Sharia - or Islamic law - is gradually working its way into public life in Islamic and non-Islamic nations around the world.
In the meantime, questions linger on what Sharia is and what it means for Christians and others forced to abide by it.
Jeff Hammond is a Christian who has lived and worked in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation for 35 years.
Sharia law is a legal system on the teachings of the Koran, the Sunna and the Hadith of Mohammed, applied into the community as the legal basis for life, Hammond explained.
He says Indonesian Christians are concerned about creeping Sharia law, now in place in half of the country's 32 provinces.
It's going from one province to another, Hammond said. It's not something that's happening all at once, but step by step...
For instance, even Christian school girls are forced to cover their heads in Padang province.
Elsewhere in Indonesia, children attending public schools are required to learn the Koran.
In Indonesia's Bandeh Aceh province, Shariah police make nightly patrols to ensure that unmarried or non-related couples are not seen together in public.
Christians are very concerned, not only because of what is happening here in Indonesia. They also see reports that are coming from other countries, Hammond said.
Such countries include the Islamic nations like Somalia where devotion to Sharia law caused vigilantes to behead a 25-year-old aid worker for converting from Islam to Christianity.
There is also Iran where women are legally stoned to death for committing adultery.
Additionally, prostitutes in Afghanistan are executed for their behavior.
Finally, in Pakistan the government apparently has accepted the imposition of Sharia law in the Taliban controlled Swat Valley of the North West Frontier Province. It's a place where violators of Sharia are often subjected to lashes.
Enforcement of Pakistan's blasphemy laws have led to the imprisonment of Christians such as 20-year-old Sandal Bibi and her father Gul Sheer on charges of blasphemy against the Koran.
Sharia also inspires boys like one 12-year-old Pakistani to wage jihad and behead their enemies without punishment.
Syrian-born American psychiatrist Wafa Sultan is the author of the new book, A God Who Hates. She argues Islam is currently at war with itself.
She adds that its treatment of women is the genesis of all modern day Muslim intolerance.
According to Sultan, Islam's progression of violence, self pity and hate will ultimately lead to the demise of the Muslim world.
Runtime: 10:13
Added: January 02, 2010
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Views: 185
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Category: World Religions /
Islam
