Critiquing Islam 2.0

“Peaceful Sharia” Is as Absurd as “Gentle Slavery”

Is Sharia a misunderstood moral guide or a blueprint for tyranny? This bold exposé breaks down why “peaceful Sharia” is no more real than “gentle slavery,” comparing religious law to systems of domination the West once rejected.

Introduction: When Warnings Become Thought Crimes

There was a time when opposing slavery was considered radical. Abolitionists were demonized, silenced, and physically attacked for challenging what was seen as a divinely sanctioned and socially necessary institution. Today, we rightly regard such moral clarity as heroic.

Fast forward to the modern age, and we find ourselves paralyzed by fear of repeating that clarity when it comes to another system of domination: Sharia law.

In public discourse, criticism of Sharia is immediately branded as “Islamophobia.” Even mild concern over its teachings is met with cries of racism, colonialism, or cultural insensitivity. In this climate of self-censorship, truth has become hate speech—and warning people about the inherent cruelty of Sharia is now seen as the offense, not the ideology itself.

But let’s cut through the noise.
The idea of “peaceful Sharia” is just as absurd as the concept of “gentle slavery.”
Both are systems of coercion. Both involve inequality. Both suppress dissent. And both are defended—not because they are just—but because their defenders refuse to confront their actual content.

The Euphemism Game: How Language Is Weaponized

One of the most powerful tools of ideological gaslighting is euphemism. Just as plantation owners once spoke of the “peculiar institution” to avoid saying slavery, modern Islamic apologists use the phrase “Sharia” like it’s a soft religious suggestion.

They say:

“Sharia just means the path to God.”
“Sharia is about prayer, fasting, and charity.”
“It’s like Jewish Halakha or Christian canon law.”

All of this is deeply misleading. While parts of Sharia do touch on personal rituals like prayer and diet, that is not the problem. The issue is not how Muslims worship—it’s how Sharia governs, punishes, and controls.

Just as slavery was not merely a set of plantation rules but an entire socio-legal system that dehumanized individuals, Sharia is not just about rituals—it is a blueprint for theocratic control.

The Core Problem: Sharia Is Not Voluntary

Let’s get something straight. The term "Sharia" refers to the entire body of Islamic law derived from the Qur’an, Hadith (sayings and actions of Muhammad), and centuries of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). Its jurisdiction is totalitarian in nature:

It governs personal beliefs, clothing, sexuality, relationships, finances, speech, and even thought.
It enforces criminal punishments such as amputation for theft, stoning for adultery, and execution for apostasy or blasphemy.
It denies equal legal status to non-Muslims, women, gays, and dissenters.
It institutionalizes lifelong legal inferiority for anyone outside the system.

You cannot cherry-pick a few spiritual teachings from Sharia and call it “peaceful.” You cannot isolate the comforting parts and ignore the body of laws that make up the system.

This is like pointing to kind slaveowners and claiming slavery was compassionate.

Historical Proof: Sharia Has Always Meant Domination

For over a millennium, wherever Islamic empires rose, Sharia law followed—and with it came:

Dhimmitude: Second-class status for Jews, Christians, and other non-Muslims, who had to pay the jizya (Qur’an 9:29) and live under constant legal subjugation.
Slavery: Islam explicitly permits slavery (Qur’an 4:24; 33:50), including sexual slavery. This was practiced across the Arab world for centuries and only reluctantly abandoned under Western pressure.
Apostasy Laws: Leaving Islam—by choice or conviction—has been punishable by death for centuries, and still is in countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.
Theocratic Tyranny: No separation of mosque and state. Sharia prescribes rule by divine law, not by popular will. Democracy under Sharia is incompatible by definition.

This isn’t some modern “radical” interpretation—it is standard, classical, orthodox Islam, as taught in all four Sunni schools (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i, Hanbali) and in Shia jurisprudence as well.

Source Texts That Make “Peaceful Sharia” Impossible

Here are just a few examples of primary Islamic texts that define the harsh core of Sharia:

Qur’an 5:38 – “Cut off the hand of the thief, male or female, as punishment from Allah.”
Qur’an 24:2 – “Flog the adulteress and the adulterer, each with a hundred stripes.”
Qur’an 4:34 – “Men are in charge of women… As for those from whom you fear disobedience, strike them.”
Qur’an 9:29 – “Fight those who do not believe in Allah… until they pay the jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued.”
Sahih Bukhari 6922 – “Whoever changes his religion, kill him.”

These are not metaphorical, nor misinterpreted by fringe fanatics. They are foundational to Islamic jurisprudence. And they are still enforced today in countries where Sharia is dominant.

Comparative Analogy: Slavery vs. Sharia

Let’s break the analogy down clearly:

Slavery	Sharia
Ownership of human beings	Ownership of human behavior and thought
No consent required	No apostasy allowed
Enforced through violence	Enforced through hudud laws
Some masters were kind	Some Muslims are kind
Institution remains evil	Institution remains theocratic
Abolished through moral clarity	Excused through multicultural relativism

A kind master does not redeem slavery.
A nice Muslim does not sanitize Sharia.
You can’t excuse tyranny just because it’s enforced politely.

The Apologetics Fallacy: “But Muslims Are Peaceful”

This is the most common response when Sharia is criticized:
“I know many Muslims who are peaceful, tolerant, and wonderful people.”

And that’s often true. But it misses the point entirely.

We are not critiquing individuals—we are critiquing a system.

You can be a good person while living under a bad ideology.
You can be kind and devout without enforcing every law in the book.
You can even sincerely believe that your religion is peaceful, without having studied the parts that contradict that belief.

The fact that millions of Muslims do not implement or even know the full extent of Sharia does not make Sharia good. It only proves that many people are better than the ideology they inherited.

That is exactly what happened with slavery: not all slaveholders were cruel, but the institution was still morally bankrupt.

Western Cowardice: Trading Truth for Tolerance

The Western world once prided itself on Enlightenment values: freedom of speech, equal protection under law, religious liberty, and the right to dissent.

Today, those values are being sacrificed at the altar of multiculturalism.

Instead of standing up for universal human rights, we are now told to “respect” Sharia—even as it contradicts everything the West claims to believe in:

Liberal feminists excuse hijabs and niqabs as “empowering,” ignoring their enforcement by religious police.
Human rights groups tiptoe around apostasy executions, child marriage, and blasphemy laws in Islamic countries.
Academics and media focus obsessively on “Islamophobia,” while ignoring the actual legal brutality of Islamic regimes.

Imagine if abolitionists had been told to be “sensitive” to the cultural traditions of slaveholders.
That’s exactly what’s happening now.

Real-World Impact: What Sharia Looks Like Today

Sharia is not a relic of history. It’s alive and well in the modern world.

1. Iran

Enforces hijab mandates with moral police.
Executes apostates and homosexuals.
Imprisons women for protesting “modesty” laws.

2. Saudi Arabia

Implements public beheadings for murder, apostasy, and witchcraft.
Uses Sharia to ban churches and criminalize non-Muslim worship.
Grants male guardians absolute legal control over female relatives.

3. Pakistan

Death penalty for “blasphemy” still in place.
Christians and Hindus face mob violence, legal discrimination.
Women require male witnesses for legal testimony in many cases.

4. Afghanistan (Taliban)

Bans girls’ education beyond primary school.
Executes or lashes women for dress-code violations.
Destroys cultural artifacts deemed “un-Islamic.”

None of this is a perversion of Sharia. It is its logical outcome.

Final Word: You Don’t Reform Tyranny — You Reject It

The world didn’t need a “reformed” version of slavery. It needed slavery to end.
Likewise, the world does not need “modernized Sharia.” It needs the world to acknowledge its theocratic rot and reject it completely.

You don’t sanitize theocratic control.
You don’t defend inequality under religious law.
You don’t excuse barbarity just because it wears a smile.

Call it out. Loudly. Consistently. Morally.
Sharia is a system of submission, not salvation.

The longer we pretend otherwise, the more we betray the very freedoms we once claimed to defend.