Sharia The Untold Truth by Mustapha Elturk

For many Americans today, the word sharia strikes fear in their hearts. Over the last decade, many state legislatures have introduced anti-sharia laws, and a few have even passed them. The concept sharia conjures up images of medieval torture, beheading of infidels, and the brutal oppression of women. Some Americans fear that Muslim Americans harbor a secret desire to destroy the American constitutional system and replace it with sharia law. This irrational fear of sharia, fueled as it is by the deeply entrenched Islamophobic environment in which we live, is actually quite ironic.

By laying out the true objectives of sharia as they emerge from Islamic sources, the author paints a picture of a framework for life that should sound quite familiar to Americans. When properly understood, sharia is simply not the scary oppressive idea that Islamophobic stereotypes try to create in our minds.

Social welfare, freedom, human dignity, and human relationships are among the higher objectives of sharia. Sharia protects the inalienable rights of people, such as those pertaining to their individual faith, life, family, property, and intellect. Sharia addresses many contemporary problems and provides solutions to the collective affairs of society as a whole.

Classical sharia is often divided into four parts: 1) Laws relating to personal acts of worship; 2) Laws relating to commercial dealings; 3) Laws relating to marriage and divorce; and 4) Penal laws. Simply put, sharia regulates public and private affairs of human beings with regulations for personal hygiene, diet, marriage, divorce, inheritance, ethics, morality, etiquette, customs, human rights, human relationships, sexual conduct, commercial transactions, international dealings, settlement of disputes, conduct in war and peace, felonies and misdemeanors, enjoining good and eradicating evil, and all matters of worship.

The book Sharia: The Untold Truth will open your mind to a new and more positive way of viewing our Muslim neighbors, who, as much as anyone, want nothing more than to strive for a world of justice and peace.

Paperback 92 pages

IONA Press