His Islamist Shia party did well in the local elections on a relatively secular law-and-order platform.
Similarly in Tunisia, Deputy Speaker Mehrezia Labidi pledged to lead the effort for women's rights and secular law in her nation.
But then a tradition of secular law began to grow up that recognized all Iraqis as citizens and as having all the rights of citizens.
If that is true, then modern Turkey may provide a uniquely favourable arena: secular law combined with the diligence and sobriety (in several senses) of Muslim Calvinists.
And if Muslim leaders claim agreement with Western secular law, one cannot help but ask where all the movements for modernization of sharia law against the current salafist interpretations are?
Weinstein particularly points to the nfluence of dominionist theology, a militant, nationalistic belief which holds that the U.S. is a Christian nation that should be governed by Christian rather than secular law.
FORBES: Religious Computer Game Brings Wrath Down on Pentagon
After the first post-dictatorship democratic elections in 1999, 12 of the northern Muslim states adopted sharia law, putting an enormous strain on the unity of a Nigerian state that had previously been run only under the secular, civil law bequeathed to it by British colonial rulers.
But apart from that law, the evidence the prosecutor produced to show that the AK was seeking to undermine Ataturk's secular republic and bring in sharia law was pretty thin, not least because Mr Erdogan (pictured) and Mr Gul stoutly and insistently denied that they had any such intentions.
The secular opposition had decried the law, saying it was unfair to their candidates because of gerrymandering.
WSJ: Egypt's Top Judge Quits, as Fears Rise Over Morsi's Sway
But the real victims here are not the Muslim men of organizations such as CAIR that seek to press sharia law into the secular systems of the West.
FORBES: Oklahoma's Sharia Problem is Every American's Problem
In the long-term, the rebuilding of Pakistani civil society and restoring secular government and the rule of law is the only promising way to deal successfully with the Islamist threat.
Small religious parties seek greater social spending for their constituents, while a party representing secular Russian Jews focuses on undermining a law exempting ultra-Orthodox Israelis from military service.
And given Turkey's history as a secular democratic state that respects the rule of law, but is also a majority Muslim nation, it plays a critical role I think in helping to shape mutual understanding and stability and peace not only in its neighborhood but around the world.
WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Meets with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan
Do I agree with you that the overarching atmosphere at Pepperdine Law stifles the open expression of liberal or secular moralities?
American presidents from Carter in 1979 to Obama in 2011 have seemed to prefer mob rule to the rule of law in the region, and theocratic states to secular ones.
The PKS has dropped its calls for Islamic law and is working to integrate into Indonesia's secular political system.
It would be an unconstitutional "entanglement" problem (violating the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment) if a secular court had to get into the business of deciding what Jewish law or Catholic canon was and what it said about a given dispute.
But the government, which describes Bangladesh as a secular democracy, has rejected the group's demand for a new law on blasphemy.
Tattoos are proscribed by Islamic law, but like alcohol, they were legal under Egypt's nominally secular former regime.
The clash between these two visions of Egypt -- secular with freedom and social justice, or a religious state run by the Brotherhood with its version of Sharia law -- played out inside families and on the streets.
The proposal does single out Islamic law, rather than religious law in general, and does so with such bold strokes as to make it difficult even to uphold secular laws that bear similarities to the laws of sharia.
FORBES: Oklahoma's Sharia Problem is Every American's Problem
应用推荐