a different view.
http://www.countercurrents.org/faiz280306.htm
some excerpts:
"The Sharia law has been criticized due to its clash with the known and recognized global standards of human rights especially its clauses relating to blasphemy, Hudood, Qisas or Diyat issues. These clauses have harshly been used in many of the Muslim countries mostly to set personal scores against minorities, and to badly violate the minorities' and women's rights."
"Although it is considered that the Sharia law has been inspired by the Quran yet in fact it has been developed and evolved through medieval Islamic periods with the will and efforts of the then Islamic rulers. The Sharia as it developed in the first few centuries of Islam incorporated many pre-Islamic Middle-Eastern indigenous and tribal customs and traditions."
"The basic Islamic ideology in the Quran ensures freedom of religion: "Surely, those who believe, those who are Jewish, the Christians, and the converts; anyone who (1) believes in God, and (2) believes in the Last Day, and (3) leads a righteous life, will receive their recompense from their Lord. They have nothing to fear, nor will they grieve". 2:62] "Let there be no compulsion in religion" [2:256] similarly there is no death penalty for apostasy even: "Surely (as for) those who believe then disbelieve, again believe and again disbelieve, then increase in disbelief, Allah will not forgive them nor guide them in the (right) path" [4:137].
"It is important to note here that the Quran authorizes death penalty for murder and other horrendous crimes, not for apostasy: "You shall not kill any person - for GOD has made life sacred - except in the course of justice. If one is killed unjustly, then we give his heir authority to enforce justice" [17:33]. Another Quranic verse states: "For this reason did We prescribe to the children of Israel that whoever slays a soul, unless it be for manslaughter or for mischief in the land, it is as though he slew all men; and whoever keeps it alive, it is as though he kept alive all men" [5:32]. Similarly one can find numerous inconsistencies between the basic Islamic principles and the proposed Shariah law. For instance, Shariah sanctions stoning to death for both the adulterer and adulteress, while the Quran prescribes 100 lashes as punishment for adultery."