Do You Think Islamic Law Should Overrule the Law of the State?

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Almost every moslem majority country now ams that it's based its laws on islamic law, on the sherea. Every ex es ad arabia and osby samalia has got at a sort of western style legal system withalegal code. And they claim that their laws are based on the chere,. But still, there's the thethe legal experts. A have got an authority which remains beyond beyond the authority of the state as it always has in th islamic wealth. It doesn't mean people can just say, i can do ishat because it's whato god told me to do.

Rulers throughout history have used laws to impose order. But laws were not simply instruments of power and social control. They also offered ordinary people a way to express their diverse visions for a better world. The variety of the world’s laws has long been almost as great as the variety of its societies.

In this conversation, Shermer speaks with Oxford professor of the anthropology of law, Fernanda Pirie, who traces the rise and fall of the sophisticated legal systems underpinning ancient empires and religious traditions, showing how common people — tribal assemblies, merchants, farmers — called on laws to define their communities, regulate trade, and build civilizations. What truly unites human beings, Pirie argues, is our very faith that laws can produce justice, combat oppression, and create order from chaos.