Theory and practice
In response to Barrister Abdur Razzak's passionately argued column in the September 15 issue, may I remind the learned lawyer that actions speak far louder than words and practice is more illustrative than theory. No amount of mythologising seventh century desert city-states is going to make the rest of the world comfortable with what it sees around it every day. The fact of the matter is that Muslim majority countries today, with one or two exceptions, are autocracies where freedom of speech or basic human rights, let alone women's rights, are alien concepts. And in the rare instances that there exists a semblance of a press, most of the ink is gratuitously devoted to finding ever-new dimensions of a global Jewish-Hindu-Anglo-American conspiracy. With all due respect, I did not see how Caliph Omar (RA) ran his caliphate. But I do see how Islamic law is used to prosecute victims of rape in Pakistan, deny women the right to drive in Saudi Arabia, and promote child prostitution in Iran.
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