“What about the Taliban? What they do to women … In Saudi Arabia, women can’t drive. Under the Taliban, they couldn’t go anywhere without covering up…” The other guests, sensing a low hum of tension, began to gather their plates and ferry them to the sink. “They aren’t practicing Islam,” I replied, perhaps a tad too smugly. “That’s local or tribal custom made into national law. Yes, those laws and restrictions are terrible, but they’re not Islamic. All you have to do to find out that it’s got universal values—ones very much like yours and mine—is go back to the sources.”
