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IN NIGERIA recently, a woman was convicted by an Islamic court of “adultery???. She will be buried up to her neck in the ground, then killed by having rocks thrown at her head. Welcome to Shari’a law, now being revived throughout the Moslem world.

The world has heard a lot about Islam over the past year or so, particularly since September 11 brought the Islamic challenge to the Western world into sharp focus. But terrorist attacks on the West are only one aspect of this challenge. The movement for the revival of Shari’a law, extending from Algeria to Indonesia, gets less publicity but affects many more people.

Shari’a developed in the Arab world of the 8th and 9th centuries, and of course reflects the values of the society which created it. The Shari’a recognises slavery, for example, and codifies the legal inferiority of women. It also prescribes the death penalty for sex between men.

“And as for the two of you who are guilty thereof, punish them both,??? says the Holy Koran (4: 16). The Hadith (collected sayings of the Prophet Mohammed) says: “whenever a male mount another male, the throne of God trembles. . . if you see two people who act like [this], then kill the active and the passive.???

The punishment the Shari’a prescribes for homosexual behaviour is stoning to death for married people, and 100 lashes for unmarried people. Lesser offences, such as “kissing with lust??? and “being together naked without cause??? are to be punished with varying numbers of lashes.

Shari’a does contain procedural safeguards. Four male Moslems of “unblemished integrity of character??? have to swear that they have been eye witnesses to the act, although a confession is also sufficient for condemnation.

This safeguard does not seem to mean much in practice. In Iran hundreds of gay men have been executed since the Islamic revolution of 1979. Executions were also frequent under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Shari’a has the force of law in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Mauritania, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen. Its use in the Moslem north of Nigeria is unconstitutional, but the Nigerian government is doing nothing to prevent it. Shari’a is also being informally applied in many other places, including the Palestinian territories. Two states of Malaysia are also seeking to introduce Shari’a law.

Why is Shari’a being revived in the Moslem world today? To answer this question it is necessary to know something about Islam. Islam is a religion of law, unlike Christianity, which is a religion of faith. What matters in Islam is what you do, not what you think or believe. Islam also recognises no boundary between the religious and the secular. Shari’a, at least in theory, governs every aspect of a Moslem’s life. But for most of Moslem history, Shari’a was applied inconsistently, and in some places not at all.

From the 18th century onwards, Moslems began to notice that they were falling behind the West politically, militarily and economically. A modernising and Westernising movement developed, which argued for the separation of Mosque and State and the adoption of law codes based on Western ideas. Shari’a law fell out of use in most places.

But the Moslem intellectual elite never really grasped the secret of the success of the West, which was the unleashing of the competitive and creative powers of the individual – in other words, the ideas and practices of capitalism.

It is often argued that since the Christian Church condemns homosexuality just as firmly as does Islam, Westerners have no place criticising what goes on the Moslem world. This ignores the fact that Christians are no longer in a position to enforce their bigotries on gay men, while the Islamic clergy still wield great power in many countries.

In Europe, the Reformation and the Enlightenment broke the power of the Christian Church, allowing the creation of societies based on individual freedom and responsibility, secular humanist values and, eventually, political democracy. No such events took place in the Moslem world.

This helps explain the paradox of Islamic “backwardness.??? The Moslem world produced great mathematicians, scientists and doctors. But it never applied science to the tasks of producing wealth, as did the West. As a result the Moslem world remained poor while the West grew wealthy. And since wealth translated into military power, this led to the subordination of the Moslem world to the West.

It’s not news that the Moslem world today is a deeply conflicted place. Moslems want the consumer goods that the West enjoys, but reject the values and practices that produce them. They want freedom for themselves but repression for others. They claim to hate the West, but large numbers try to emigrate there.

Gay men in the Moslem world are among the many victims of this state of affairs. Most Moslem countries are run by corrupt dictatorships or monarchies. These regimes are happy to see the anger and frustration of their people taken out on hapless minorities such as Christians, Jews or homosexuals.

The revival of Sahri’a in Moslem countries has been a deliberate tactic, as regimes have also sought to buy off militant political Islam by allowing Shari’a courts to persecute women and homosexual men. This has certainly been the case in Egypt and Pakistan.

It is difficult to know what people in the West can do about this. Criticism is seen as just more imperialistic meddling. The Arab world’s oil wealth makes economic pressure difficult – though this does not apply to Egypt and Pakistan, which have no oil and receive huge amounts of Western aid.

However, as the example of countries like Russia and Indonesia shows, persistent criticism, pressure and interference can induce regimes to change their ways, and even, eventually, change regimes. It is hard to believe that the people of the Moslem world will be content to live in poverty under oppressive regimes forever.

Article reproduced with permission of BNews.