Ominous polling data from the contemporary Egyptian population reflect their deep, longstanding favorable inclination toward the Sharia, in all its totalitarian, brutally anti-freedom "glory." The electorally successful Algerian Sharia supremacists of two decades ago came up with an apt expression of where such sentiments lead, given a one man, one vote (and likely, one time) opportunity: "Islamic State by the Will of the People!"Despite ebullient appraisals of events in Egypt -- which optimistic observers insist epitomize American hopes and values at their quintessential best -- there is a profound, deeply troubling flaw in such hagiographic analyses which simply ignore the vast gulf between Western and Islamic conceptions of freedom itself. The current polling data indicating that three-fourths of the Egyptian population are still enamored of the totalitarian Sharia confirms that this yawning gap still exists -- strikingly so -- in our era.Hurriyya (Arabic ...(Read Full Post)