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THE QUESTION
Taliban vs. Pakistan
How would you respond to radical Muslim clerics in northwest Pakistan who are battling the Pakistani army and calling for expansion of Islamic law across the entire nation. Should any nation be governed by religious rules or authorities?
Posted by
Sally Quinn and Jon Meacham on April 22, 2009 3:07 AM
FROM THE PANEL
Fundamentalism an Enemy to All Faiths
Claims to possess an inerrant Bible, to be governed by an infallible pope or to possess the ultimate truth are all merely forms of religious idolatry that has caused great suffering in the world.
Posted by John Shelby Spong, on April 27, 2009 8:02 PM
You Cannot Force People to Believe
It is reasonable to ask, for example, why Saudi Arabia finances the building of mosques around the world, while prohibiting the building of churches anywhere within the Saudi kingdom.
Posted by Thomas G. Bohlin, on April 24, 2009 5:21 PM
The Taliban, Sharia and Women's Leadership
Women must enter this sphere of religious interpretation - in Pakistan or elsewhere - especially as we are the first to suffer from this oppression.
Posted by Daisy Khan, on April 24, 2009 4:39 PM
Secular Isn't Always Better
There is no cogent reason -- neither rational nor historical -- to assume that a state must be governed by a secular system.
Posted by Adin Steinsaltz, on April 23, 2009 9:23 AM
How Islamic Law Can Work
Rather than fear Shariah law, we should understand what it actually is. Then we can encourage Muslim countries to make the changes that achieve the essence of fairness and justice that are at the root of Islam.
Posted by Feisal Abdul Rauf, on April 23, 2009 8:16 AM
Totalitarians in Religious Clothing
Those who want Islamic law in Pakistan are violent and extreme. They are very visible. Those who want Islamic law in Turkey are more subtle in their tactics.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on April 23, 2009 8:03 AM
The Dangerous Hypocrisy of Theocrats
The real debate here is about who decides what's right for people, people themselves or God.
Posted by Brad Hirschfield, on April 23, 2009 7:48 AM
Fundamentalism the Real Issue in Religious Rule
The issue to be addressed isn't radical Islam or rule by religious authorities, but fundamentalism--the notion that someone (or ones) could ever be in a position to mediate someone else's relationship to God
Posted by Phil Davis, on April 22, 2009 12:17 PM
Talibanization of Pakistan
If the majority of the population of Pakistan want the kind of rule that Taliban offers how can the rest of the world stop them?
Posted by Arun Gandhi, on April 21, 2009 9:25 PM
Religion Stay Home!
Religion has proven to be the breeding ground for people who want to control other people, in the name of God. When religion steps into the role of government, a.k.a. control, it loses its claim of goodness and morality.
Posted by Susan K. Smith, on April 21, 2009 4:14 PM
Religion in Power: Bad for the People, Worse for Religion
Of all the world's legal systems, Islam's sharia is the most change-resistant and the greatest threat to personal freedoms.
Posted by Willis E. Elliott, on April 20, 2009 11:59 PM
Winning Freedom from Religion
The question of Islamic law in Pakistan is entangled --or should we say strangled?--by a host of social factors.
Posted by Deepak Chopra, on April 20, 2009 2:58 PM
No Apology, Sanction To Theocrats
We cannot continue to play footsie with states governed by religious laws that sanction every kind of human rights abuses in the name of their deity.
Posted by Susan Jacoby, on April 20, 2009 2:47 PM
FEATURED COMMENTS
Charvakan: Not if Pakistan wants to continue as a democracy. Democracy demands secularism. The problem in having a state religion is that there will al...
salero21:
NO they should not.
Nations ought to be ruled by the brightest, most inteligent, most honest, decent, compassionate, loving and morally...
SpiritualMongrel: I believe in God; that being said I must answer No, never, under no circumstance. Maybe that is because I am spiritual, not religious.
For...
