Category Archives: Islam

Letter of the Week: Natural Rights Vs. Sharia

I have been thinking quite a bit about Islam. One difference, I think, boils down to this: Catholic Christian thinkers eventually reached a consensus that natural law must be derived, at least to some significant degree, from the nature of man—that is derived through reason, from the very nature of God’s creature or God’s creation. While there was no unanimity, Catholic thought—which WAS western philosophy because theology and philosophy were not split, but rather were merged essentially from the beginning of Christendom until perhaps about 1600 years after Christ—eventually moved in this general direction.

It was not always clear that the Church would move in this direction. Certainly Duns Scotus and William of Occam and others tended to see natural law as something imposed from above by the wording of scripture. But they lost out. Aquinas and the Spanish scholastic Francis Suarez were important in this debate and indeed Gabriel Vasquez, who was a Spanish contemporary of Suarez, viewed the rational nature of man as the primary source of natural law and man’s obligation to obey the natural law. You move from that base easily along to Grotius, Pufendorf and Locke, and the idea of rights, freedom, and so forth.

Islam clearly did not follow that road. Law was a product of the word of God—certainly this is how I understand Sharia. While there are other factors—e.g. Christ’s standing outside the state, being neither a ruler nor a military man, and Mohammed being within the state as it were, a ruler and a military man—certainly the view of law is an important distinction. Islam, I think, views law as something that is imposed from the top down, that is they believe in something consistent with legal positivism; law is set out by the authority, and it must be followed or punishment follows. Whereas Catholic thought laid the critically important groundwork for the notion that law comes—in some significant way—from the bottom up; that is that the rules that should govern society come from the nature of man as derived by human reason, thereby placing reason in the forefront of Catholic political and legal thought.

— M.S., Canadian lawyer, friend

When Wrong is Still Right

Bush, Iraq, Islam, War

In reply to James Huggins’ letter, posted here, whose stance has been to consistently bash those of us on the Right who opposed the war in Iraq for daring to be right (there’s a nice quote about that tactic. Someone please find it): Now that Iraq is broken, as we said it would be, these individuals continue to heap scorn on us. “What are ya gonna do; let’s be pragmatic. What’s done is done, so unless you have something constructive to say, shut up and let’s get on with the job.”

What job? Does it not occur to you that sometimes things are irreparably broken? Do you really think we can solve the problem of Iraq? Are there no limits to hubristic and delusional thinking? Are there no limits to the defiance of the laws of nature, such as that central planning has NEVER worked; freedom must rise from the roots, it cannot be imposed from the tree tops? Violate rules a school child learns on the playground, and you’ll come up shortalways. And is it worth losing one more American life to the Iraq Moloch? Oh, I forget, we only value fetuses, not fully grown human beings, thousands of whom are hobbling around on prosthetic limbs, lives ruined. Cicero said, “The first law of history is to tell the truth.” Let Huggins and the rest quit the Hussein-equals-Hitler inanities and admit that, while he was by no means a pleasant fellow, he kept Iraq as together as it will ever be. The trains ran on time and Shia and Sunni lived in relative peace in THE SAME NEIGHBORHOODS. There was no civil war (or “civil strife,” as the euphemism goes). In fact, the Iraqis I had met before the war were generally well-educated and had their act together. That simple thing comes from having an infrastructure: law and order, schools, universities, electricity, potable water, hospitals. Mark my words: this war, over which I am constantly castigated, will be responsible for the loss of a generation of young Iraqis. Mark my words (you heard it here first), in a few years time, the lost Iraqi generation will be a topic for discussion among the talking titmice.

Ibn Saud said: “It may be accepted as an incontrovertible fact that it will be impossible to manage the people of Iraq except by strong means and military force.” A prescription Saddam had mastered. The Sultan of Najd (born in 1876; died in 1953) knew of what he spoke.

'Benedict the Brave'

Islam, Religion

“Those capable of following a rational argument understood the significance and purpose of Pope Benedict XVI’s words at the University of Regensburg. He did not misspeak; he was not quoted out of context; and his controversial historical reference vis-Ã -vis the irrationality of Islam was not randomly selected or incidental to his central thesis (faith and reason). Although very much outside the consensus, the pope was as purposeful as he was plain spoken. That he was driven to retract the analytical truth at which he had arrived is an indictment of those who menaced him into a mea culpa…”

The complete column, “Benedict the Brave,” is here.

‘Benedict the Brave’

Islam, Religion

The complete column, “Benedict the Brave,” is here.