genesis--Fair point. I don't normally get into the us-versus-them sort of rhetoric, but Scotiabank's arrogant ignorance rubbed me the wrong way. Canadian and English (Scotland has its own system) are based on common law, so it is ever evolving, and so a start date does not really exist. But in fairness, too, dating Qatar's system to 1971 is a bit hasty, as Qatar hardly started fresh; sharia law obviously predates 1971! The seven-year standard blasphemy sentence does strike me as a bit of throw-back that needs to be revisited.
Would someone address the question about what constitutes blasphemy in Qatar (without being blasphemous themselves!)? It is clear from the cases cited in the wikipedia article that each predominately Islamic country follows its own (and diverse) rules on this. KSA has a habit of arresting foreigners for committing blasphemy in other countries.
genesis--Fair point. I don't normally get into the us-versus-them sort of rhetoric, but Scotiabank's arrogant ignorance rubbed me the wrong way. Canadian and English (Scotland has its own system) are based on common law, so it is ever evolving, and so a start date does not really exist. But in fairness, too, dating Qatar's system to 1971 is a bit hasty, as Qatar hardly started fresh; sharia law obviously predates 1971! The seven-year standard blasphemy sentence does strike me as a bit of throw-back that needs to be revisited.
Would someone address the question about what constitutes blasphemy in Qatar (without being blasphemous themselves!)? It is clear from the cases cited in the wikipedia article that each predominately Islamic country follows its own (and diverse) rules on this. KSA has a habit of arresting foreigners for committing blasphemy in other countries.