Qultures.com: Terrorism and Religion - by Peter Sedgwick, Dean of the Faculty of Religious and Theological Studies, Cardiff University

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Terrorism and Religion - by Peter Sedgwick, Dean of the Faculty of Religious and Theological Studies, Cardiff University

In an Islamic state there is no law other than shari'a, yet this is not something that a western democracy can accept. This is for two reasons. First in shari'a law there is no distinction between sin and a crime. Christianity has learnt painfully that sexuality is not to be governed by law, and the prescription of homosexual relations as a crime is one that the churches were slow to accept. But the distinction between sin and crime - whatever one's view on sexuality - is one that churches have learnt to accept. Secondly the nature of shari'a law is that it is intolerant of all alternatives to its scope. There can be no freedom of speech that blasphemes religion, no alternatives to its power. All of this makes shari'a law (as promoted by Muslim fundamentalists) as something to be feared. None of this is to pretend that Christians have a good track record on these issues. Christian intolerance has prevented the development of dissent for many centuries. Sins and crimes were held to be synonymous, and it took great efforts to break free from this yoke. What is needed is a dialogue with Islam, and a respect for the law. Western societies lose moral authority if they turn law and civil power into an instrument of vengeance against terrorism, as seems to have happened at times in the United States at Guantanamo Bay. The law is one of God's instruments to restrain human wickedness, as Luther knew well. However once the law becomes a means of vengeance, as in the war against terror, it leads to despair.