Understanding Sharia: Islamic Law in a Globalised World, by Raficq S Abdulla and Mohamed M Keshavjee | Financial Times

Understanding Sharia: Islamic Law in a Globalised World, by Raficq S Abdulla and Mohamed M Keshavjee | Financial Times:

In a ruminative lecture on Islamic Sharia’s place in English law a decade ago, Rowan Williams, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, asked whether small, culturally and religiously intimate matters of mainly family law might not be delegated to Muslim religious courts.

“What a Burkha”, the Sun newspaper boomed in the furore that ensued. While the tabloid response was predictable, it probably summarised accurately the popular image of sharia, as something veiled, menacing and alien. This rich and important book is a lucidly argued and accessibly written corrective.

Take that headline-grabbing burka. The Muslim practice of veiling women copied the (Christian) Byzantines, who probably borrowed it from the (Zoroastrian) Persian culture of hiding upper-class women from all men but their own. Similarly, other early Muslim practices seen as signatures of sharia law such as the imposition of a poll tax on Jews and Christians — which Islamist extremists would like restored — are also borrowings, in this case from the (pagan) Romans.