Tom Facchine – My Experience With Sharia In Saudi Arabia

			You know, it's it's so ironic because people think of Sharia law or Sharia. And they think that it's
something that's harsh and barbaric, and inflexible and backwards and these sorts of things. In
reality, it's much more barbaric and harsh and punitive the system of law that we have right now.
And I'll give you an example. Because when it comes to shove, it actually is not just about the laws
that are on the books and the punishments, right. That's where everybody's mind goes, like, Oh, my
God, you're going to, oh, you're gonna whip somebody, you're going to do this to them, you're gonna
do that to them. The city is also about the procedures, and it's about what is resorted to first and
		

			within the Cydia arbitration is always preferred over litigation. Okay, so we have all these
different mechanisms to try to encourage people to sort out their problems before it gets to the
level of litigation. I give an example that some of this still exists in some of the Muslim
countries in Saudi Arabia. I got in a car accident one time, right. And I was freaking out just
because, you know, if you break the law, you getting to legal trouble in another country, you don't
really know how it happens over there. What's What can possibly happen to you? So I'm going to try
to throw me in jail, I don't know. And so I show up to their version of the DMV, and the other
		

			person who was part of the accident, you know, like, like, he he comes. And I was shocked, because
we got a ticket, we stood in line, then the guy was like, Alright, you guys go outside, and you
agree to something. I was like, Wait a second, what? If we go outside and agreed something we stood
outside? We had a conversation, you know, he said about how much it's gonna cost him to fix it or
whatever. And we eventually agreed to whatever we came back, it's like you agree, you agree, done,
no judge, no jury, no fine, no anything, just me and him as human beings as fellow Muslims sorting
it out that ethos is completely from the city, right? This idea that we don't have to raise
		

			everything to the level of litigation. We don't have to raise everything to the level of a
courtroom, we should be able to sort out our problems without getting the law involved, and all the
punishments and all these sorts of things, right. We're not trying to squeeze everybody in the you
know, for everything that they're worth. And the Sharia is concerned with people's redemption,
right? It wants people to be redeemed, it wants people to change their lives around. It doesn't want
to punish them for eternity. And people forget this when they get fixated on sort of the corporal
punishments that exist that hey, if I get 70 lashes for something, I walk home to my children and to
		

			my wife, and I'm done. What happens here, if I'm a felon, I'm locked away for years, my pet, my
children are punished for it. My wife is punished for it. My family is punished for it. When I come
out. I can't have all the jobs that I used to have. I can't vote, I can't travel. I can't even leave
the country, right? Which system is barbaric? Again, which system is harsh again, which system
treats people like they can redeem themselves and get better? And which system just closes the book
and says, You know what, it's over for you. You're going to be stamped with this for the rest of
your life. Sharia is a much more merciful. It's a much more flexible, and it's a much more humane
		

			system of law than anything the world has ever seen.