VERSION|0.5.1|SUBJECT|Mona Siddiqui, professor of Islamic studies, New College, University of Edinburgh  |CONTENT|[b]Rating[/b] 1 out of 5 (Not platitudinous)

[url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap130722.html][img=images/2013/07/pic130722.jpg popup=false float=right][/url][url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/21/trayvon-martin-protests]Thousands have protested[/url] over the death of Trayvon Martin  and the aquittal of George Zimmerman, who shot him.

Trayvon's father said that the verdict was unfair. Many agree with him, their instinctive sense of justice demanding that Zimmerman should face some sort of penalty. Inevitably, with Trayvon a young black teenager, there are cries of racism.

But even if there is a strong feeling of a moral crime having been committed, George Zimmerman has been found not guilty in a court of law. The law has to work within a set of rules, rules that aim to promote justice. The Koran points out that the Invisible Magic Friend likes justice. Therefore justice is a Good Thing.

Justice requires a dispassionate assessment of the facts and this does not come instinctively. So, even though an instinctive sense of justice feels that a moral crime has been committed, because justice is not instinctive, our instinctive sense of justice is really not instinctive at all. 

The law may not always be fair, but ultimately we all rely on the rule of law to make society function.

[url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01d43sj]Listen/Read[/url]|CATEGORIES|1|IP-ADDRESS|94.168.119.214|CREATEDBY|admin|DATE|1374479047
