Freedom Before Shariaa. A Ray of Light Comes From Kuwait

I had to read it twice before sharing it, but Tariq al-Suwaidan, a prominent Kuwaiti Muslim Scholar did announce that freedom should come before Shariaa.

The first thing I looked for was a catch. A little detail that would undermine his position, something like perhaps: “as long as we don’t choose to leave Islam”. But no, he seemed to be talking of real, honest liberty:

a human being is free in his movements and where he wants to belong, and convictions are what move people, and not force

This is really refreshing because it breaks from the common understanding in the region that Muslim moderates are not truly liberal, but people who just know how to “tolerate” and befriend people from other religions.

The natural extension of Mr. Suwaidan’s idea is that a civil state should rule and treat citizens equally under a civil law, regardless of what their religions and beliefs are. Now that would be a true breakthrough in modern Islamic thinking.