By Jeremy Schupbach Amid all the news of civil disorder in New Orleans, here's a Washington Post article on how not to establish civil order. Terrorists have claimed control over the Iraqi town of Qaim, and enforced strict Islamic law. According to the article “insurgents” are enforcing strict Islamic law in the town. They are executing young women for being “prostitutes,” lashing men accused of drinking alcohol, burning beauty parlors and stores that sold CDs and executing government officials.
Terrorists are brutally suppressing the seed of democracy -the inherent equality of all men- in the name of Islam. Islamic law seems to be proving itself incompatible with democracy. Drafts of the new Iraqi constitution are anchored in Islamic law, and if this article -- albeit a portrait of the provisional government's violent opponents -- gives any indication of how Iraq will function under that concept of order, the framers would do well to stay far away from Islamic law.
Islam has little tolerance for individuals. It cares little for those who do not agree with it, or live by its dictates. There are many groups of individuals that cannot ever expect equality in an Islamic Iraq. Infidels, women, Jews, Christians, homosexuals, “prostitutes” and anyone selling the latest Rolling Stones release should all expect to be persecuted.
Democracy lies in direct opposition to Islam. Democracy welcomes those huddled masses yearning to breath free. Democracy must be rooted in the belief that we are all created equal, for with that belief comes a practical tolerance for those who are different.
If Iraq does not safeguard itself from the influence of Islamic law, it will become a country where equality exists in name only, where the hatred and intolerance of a few terrorize the many and where the sacrifice of so many individuals is trampled under the jackboots of religious oppression.