http://www.islamic-world.net/economics/index.htm
- there are actually a lot of rules which socialists might find appealing. Specifically, the Koran says that some natural resources must be held in common by all people. Islam also forbids the charging or receiving of interest. There are a lot of other economic ethics that are appealing in Islam, as in most religions.
However, what Yoshie and other leftists who get enthusiastic about Islamic Revolution ignore is that one does not get one part of Sharia law without the other parts. For example, the ban on the charging or receiving of interest is not a matter of ethics, but a matter of edict. Islam is hard to reform because it is so specific. Even in Shia Islam, there is not really an independent body of Islamic theology. It's all very fundamentalist.
As a practical matter, muslims make compromises between their faith and the requirements of modern life. But Islamism is actually a reaction against that. So, again, it's impossible to talk about Islamic revolution as separate from the ambition to impose Sharia. The legitimacy of Islamic Revolution COMES from Sharia. Sharia is a popular understanding of how a state should work in the Islamic world. So Sharia-based revolutionary groups are, indeed, populist. But just because it's popular, doesn't mean it's good.
boddi
On 12/1/06, Dennis Redmond <dredmond at efn.org> wrote:
>
> Yoshie wrote:
>
> > It's time for leftists to get religion
>
> I've already got mine, and let me tell you, the long wait to get my
> tentacles on a Playstation3 was a test of faith indeed for my pixellated
> soul. Fortunately, I saw the YouTube clips of "Resistance", and lo -- all
> was forgiven!
>
> -- DRR
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
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