WikiLies: My 5 Favorite Wikipedia Distortions
#1. Sharia Law Is Misunderstood and Good for Women, Too.
Reading the entry on Sharia law in Wikipedia, one gets the distinct impression that the koranic-based legal system — and I use the term loosely — is little more than an exotic, benign code of laws. The primary message of the Wikipedia Sharia apologists is that there is no clear consensus between the various schools of thought. However, while there may be differences between the implementation of Sharia law, it’s important to note that the more brutal versions are certainly acceptable in terms of the Sharia system. Whether homosexuals are executed, flogged, or imprisoned, for instance, does not mean that the respective interpretations these punishments arise from do not share a gross underlying injustice. Even the supposedly civilized Sharia experts at the U.K.’s Sharia Council admit that the Sharia punishments for rape and adultery are flogging and stoning. Conveniently, they don’t mention whether this is supposed to be extended to the man or the woman in the case of a rape, but they do say that because the punishment is so severe, the burden of proof for proving rape is correspondingly high.
Wikipedia also goes to great length to point out how, prior to the 19th century, Sharia actually afforded women more rights, such as with property and inheritance, than in Western societies. They only briefly mention that “some argue” that this is not the case anymore. While I doubt that life under Sharia law and Western law were ever really all that comparable (was there ever a time in Western history that women were stoned for rape?), one might think, at least for the sake of the women around the world who are brutalized at the hands of this legal system, that Wikipedia would make some effort to outline criticism on this point. Again, even the clerics on the U.K. Sharia Council freely accept, with explicit rationalization, why men’s rights are a “degree higher” than women’s.
