@TankMan @syedali73 You both have more knowledge on the issue at hand. Inputs?
Under the Ottoman Caliphate, even homosexuality was decriminalised long before Western liberals had any idea what happened. Its demise is the main reason why we have to deal with radical extremist nutcases today:
The Ottoman empire's secular history undermines sharia claims | Tehmina Kazi | Comment is free | The Guardian
The general idea behind Islamic punishments was always to deter crimes. Punishments were to be kept severe so as to show how severe the crimes were, and to deter people from committing them. They weren't intended to be widespread - punishments are supposed to be rare. So if the Ottomans punished very few people, they had the right idea there.
But it is important to realize that the Islamic system is based on justice and also requires a welfare system - so that no one is driven to commit crimes by desperation.
As for homosexuality, the
condition of
being homosexual can never be criminalized - in Islam, it was always homosexual acts (i.e intercourse) that were criminalized since it falls under the category of
zina. That obviously does not mean the state needs to worry about keeping an eye on homosexual people so that they can be punished when they do it, what it means is that being homosexual is not something to be encouraged or made public.
Are you saying Islam requires Muslim's to run their affairs according to Sharia? Yes or No would do nicely.
Yes. Islam requires Muslims to run their affairs according to Islamic principles and Sharia. Obviously, a religion would require you to actually follow it.
The problem we have nowadays is that nobody has any idea what Shariat is and what it entails. People constantly mix Fiqh and Fatwas with Shariat, and the confusion is so great that trying to implement this 'version' of Shariat results in injustice. Therefore, in order to prevent injustice, it is better from an Islamic perspective if we don't run our affairs according to this corrupted form of Sharia.
Today adultery is punishable by stoning, whereas the Koran prescribes 100 lashes—and 80 lashes for falsely accusing another.
This is a good example of this corrupt version of Shariat we nowadays have to deal with.