American Imam Tom Facchine said in a video that was posted to the YouTube channel of the New York State Utica Masjid, on January 11, 2023 that people are mistaken in believing that shari'a law is barbaric, harsh, punitive, and inflexible, and that the current system of law is much worse. He said that shari'a law is the best system of law the world has ever seen because it is merciful and is concerned with "redeeming" people, and he elaborated that receiving a one-time punishment of 70 lashes is much better than going to prison and being marked as a felon. Tom Facchine is the research director of the Yaqeen Institute, the resident scholar at Utica Masjid, in Utica, New York, and he is an imam and chaplain at Hamilton College.
Imam Tom Facchine: "People think of shari'a law or shari'a and they think that it's something that's harsh, and barbaric, and inflexible, and backwards in these sorts of things. In reality, it is much more barbaric, and harsh, and punitive — the system of law we have right now.
[...]
"The shari'a 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 existed Hey, if I get seventy 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 children are punished for it. My wife is punished for it, my family is punished for it.
[...]
"Which system is barbaric again? Which system is harsh again? Which system treats people like they can redeem themselves and get better?
[..]
"Shari'a is much more merciful, it is much more flexible, and it is a much more humane system of law than anything the world has ever seen."