Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Hisba-eLay
Juan Cole has a post, which is to say a brilliant post on how the actions of the right in intervening in the Schiavo case resemble law under Islamic fundamentalists, called hisba or "calling to account".
Specifically, personal decisions are turned into showcase trials.
It's done under rational-sounding (but of course completely hypocritical) pretenses. Since the Pope has declared that Catholics may not refuse food, "a court has ordered her to disobey her church and even jeopardize her eternal soul," according to a lawyer quoted in the NYT.
So, now the government-- led by Hisba Republicans-- is in the business of enforcing the edicts of Rome! As if this were not the abomination fundamentalists claimed to fear John Kennedy and Catholics like him would bring to Washington.
Go read it. The story of the Egyptian scholar is worth the trip.
More blogs about politics.
