Sharia: You Only Wish it Was the Mormons!

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Since I still have a bug up my ass about the obnoxiousness of the extreme faction of Islam, Sharia, I had to share this charming development.  In Sharjah, the third largest Arab Emirate, police have literally been going door to door in search of couples living in sin.  Shacking up with the unmarried mother of your children is against Islamic law (surprise!) This is a crime punishable by being lashed if you are a guy, to being stoned to death if you are a female.  They’ve already caught one man with his Asian wife. No word on what will happen to their two kids.

Think it will never happen anywhere else?

The extremism is gradually being institutionalized in non-Muslim countries.  Australia has a Muslim community of 340k who share “broad support of Sharia law”.  In Scotland a law firm is offering  clients “conventional” legal representation alongside advice on sharia law.

Why? Because the Islamic scholar offering said advice is wanting to be certain that Muslims have access to the correct religious ruling on matters such as child custody and divorce. Clients will be able to see a Muslim lawyer who is fully trained in Scots law at the same time as they consult this sharia scholar who is an expert in Islamic law.

Of course it is controversial,  not because it is helping prop up the continuation of life under Sharia, but because  female solicitors were involved in the new initiative that was causing concern within some sections of the Muslim community.

Despite public fears over what is deemed “creeping” sharia law, the firm stressed that the sharia advice was not legally binding and would mainly focus on giving Islamic guidelines on divorce or child custody based on rigorous readings of the Koran.

However, critics and opponents accuse sharia of being a discriminatory and sexist legal system and an “extension” of the fundamentalist laws that allow hand amputations and stonings in countries such as Saudi Arabia.

Others in Europe have gotten their panties in a twist. Maryam Namazie, a spokeswoman for the One Law for All Campaign, which campaigns against sharia law in Britain, states :

We have a petition signed by more than 22,000 people saying that all religious tribunals should be prevented from operating within or outside the legal system. I have spoken to women who are losing custody of their children in the sharia councils – under sharia law custody of a child goes to the husband after a certain age, irrespective of the welfare of the child.

There are cases of domestic violence where women have dropped criminal charges and the sharia councils have sent the husbands on anger-management courses. That is just not how we deal with domestic violence in this country.

Tell it sister! Read the compelling petition here.

Condoning Sharia is almost as dangerous as encouraging it. Letting the extremists get their foot in the door, as in Scotland, is a bad idea. Obviously Belgium has grown a pair  (see Holte’s post) and is refusing to let the restrictive dress codes of Sharia law infiltrate their country. If all of the West puts their collective foot down, then at least the Muslim women living here will have the same protection as their American and European counterparts.

Rights, justice, inclusion, equality and respect are for people, not beliefs. Having the right of freedom of religion (or no religion) does not equal the “right” to be governed by religious laws. Every citizen in a country should receive the same rights and protections of the laws of that country. Not all Muslim immigrants practice Sharia, but the ones that do should be prepared for some life changes as they are dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

About Post Author

Carol Bell

Carol is a graduate of the University of Alabama. Her passion is journalism and it shows. Carol is our unpaid, but very efficient, administrative secretary.
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13 years ago

And where do they learn a lot of this shit – yeah, that’s right, in the Wahabi schools of our supposed ally, Saudi Arabia (you know, the country where most of the frigging hyjackers were from).

13 years ago

Sharia is medieval and should be tolerated like we tolerate children. A related thought, children do not get to call the consequential shots.

Our Anglo-American legal system is a product of the evolution of values that is far beyond Sharia in terms of fairness, equality, and due process. Ironically our legal system protects a less evolved culture’s right to exist and express itself so long as it doesn’t cross the line into criminal activity.

If a premodern culture is going to avail itself of the freedoms that a more modern culture can provide it, that premodern culture will eventually have to catch up or an intolerable state of balkanization will fester and conflict will be inevitable.

Good post MH.

osori
13 years ago

Mother Hen,
It’s not a bug, and you’ve a right to be outraged. To me the worst part of this is how it sucks believers into supporting it as a religious issue, rather than hopefully defying those who support oppression and outright idiocy. I don’t know if I’m phrasing that well. I mean as a Catholic, I condemn and am disgusted by the excesses of the Church.As do so many.But others due to indoctrination or fear of going to Hell or I don’t know what else don’t question it.

Holte’s teabagger comment I think is very apt, the only difference being it is an ages-old phenomenon. But otherwise it’s valid-teabaggers are a small movement which carries a far larger clout than its numbers warrant.They are merciless at perceived slight. So are the religious extremists. Fellow Muslims who will not toe the Sharia party line are forced to do so.

I would compare those who support this extremism and the oppression and the horror inflicted upon females to the Inquisition or the Salem witch trials, those who rightfully condemn it are open to charge of heresy or worse. The only thing which will end it is the condemnation by religious leaders.

One further thought would be, those people such as yourself who are motivated by a sense of justice against what is effectively religious terrorism can be joined in general outcry by those with their own agenda.

An example might be, should a police officer cross the line and there is proof he used excessive force, demonstrators might have some sympathy from law enforcement and possible disciplinary action might result. If a few “Off the Pigs” types should join the demonstration it would harden the officers resolve and be counter-productive.

So I think what we need is good outrage such as yours against these travesties while keeping in mind that those with an agenda can serve to perpetuate this type of behavior by making it an “us against them” situation.

Reply to  osori
13 years ago

I do see your point. Some group may definitely use the justified outrage against Sharia to rationalize their own fears of or prejudices against Muslim people in general.

Holte said, “judg­ments have no statu­tory basis in law, with par­tic­i­pants abid­ing by rul­ings vol­un­tar­ily”. I disagree. The influence and pressures from an Imam, the husband, and family will all be brought to bear against a woman. Civil court rulings in say, Britain, that dissolve a marriage do not hold if the couple returns to a country ruled by Sharia laws.

Ultimately like all things that piss me off, the losers are the women and children.

osori
Reply to  Mother Hen
13 years ago

Much of your outrage based on the experience of being a woman which of course I don’t have, but nevertheless we share much of that anger. Raising two daughters I was mom and dad both, so I tend to empathize and take to heart the pains of females. Sharia law, discrimination against the young woman at the prom, lack of acceptance by peers, men belittling women or reducing them to sex objects.

13 years ago

Although Muslims only make 3% of the population of the UK, they are getting more media than they should, and it’s Sharia Law that’s grabbing people’s attention. They are a bit like the Teabaggers, birthers, here, small percentage, lots of noise.

Initially it was allowed to settle disputes within families and neighborhoods, and was not designed to supersede the law of the land. The Sharia councils’ judgments have no statutory basis in law, with participants abiding by rulings voluntarily, and the vast majority of cases concern relatively unremarkable divorce applications. I know there cases when extreme punishments have been dished out to (mainly) women usually involving custody of children.

But, it must be watched carefully, as must all religions, who wish to impose their belief systems on the rest of us. We won’t let it happen.

13 years ago

Change, unfortunately, takes time, but once the rank and file of the Islamic world discover and take to heart the hours of entertainment and joy found in internet porn, I’ve no long-term worries.

Admin
13 years ago

I agree with Infidel, this is a brilliant examination of the barbarism that is Sharia. I cannot believe that Scotland closes an eye to the evil that is taking hold in their own neighborhoods. Belgium, as you point out, has certainly shown its courage by clamping down on these brutal practices.

13 years ago

An excellent post. A point that’s at stake here is the crucial principle that rights inhere in individuals, not in groups, religious or otherwise. The advocates of Sharî’ah in non-Muslim countries are trying to preserve the insularity and cultural isolation of the Muslim (or Muslim-descended) populations there, to discourage them from assimilating. In their eyes, rank-and-file Muslims (especially women) are not first and foremost individual citizens of the country but components of the Islamic subculture.

I detect a whiff of fear behind all this militancy, though. The Islamists know they’re losing more and more of their flocks to the far more attractive mainstream society. Britain now has an outspoken association of former Muslims who have left the religion entirely.

Sharî’ah is unworkable in any modern society. Even most Muslim countries have secular civil law, though it tends to be heavily influenced by Sharî’ah.

Finally, don’t forget that we in the US are not entirely immune to this kind of problem. There are the “Dominion Theology” groups which similarly want to impose Biblical law on modern American society, such as Repent Amarillo. They won’t win, but they are out there.

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