Sure, they've relaxed. However, based on our society we can actually change some of these "religiously-inspired" laws.
Ever seen a law relaxed in a society that is based on Sharia?
That's still not the point, which is that Christians have them too. Luckily, our society believes in freedom, so some of these laws are dying, but they are and were there.
But for Shari'a, yes. There are four different legal schools in Islam, from the strict Hanbali to the more liberal Hanafi. Interestingly, the Hanafi school is the oldest, while the strict Hanbali school is the youngest. The Hanbalis actually have an ancient history of coercing other Muslims to conform to their school of law, so it's no surprise that Wahabbism follows it and its coercive tradition.
To give you an example of where these are practiced, Turkey uses Hanafi, and it has a pretty Western legal system. Saudi Arabia uses Hanbali, and we know how draconian the laws there are.