Ah, the conundrum of Islamic states, they must derive their legitimacy from their commitment to Islam, yet they at the same time must strive to maintain order within the confines of an untenable set of ancient concepts that are antithetical to modern life.

Muslim friends continue to tell me that Sharia promises a better sort of government and life than we can have in the democratic and liberal West. They tell me this despite the fact that they fled their failed countries to make a life in our land. When I point this out, they get silent then blame the current woe of their lands on the residual effects of imperialism.

Muslims talk in a strange language of denial and duplicity, unable to come to terms that the only obvious and essential fault of their cultures is the thing the hold dearest to their identity: Islam itself. Sometimes the past must be rejected to create a future that holds new opportunities. Muslims fear apostasy more than the decrepit governments and mind-numbing poverty and ignorance that dominates their lands.