Something I just thought: what exactly should one infer from a Muslim that lives in a largely Muslim society answering in a poll that he does want Sharia law?
How often will that answer be due to rote action learned from peer pressure, (I figure it would be a fairly big scandal for a Muslim to say openly that he would not have Sharia Law among his relatives) and how often will it be due to personal conviction that there is a significant need for Sharia to be applied? And in the last case, what can we infer about wheter the desire involves non-Muslims as well?
There is probably a lot of room between those two extremes. I think we would need to dig a lot deeper to learn the actual desires of the Muslim communities.
Of course, then we would need to deal with regional variations, and with the considerable challenge of ensuring that those who have an opinion have a degree of understanding of what they are opining about (I am not optimistic in that regard).
Even if we overcome all those challenges, though, in the end it will still be a matter of whether there is enough public support for what is still at least superficially and by the available evidence a fairly oppressive law.
Which I suppose is reason enough for secular governments to take steps to oppose or even outlaw it, until and unless it is more clearly explained and shown to be compatible with basic personal freedoms (or adapted for that goal, if need be).
So much for Islamophobia, apparently.