Is It a Sense of Resentment?

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For a lot of moslems there is a sense that they are not understood. Their countries, their cultures and traditions have been ignored by the promoters of western civilization. So i think there is a probably at least partly justified, sense of resentment. The problem is that it could then become easily polarized, you know, the west and the west and east,. or, ah, thethe ra american civilization against the atlammic - which can all too easily be used to justify terror attacks.

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.