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The uses and abuses of lipstick

Posted in Irshaddering Thoughts on Sep 11, 2008

Twenty-four hours before the anniversary of 9/11,  a specious debate has been raging in America.  Forensically dissected is Barack Obama’s statement that you can slap lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.

The “pig” is John McCain’s economic record. It’s not a  reference to his running mate, Sarah Palin, who has described herself as a pitbull with lipstick.

Still, the Republican campaign is expertly fanning small-town resentment against urban elites to turn this into another culture war. Pitbulls, indeed.

Amid all that noise, I’ve learned of an attempt to make Sharia law friendlier for women. Problem is, this might be an effort to put lipstick on a legal pig.

No doubt, reactionary types will accuse me of having called Islam a “pig.” To these McCain-aping Muslims, I say: No way. No how. No chance. You’re not going to Palinize me.

Islam is a divinely inspired faith. Sharia is human interpretation of divinely inspired words. The world-renowned scholar, Prof. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, attests that Sharia law and Islamic faith are not the same. Read his latest book, Islam and the Secular State, and you’ll appreciate the professor’s point that Sharia, when encoded in law, often betrays the better angels of Islam.

So I have to wonder: Does any move to make Sharia law less unfair only amount to cosmetic change? Is the real journey to justice launched by avoiding religious law altogether and encouraging personal belief to be exactly that — personal?

Given the complexity of the issue, I don’t know the answer just yet. But I’m willing to ask the question, out loud.

Judge for yourself. Here’s the news story about an attempt by Muslims in Britain to update Sharia law so that married women have rights equal to those of their husbands. Let me know what you think.

And if you’re going to send me a threat, for God’s sake show a sense of humor. Write it in lipstick.