“Attempts at the rhetorical appropriation of Islamism by ‘restoring the liberation role of the Shari`a’ (An-Na`im), or the historical romance of the Shari`a as constitutionalism and modern rule of law (Feldman) are bound to fail. Like all religious law, the Shari`a has a restrictive, and never a liberating role, and the Muslims who wish to free themselves from its rigid restrictions historically did so through the liberating flexibility of man-made, secular law (qānun).”

This reminds me a lot about the debate about reforming v. abandoning communism that Tony Judt describes in his book, Postwar.