Voluntary Sharia Law, Totalitarianism
October 12, 2016
If a group of Muslims got together and formed a covenant community in an anarcho-capitalist world complete with Sharia law, stoning of adulterers and homosexuals, mandatory wearing of burqas for women, and a whole lot of other rules and laws libertarians oppose, would it be a libertarian community? After all, everyone consented to be ruled by this code? Or does libertarianism transcend such covenants? In other words, covenant communities must conform with the non-aggression principle?
Yes, of course this would be compatible with libertarianism. It sounds like voluntary sado-masochism. I do discuss this sort of thing in my book Defending I, the chapter dealing with “Yelling ‘Fire!’ in a Crowded Theater.”
Dr. Block [send him mail] is a professor of economics at Loyola University New Orleans. He is the author of Defending the Undefendable, The Case for Discrimination, Labor Economics From A Free Market Perspective, Building Blocks for Liberty, Differing Worldviews in Higher Education, and The Privatization of Roads and Highways. His latest book is Yes to Ron Paul and Liberty.

