Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin
All governments enforce their laws at gunpoint on some level.
My guess is that the people of Somalia are fine with Sharia. Probably beats the heck out of being ruled by the local warlords, drafting the people's children into their armies and such.
Folks are going to support the group most likely to meet their basic needs in the most secure way. In poor countries, the Taliban model is set up to do that very effectively.
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In the militant-heavy areas, families are being forced to give up their boys to be in the army. Childless families or families with daughters only are forced to pay about $50/month because they don't have a boy to give.
Sharia is fine in a lot of ways, and it does beat anarchy to some degree, which gives it an edge in terms of areas that have had lawlessness for long periods of time. I should add that the thing about Sharia is the implementation and operational function, it's not actually a bad way of living if implemented correctly and humanely.
I do, think, however, that when you consider the whole of Islam, these groups are definitely on the fringe. It's only when you scale it down to specific countries that it's not.