Ten women in Khartoum have already been flogged, in an action that my Muslim friends say is against the laws of Islam.

When Lubna Ahmed Hussein returns to face her judge on Tuesday, the whole world is watching.

For a person like me, uneducated about the Islamic faith, I wonder: Is this Islam in action? Or is it a brutal, ugly shadow of one of the world’s great religions?

Excuse me out there. I can’t hear you very well.

Lubna Ahmed HusseinThe Telegraph UK writes in this first interview Lubna has given with the Western press, that she has ignited women all over Africa and the Middle East. The world’s “trouser girl” widow is daring them to ‘do it’, to flog her 40 times in an act that she says is against the laws of Islam.

This time, though, the whole world is watching. Is this Islam in action? Or is it a brutal, ugly shadow of one of the world’s great religions?

Excuse me out there. I repeat myself for a reason. Those of you who know much better than I do what is right and what is wrong in Islam, I can’t hear you very well.

I’m just learning about Islam, because I must understand this force that is having such an impact on women around the world and me, too. Millions and zillions of women are murdered, whipped, cut, mutilated, scarred, stoned and starved to death in the name of Islamic morality.

Is what’s going on in Khartoum Islam in action?

My new Muslim friends say ‘no’, this is Islam turned inside out. Lubna says “no”. “The acts of this regime have no connection with the real Islam, which would not allow the hitting of women for the clothes they are wearing and in fact would punish anyone who slanders a woman.

Then Lubna Ahmed Hussein says that members of Sudan’s Public Order Police demand sexual favors of the women they are arresting?

Is this true, or is Lubna a liar? If so, these facts are disgusting and yet not a surprise to me. This ironic contradiction of moral reality happens all over the world, across all great religions, every single day.

Could these brave morality men in Khartoum please give us an interview or two? Arabic is fine; the world can translate. Let them educate us about sharia. I sincerely want to learn.

Everywhere I turn on the Internet, I’m reading about sharia courts in England; sharia financial instruments in America. It seems that sharia laws will influence us all in due time. This may a good thing for our corrupt world. I’m not attacking sharia. I’m trying to understand it.

I would like to hear the folks in Khartoum explain this ‘new and improved’ brand of Islam that my Muslim friends say is a distortion of the original version. Let them come forth into the light to educate the rest of us corrupted, impure heathens about morality and the laws of modern sharia.

This is one woman who is terrified of sharia, and I have no problem admitting that fact. I only know what I see, and I’m tired of defending my unease and confusion about what Islam IS and what it is NOT. My confusion isn’t solely rooted in some kind of Christian, American xenophobia. I have good reason to be confused, so someone please educate me.

What do Muslims want me to learn about Islam from what is happening in Khartoum today, an August afternoon in 2009?

If Muslims around the world want me to feel safe and neighborly about sharia law, then let the real sharia laws stand up and be understood.

This very important subject has lived in the shadows of my life for too long, almost eight years.

In my playbook, actions speak louder than words.

Sudan’s Public Order Police are standing up for their beliefs. Who’s standing up for Lubna, besides some of her courageous friends, journalists and politicians in Sudan?

Where is the rallying cry of one of the world’s great religions when their women are flogged regularly for crimes that other Muslims say are against the most fundamental principles of Islam.

Who is right? Who do I believe?

We are neighbors now in this digital, global world. We are teaching each other with our actions. I admit my imperfections, so I am not judging anyone here. I believe in the “don’t cast the first stone’ theory.

When I read that members of the Public Order Police in Sudan seek sexual favors from the women they are flogging, well it just makes me sick.

And it makes me even sicker to watch a world stand by and look the other way. Then again — these are only women. So who cares? I repeat — who cares? Anne