Party Chat

This past weekend had a great talk with my brother that works in the city of Dubai. He is fairly defensive of and for his neighbors, an opinion for which I have high esteem. Apparently the Muslim unrest we see expressed as terrorism finds it's genesis in the deep poverty present in many Arab and African countries.
So having some, at least for me, some reinforced thoughts, we'll start with some basic points.
These are the first laws of Sharia that I have had the opportunity to read.

1. Theft is punishable by amputation of the right hand.
2. Criticizing or denying any part of the Quran is punishable by death.
3. Criticizing Muhammad or denying that he is a prophet is punishable by death.
4. Criticizing or denying Allah, the god of Islam is punishable by death.
5. A Muslim who becomes a non-Muslim is punishable by death.
6. A non-Muslim who leads a Muslim away from Islam is punishable by death.
7. A non-Muslim man who marries a Muslim woman is punishable by death.
8. A man can marry an infant girl and consummate the marriage when she is 9 years old.
9. Girls' clitoris should be cut (Muhammad's words, Book 41, Kitab Al-Adab, Hadith 5251).
10. A woman can have 1 husband, who can have up to 4 wives; Muhammad can have more.
11. A man can beat his wife for insubordination.
12. A man can unilaterally divorce his wife; a woman needs her husband's consent to divorce.
13. A divorced wife loses custody of all children over 6 years of age or when they exceed it.
14. Testimonies of four male witnesses are required to prove rape against a woman.
15. A woman who has been raped cannot testify in court against her rapist(s).
16. A woman's testimony in court, allowed in property cases, carries ½ the weight of a man's.
17. A female heir inherits half of what a male heir inherits.
18. A woman cannot drive a car, as it leads to fitnah (upheaval).
19. A woman cannot speak alone to a man who is not her husband or relative.
20. Meat to eat must come from animals that have been sacrificed to Allah - i.e., be "Halal".
21. Muslims should engage in Taqiyya and lie to non-Muslims to advance Islam.

K.A. says that in the UAE, laws are divided into three sections. Those sections are social, religious and governmental. Governmental has primacy. The country is well organized and application of laws would be considered fair by Western standards. In the poorer countries law keeping is dominated by religious leaders, and like we see in politics all over the world, poor people are given abstract targets onto which to blame for the pain in their lives.