Hisba

I didn't know what that word meant either until I read this illuminating Juan Cole post:

The Muslim fundamentalists use a provision of Islamic law called "bringing to account" (hisba). As Al-Ahram weekly notes, "Hisba signifies a case filed by an individual on behalf of society when the plaintiff feels that great harm has been done to religion." Hisba is a medieval idea that had all but lapsed when the fundamentalists brought it back in the 1970s and 1980s.

In other words, with hisba people unconnected to the case can overrule court proceedings and ask for a new trial in the name of their own personal religious code of ethics, in effect using the court to intervene in someone's private life.

Sound familiar? As Cole writes:

But the most frightening thing about the entire affair is that public figures like congressmen inserted themselves into the case in order to uphold religious strictures. The lawyer arguing against the husband let the cat out of the bag, as reported by the NYT: ' The lawyer, David Gibbs, also said Ms. Schiavo's religious beliefs as a Roman Catholic were being infringed because Pope John Paul II has deemed it unacceptable for Catholics to refuse food and water. "We are now in a position where a court has ordered her to disobey her church and even jeopardize her eternal soul," Mr. Gibbs said.

In other words, the United States Congress acted in part on behalf of the Roman Catholic church. Both of these public bodies interfered in the private affairs of the Schiavos... Republican Hisba will have the same effect in the United States that it does in the Middle East. It will reduce the rights of the individual in favor of the rights of religious and political elites to control individuals. Ayatollah DeLay isn't different from his counterparts in Iran.

Between Eugene Volokh's swooning over Iranian torture techniques, and now this, the Right is finding a lot of common cause with this Axis of Evil member, no?

By the way, maybe the most disgusting part of this charade is the "armchair doctors" that grace our Congress. People like Bill Frist (allegedly an MD) who pronounced a disgnosis on Terri Schiavo based on watching a videotape for one hour. I won't believe Frist is a doctor until I see a videotape of him practicing medicine for an hour, by the way. Dr. Dean says the right thing here.

"This is a deeply personal matter and ought to be left up to physicians," Dean said in a telephone conference call with Tennessee reporters.

"For Sen. Frist to say he could make a diagnosis based on a videotape is certainly not medically sound," said Dean, who, like Frist, is a physician-politician. "I wouldn't want my doctor making any diagnosis of me on videotape."