Reply #25: Part Of The Problem There, Ma'am, Is That Sharia Is The Germ Of Constitutionalism In Those Societies

[The Magistrate]

In our society, Common Law is the basis for the view that the government itself is constrained by law, that the old maxim "Rex est lex loquens" does not hold, and that there is a law beyond the sovereign to which the sovereign and its enactments can be held, and by which the sovereign and its enactments can be judged. In the history of Islamic societies, it has been Sharia that has provided the germ of this idea, that there is a law beyond that of a sovereign, to which the sovereign and its enactments must be held, and by which these ought to be judged. This was an emerging check on autocracy in the Ottoman imperium and in other Moslem realms during the late Medieval and early modern periods. How the thing might have developed absent the eventual subjugation of most Islamic lands by the West is a matter for speculation only, like any counter-factual, but there is certainly reason to suppose it might have taken the same course as the struggles that eventually established constitutional principals out of Common Law in our own society did. The fact of having been subject to foreign rule that suplanted native codes complicates the matter even further. To many Moslems, Sharia represents both the assertion of a right to resist autocracy and the re-assertion of positive independence from foreign control. Taken together these are a powerful combination in political and social life. The statement law is based on Sharia does not necessarily mean establishing a medieval regime. It is important to understand how things look to other people in assessing their actions, and comprehending what another's view of matters is, and pointing this out to people who are engaged in mere sloganering, is certainly not identical with agreeing with those actions and views. However, it must always be born in mind that people will do what seems right and best to them, unless constrained by force or fraud.

"A universal feeling, whether well or ill founded, can not be safely disregarded."