As an addendum to my original post, we have two more examples.
In Pakistan, the lower house of Parliament amended the country's rape laws. Extramarital sex is no longer a capital offense, and rape victims no longer have to produce four witnesses to prove their case.
Senate approval is expected.
The picture is not wholly sanguine: Pakistan's law remains barbaric by Western standards, and radical Islamic and traditionalist groups protested. I would bet this law is observed more in the breach in Pakistan's tribal regions. But it shows moderates turning back extremist laws, a show of moderate power in a region where moderates can seem thin on the ground.
Meanwhile, in Egypt, a conference of Islamic scholars declared female "circumcision" -- a euphemism for removing the clitoris -- to be unIslamic, and said those who practice it should be punished.
The conference included Egypt's two top clerics.
Baby steps, perhaps, condemning obvious cases of injustice and barbarity. But it's a start.
Egypt, rape, Pakistan, genital mutilation, Islam, circumcision, politics, midtopia
Monday, November 27, 2006
Moderate muslims, Part II
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