that aside, i think jurisprudence is in general irrelevant (and that’s putting it kind of mildly. this is my anarchist self talking). what needs to be shown is that some kind of universal ethical framework can be adduced from mohammad’s behavior. i’m not sure it can. there are fragments that may point the way in certain directions, but nothing that can be made into a coherent whole. and in any case i think the search for any universal ethics might be illusory anyway. for one thing, this particular condition is one that demands its own ethics.

i’m pontificating here, somewhat. i have misgivings about this as anyone else might. for one thing, on purely utilitarian grounds i don’t think this kind of thing is beneficial to the “cause,” if you will. but i still am not sold that on non-utilitarian grounds this can be criticized.