"What Is Shariah Law?": A Ceeb Whitewash

To summarize the Ceeb's snow job: while Islamic law can, on occasion, be draconian, and we in the West--silly us!--tend "to equate Shariah law with harsh physical punishments, polygamy and the oppression of women," it isn't always that bad. In fact,

Today’s advocates of Shariah as the source of law are not actually recommending the adoption of a comprehensive legal code derived from or dictated by Shariah — because nothing so comprehensive has ever existed in Islamic history,” says Noah Feldman, a contributing writer for The New York Times, a law professor at Harvard University and an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

“To the Islamist politicians who advocate it or for the public that supports it, Shariah generally means something else. It means establishing a legal system in which God’s law sets the ground rules, authorizing and validating everyday laws passed by an elected legislature.”

That doesn't sound so awful, does it? Besides, Islamic law adapts well to modernity, at least in the financial sector:

According to the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, Islamic banking is growing at an estimated 15 per cent annually. It modifies modern business practices to conform to the rules of Shariah. Central to this field is riba, the charging or payment of interest, which banned under Islamic law. 

Clever twists on standard financial products like credit cards, savings accounts, mortgages, loans, and even trust funds bypass the interest business model.

"Clever"? That isn't the word I would use for the economic portion of the jihad.