Islam – The Key Tenets of Sharia

The following are some of the most important—and, particularly for Western non-Muslims, deeply problematic—tenets of sharia, arranged in alphabetical order. The citations for these findings are drawn from the Koran, schools of Islam and other recognized sources are offered as illustrative examples of the basis for such practices under sharia.

1. Abrogation (‘Al-mansukh wa al-nasikh’ in Arabic—the abrogated and the abrogating): Verses that come later in the Koran, chronologically, supersede, or abrogate, the earlier ones. In effect, this results in the more moderate verses of the Meccan period being abrogated by the later, violent, Medinan period.

2. Adultery (‘Zina’ in Arabic): Unlawful intercourse is a capital crime under sharia, punishable by lashing and stoning to death.

3. Apostasy (‘Irtidad’ or ‘Ridda’ in Arabic): The established ruling of sharia is that apostates are to be killed wherever they may be found.

4. Democracy & Islam: Any system of man-made law is considered illicit under Islamic law, for whose adherents Allah already has provided the only law permitted, sharia. Islam and democracy can never co-exist in harmony.

5. Female Genital Mutilation.

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