FLAG OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE HOW TO

In both sharia and halakha, believers are guided in all spheres of life: on how to pray and fast, what to eat or not (for example, no pork), how to circumcise male children and how to dress.

The latter not only has the same literal meaning-вЂњthe wayвЂќ-but also similar strictures. This Abrahamic connection is important, because the precursor to Islamic sharia is really the Jewish halakha. вЂњThere was once nothing exceptional about the Islamic combination of religious law and political authorityвЂќ вЂњShariaвЂќ is an Arabic word that literally means вЂњthe way.вЂќ In the whole Quran it appears only once: вЂњNow We have set you on a sharia, so follow it.вЂќ (45:18) Another similar term arises when the Quran says to Jews, Christians and Muslims: вЂњWe have assigned a shirвЂ™atan and a path for each of you.вЂќ (5:48) So the Muslim view is that sharia isnвЂ™t necessarily specific to Islam it is the вЂњwayвЂќ of any Abrahamic religion. The truth, however, is more complicated than either the grim or the rosy picture.ДЇirst, the basics. Yes, there are some bad guys like the Taliban, the argument runs, but they simply misunderstand sharia. On the other side, some Muslims are far too defensive, claiming that sharia means nothing but harmless piety and ideal justice some go further and say it is, in fact, the best protector of women and religious minorities. Like Cold War McCarthyites rooting out communism, anti-sharia activists exaggerate anxieties about a distant threat, suffocating freedom while claiming to defend it. On the one side, some westerners are so alarmed about this вЂњmedievalвЂќ and вЂњbrutalвЂќ system of law that they go out of their way to ban it: a laws forbidding the use of sharia has been enacted in Kansas (where there is no demand for it) and Islamic headscarves have been banned in French schools, where religious freedom is too often curbed in the name of secularism. Recent debates on sharia have been dominated by two starkly opposed yet similarly crude points of view. But what exactly is sharia, how should it be understood and can it be reformed so that freedom and human rights have a stronger foothold in the Islamic world? While the Taliban has promised to be milder than it was during its harsh 1990s rule, that is not saying much-and there is every reason to fear for women, minorities and indeed anyone who disagrees with the rulers of the new вЂњIslamic Emirate.вЂќ Across the Muslim world, too, from Malaysia to Pakistan to Nigeria, the demand for sharia galvanises Islamists and terrifies human rights defenders, while Arab autocrats often selectively use it to shore up their authority with the veneer of religious legitimacy. When the Taliban recaptured power in Afghanistan in August, Islamic law, or sharia, once again made the headlines.

Flag of the byzantine empire