in the last quarter of the 20th century, many muslims around the world became disappointed in their governments. these governments had adopted western ways in their legal systems and other matters, but many people regarded their actions as oppressive, corrupt, and ineffective. more and more muslims started to think that things would improve if their government returned to islamic traditions. they began calling for return of sharia, and conservative members of the public wanted the government to deal with crime using all the traditional methods, including "hudud" punishments. in a few countries, the government put some elements of classical criminal law into the legal code. however, in some of these countries (for example, iran and sudan) the supreme court has rarely approved the harsher "hudud" punishments, while in the other countries which adopted "hudud" laws (for example, pakistan and nigeria), the supreme court never approves them.