Sharia, the scare word

Guardian 

Sharia is a system of laws and jurisprudence. I'm not saying it's all grand. From the things I've read it is in many respects deeply reactionary. I believe, at least by some interpretations, four male witnesses are required to prove a rape case. The woman's testimony counts for something in some interpretations, and in others, it counts for not much or perhaps nothing. That is obviously to be denounced and reviled, and Western liberals should denounce and revile it, as indeed many have (it's mostly a fiction that liberals are so tied up in knots about multiculturalism that they can't bring themselves to critique the treatment of women in Muslim societies, but that's a big topic and another post). We should also denounce the fact that the vast majority of the world's remaining death-penalty sanctioning countries are majority-Muslim. Of course, we should first worry about Texas in this regard.