—even those we consider sinners—as we love ourselves.  And the same is true for Muslims who use Shari’a to deny women and non-Muslims equality under the law.  
                       
            The end of freedom comes as its beginning, in the shifting tides of religion and politics.  Freedom cannot begin where religious laws prevent it, and freedom ends when religious values deny equality under the law.  Religion provides our standards of political legitimacy and justice, for good or bad; and today the bad seems to have gained the upper hand.

            Faith and freedom are interwoven in American culture.  That has been ignored in white mainline churches that avoid controversial issues of religion and politics, while black mainline churches and evangelical churches are politically aggressive.  It seems that politics have to get really bad before respectable white Christians recognize the relevance of their faith to their freedom.  Well, hello!  In case they haven’t noticed, things have gotten really bad.

            Sadly, Americans are forfeiting their political freedom, and Christians are leading the way.  They are promoting individual rights that trump their moral obligation to love God and their neighbors—even sinners—as they love themselves.  Altruistic Christian values are needed to provide for the common good and to preserve freedom and democracy in America.

            In nations where most people are religious, freedom has a symbiotic relationship with religion.  In Islamic nations, the enforcement of apostasy and blasphemy laws deny the freedoms of religion and speech, while in the U.S. evangelical Christians promote their freedom of religion at the expense of equal justice under law.  In both cases political freedom depends upon religious values that support individual rights and balance those rights with promoting the common good.     


Notes:

On changing values on homosexuality, gender and religion in America, see http://www.people-press.org/2017/10/05/5-homosexuality-gender-and-religion/morality.

The 2017 Values Voter Summit held October 13-15 in Washington, D.C. was an exposition of how far Christian values have deviated from the teachings of Jesus.  Thousands of evangelical Christians professed their loyalty to Donald Trump, who exemplifies the self-centered objectivist morality of Ayn Rand rather than the altruistic morality taught by Jesus.  On the 2017 Values Voter Summit and Trump’s unlikely Christian covenant, see http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41617793.  For a list of the purpose, participants and sponsors of the Values Voter Summit, see its website at http://www.valuesvotersummit.org/about.

  
Mustafa Akyol has asked, Is free speech good for Muslims?  He noted “…a paradox Muslims, especially those of us living in the West, face in the modern world [is that]…they are threatened by Islamophobic forces against which they need the protections offered by liberalism — freedom of speech, freedom of religion, nondiscrimination. But the same liberalism also brings them realities that most of them find un-Islamic — irreverence toward religion, tolerance of L.G.B.T. people, permissive attitudes on sex. They can’t easily decide, therefore, whether liberalism is good or bad for Muslims.” Akyol noted double standards on freedom, and that “Muslim opinion leaders have to decide where they stand.”  See https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/opinion/is-free-speech-good-for-muslims.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2FMustafa%20Akyol&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=Collection&region=Marginalia&src=me&version=column&pgtype=article.

Egypt illustrates how fundamentalist Islam (Islamism) can deny human rights.  With midnight raids and chat-room traps, Egypt has launched a sweeping crackdown on the gay community.  See https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/with-midnight-raids-and-chat-room-traps-egypt-launches-sweeping-crackdown-on-gay-community/2017/10/17/6a8397fc-b03e-11e7-9b93-b97043e57a22_story.html?undefined=&wpisrc=nl_headlines&wpmm=1.

Saudi Arabia promotes an especially intolerant form of Islamism. See Saudi Arabia: Religion Textbooks Promote Intolerance at  https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/13/saudi-arabia-religion-textbooks-promote-intolerance.
             
           
Related Commentary:

(12/8/14): Religion and Reason
(12/15/14): Faith and Freedom
(1/11/15): The Greatest Commandment: A Common Word of Faith
(1/18/15): Love over Law: A Principle at the Heart of Legitimacy
(4/12/15): Faith as a Source of Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy
(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?
(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
(2/27/16): Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy in Faith, Freedom and Politics
(6/18/16): A Politics of Reconciliation with Liberty and Justice for All
 (8/2/15): Freedom and Fundamentalism
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/08/freedom-and-fundamentalism.html (8/9/15): Balancing Individual Rights with Collective Responsibilities
(2/7/16): Jesus Meets Muhammad on Issues of Religion and Politics
(7/9/16): Back to the Future: Race, Religion, Rights and a Politics of Reconciliation
(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?
(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
(4/30/16): The Relevance of Religion to Politics
(8/5/16): How Religion Can Bridge Our Political and Cultural Divide
(9/10/16): Liberty in Law: A Matter of Man’s Law, not God’s Law
(9/17/16): A Moral Revival to Restore Legitimacy to Our Politics
(11/19/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation Based on Shared Values
(11/26/16): Irreconcilable Differences and the Demise of Democracy
(2/25/17): The Need for a Revolution in Religion and Politics
(3/4/17): Ignorance and Reason in Religion and Politics
(4/22/17): The Relevance of Jesus and the Irrelevance of the Church in Today’s World
(5/20/17): The Freedoms of Religion and Speech: Where Human Rights Begin
(7/1/17): Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy
(7/15/17) Religion and Progressive Politics
(8/5/17): Does Religion Seek to Reconcile and Redeem or to Divide and Conquer?
(9/2/17): The Evolution of the American Civil Religion and Habits of the Heart http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/09/the-evolution-of-american-civil.html

(10/7/17): A 21st Century Reformation to Restore Reason to American Civil Religion http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/10/a-21st-century-reformation-to-restore.html.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

In the Midst of an Islamic Reformation

   By Rudy Barnes, Jr.

            Calls for an Islamic Reformation have coincided with the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.  Perhaps Islam is in the midst of its own Reformation and the world hasn’t noticed.  The Protestant Reformation was not a liberating event.  Instead it initiated Christian sectarian conflict between religious leaders like Luther, Zwingli and Calvin and their political patrons, similar to Islamic sectarian conflict in the Middle East today.

            The libertarian reforms of the Enlightenment were not given serious consideration in the Western world until after 1648, when the Treaty of Westphalia ended those religious wars that plagued Europe for more than a century after the Protestant Reformation.  If Islamic sectarian conflict in the Middle East and Africa is analogous to the Christian sectarian wars that followed the Protestant Reformation, then perhaps they portend a coming Islamic Enlightenment.

            There are other analogies between current Islamist sectarian conflict and Christian sectarian wars.  Leaders of the Protestant Reformation like Luther, Zwingli and Calvin opposed religious reforms and used political alliances and violence suppress dissent, much like radical Islamists today.  And just as Luther used the first generation media printing press to promote his ideals, radical Islamists are using the internet and current social media to attract supporters.

            The role of Islamic Law (Shari’a) is at the heart of Islamic violence toady.  Islamists argue for the strict enforcement of Shari’a, but Mustafa Akyol has noted that Islamic values “are much better protected in Western democracies than in ‘Islamic’ states” and that “…Shariah should be translated into a doctrine of the inalienable rights of all people.”  To that end, Akyol has suggested that the Jewish Enlightenment provides a useful precedent for Islam.

            Islamic scholars remain divided on whether to accept libertarian democracy, human rights and the secular rule of law.  While there seems to be a trend toward human rights, Shari’a continues to be an obstacle to political freedom and justice with the enforcement of apostasy and blasphemy laws and discrimination against women and non-Muslims in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iraq and Afghanistan—all U.S. allies in the Middle East.

            Many Islamic scholars have agreed that the greatest commandment to love God and their neighbors—including those of other religions—as they love themselves is a common word of faith for Muslims and Christians.  If that love command is accepted as a principle of Shari’a, then those Muslims who love their freedom will feel obligated to share their freedom with others, and interpret Shari’a to give non-Muslims the fundamental freedoms of religion and speech.

            Equal justice under law requires fundamental human rights that provide political freedom.  There is no place for religious law in a libertarian democracy, where religious standards of legitimacy must be voluntary moral standards, not coercive laws.  Loving others is a moral obligation that cannot be enforced by law, and that allows immorality.  The test of any religion is whether its followers obey its moral standards when they are free to disobey them.

            Some Islamic scholars argue that moral decadence in libertarian democracies is evidence that Shari’a should limit political freedom to protect people from undesirable immoral behavior.  But radical Islamists and authoritarian rulers in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have used that same rationale to suppress their political opposition with blasphemy laws.

            Current Islamic sectarian conflicts in the Middle East and Africa are similar to those Christian religious wars that followed the Protestant Reformation of 1517.  Perhaps Islamist sectarian violence is but a prelude to an Islamic Enlightenment that will allow political freedom and redefine justice under Shari’a with democracy, human rights and the secular rule of law.

 
Notes:     

In reviewing Jared Rubin’s Rulers, Religion and Riches: Why the West Got Rich and the Middle East Did Not, Christopher Kissane of The Guardian considered Rubin’s view of the Reformation (and printing press) in Europe and how it related to Islamic culture:
“The driving motivation of most rulers is not ideology or to do good, but to maintain and strengthen their hold on power: “to propagate their rule”. This requires “coercion” – the ability to enforce power – and, crucially, some form of “legitimacy”. In the medieval world, both Islamic and Christian rulers claimed part of their legitimacy from religious authorities, but after the Reformation, Rubin thinks that European governments had to turn away from religion as a source of political legitimacy.
…Islamic rulers, by contrast, continued to rely on religious legitimation and economic interests that were mostly excluded from politics, leading to governance that focused on the narrow interests of sultans, and the conservative religious and military elites who backed them.
…The source of Europe’s success, then, lies in the Reformation, a revolution in ideas and authority spread by what Martin Luther called “God’s highest and ultimate gift of grace”: the printing press.
…Europe’s long reformations were more a maze than a path. As Rubin notes, “getting religion (mostly) out of politics took centuries” – centuries of radical social upheaval and destructive warfare. He argues persuasively for the importance of both religion and secularization in economic history, but religious change affected not just politics but culture and ideas.
In the Middle East the powers of state and religion were fused by Ottoman sultans intent on legitimising their rule and expansion through Islam. Unity that had been a medieval advantage became an early modern hindrance: with no political need to negotiate with economic interests, the Ottomans failed to pursue modernizing reforms in finance, currency and law.”  See https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/aug/04/rulers-religion-riches-jared-rubin-review.

Alan Wolfe has described the merger of Christianity and other religions in Western democracies with the secular libertarian values of the Enlightenment, and projected that Islam will follow suit. 

For reforming trends and movements in modern Islamic history and misunderstanding Luther’s Reformation, see https://www.juancole.com/2017/09/should-islamic-reformation.html.

Mustafa Akyol has noted that “…polls show that most Muslims living in the West, especially the U.S., are happy with liberal laws and norms;” and that because Islam shares an emphasis on religious law with Judaism, it is likely that Islam will likely follow the precedent of the Jewish Enlightenment and embrace libertarian values through a progressive interpretation of the Qur’an and Shari’a.  See https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/13/opinion/shariahs-winding-path-into-modernity.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region.  See also, free speech is good for Muslims at https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/27/opinion/is-free-speech-good-for-muslims.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2FMustafa%20Akyol&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&module=Collection&region=Marginalia&src=me&version=column&pgtype=article.
         
Dr. Shuki Friedman has noted the similarities between Jewish and Islamic Law:
“…the most significant…similarity of the holistic religious-legal worldview in both Judaism and Islam [is]…both religions seek to regulate every aspect of reality, from the most marginal details of daily life to the organization of the state and the world as a whole.
Both religions organize reality through total legalization. Almost all human behavior is addressed, in either positive or negative terms. And the believer’s world is framed by a long list of commandments and prohibitions which govern his private conduct, his conduct toward his God and his conduct toward those around him: family, neighbors, business partners, community, city and country.
In both religions, this legal code brings religious law into every corner of people’s lives and gives great power to religion and religious leaders, be they muftis, rabbis or imams. They are the authorized interpreters of the sacred texts; they are the final arbiters of the believer’s most personal questions; and they (in both religions’ ideal world) influence the conduct of believers and their countries.
Therefore, in both religions, a similar religious-legal conversation has developed. One finds the same considerations in making rulings, the same efforts to cope with problems like science and modernity, the same deliberations over the loss of believers to other ideologies. In both faiths, the religious arbiters’ goal is to keep power in their own hands to the extent possible.”  See https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.816831.

On the differing views of Islamic scholars on human rights and democracy under Shari’a, see Barnes, Religion, Legitimacy and the Law: Shari’a, Democracy and Human Rights at pages 10-18, posted at  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4qPfb4MvEswV2ZHS3hyWTcwbmc/view.

Nour Soubani has asked, Does Islam need saving? and provided an analysis of human rights in Islam.  See https://yaqeeninstitute.org/en/nour-soubani/does-islam-need-saving-an-analysis-of-human-rights/.

On how Saudi Arabia promotes intolerance of fundamental freedoms in its textbooks, see https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/13/saudi-arabia-religion-textbooks-promote-intolerance.



Related Commentary:
(12/8/14): Religion and Reason
(12/15/14): Faith and Freedom
(1/11/15): The Greatest Commandment: A Common Word of Faith
(1/18/15): Love over Law: A Principle at the Heart of Legitimacy
(4/12/15): Faith as a Source of Morality and Law: The Heart of Legitimacy
(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?
(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
(2/27/16): Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy in Faith, Freedom and Politics
 (6/18/16): A Politics of Reconciliation with Liberty and Justice for All
(6/28/15): Confronting the Evil Among Us
(7/5/15): Reconciliation as a Remedy for Racism and Religious Exclusivism
(8/2/15): Freedom and Fundamentalism
http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2015/08/freedom-and-fundamentalism.html (8/9/15): Balancing Individual Rights with Collective Responsibilities
(2/7/16): Jesus Meets Muhammad on Issues of Religion and Politics
(7/9/16): Back to the Future: Race, Religion, Rights and a Politics of Reconciliation
(1/23/16): Who Is My Neighbor?
(1/30/16): The Politics of Loving Our Neighbors as Ourselves
(4/30/16): The Relevance of Religion to Politics
(5/7/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation
(8/5/16): How Religion Can Bridge Our Political and Cultural Divide
(9/10/16): Liberty in Law: A Matter of Man’s Law, not God’s Law
(9/17/16): A Moral Revival to Restore Legitimacy to Our Politics
(11/19/16): Religion and a Politics of Reconciliation Based on Shared Values
(11/26/16): Irreconcilable Differences and the Demise of Democracy
(2/25/17): The Need for a Revolution in Religion and Politics
(3/4/17): Ignorance and Reason in Religion and Politics
(4/22/17): The Relevance of Jesus and the Irrelevance of the Church in Today’s World
(6/24/17): The Evolution of Religion, Politics and Law: Back to the Future? http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/06/the-evolution-of-religion-politics-and.html.
(7/1/17): Religion, Moral Authority and Conflicting Concepts of Legitimacy
(7/15/17) Religion and Progressive Politics
(8/5/17): Does Religion Seek to Reconcile and Redeem or to Divide and Conquer?
(8/19/17) Hate, History and the Need for a Politics of Reconciliation

(9/2/17): The Evolution of the American Civil Religion and Habits of the Heart http://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2017/09/the-evolution-of-american-civil.html.