I’ve penned my thoughts on the debate over milad al nabi and the broader issue of bottom-up versus top-down legitimacy in Islamic practices.
Latest Updates: sharia RSS
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aziz
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johnpi
Bangladesh teenager receives 101 lashes for becoming pregnant
A 16-year-old Bangladeshi girl was who raped 8 months ago was given 101 lashes as punishment for having conceived during the assault, Bangladesh’s Daily Star reports. Meanwhile, the paper notes, the alleged rapist received no punishment.
The village elders who issued the fatwa against the girl also fined the girl’s father and warned him that his family would be forced into isolation if they didn’t pay.
According to the Telegraph, the girl was so ashamed that she did not lodge a complaint about her attack. Human rights activists say that she married quickly after the attack, but was divorced not long after when it was revealed she was pregnant. She told the Daily Star that the rapist had “spoiled” her life.
“I want justice,” she said.
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johnpi
Al Shabaab flogs one man for flirting, another for having a “secret marriage.”
“One of the young men was found engaging in secret wedlock which is illegal under Islamic law,” Sheikh Mohamed Moalim, a senior Shebab official, said from Kismayo.
“The other one was found seducing a lady alone. Both of them confessed to the charges in front of a court and they were publicly punished,” he said.
The flogging took place over the weekend.
Youths in some Muslim countries where sex before marriage is forbidden and the cost of a wedding prohibitive sometimes resort to secret marriage, known as “Qudbosir” in Somalia and “Urfi” in most Arab countries.
The custom, which keeps the matrimony secret from the couples’ parents and sometimes from another wife, is frowned upon in most of Somalia but has been practised in southern regions.
So by this particular interpretation of the Shariah, its purpose is to prevent those who are too poor to afford a wedding from getting married. And they say capitalists are cruel…
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johnpi
The chairwoman of the National Commission on Violence Against Women Kamala Chandra Kirana has urged the Indonesian government to review Islamic bylaws.
An Indonesian organisation has urged the government to review a number of Islamic Sharia-based bylaws deemed discriminative against women as part of its first 100-days programme.
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johnpi
The group is advocating the position that giving women the right to initiate unconditional divorce violates Shariah.
I think it’s easy to come in from a Western perspective informed by feminism and mock the men as upended tyrants, but I’m more interested in taking the pressures on the men seriously in forming this group and highlighting that.
In the conservative, male-oriented, Egyptian society divorced men are considered weak as they are ridiculed for not living up to the stereotypical concept of manhood being about control of women.
“Divorced men also face a lot of difficulties upon trying to start a new life. Most of them are rejected when they propose to women as if they are infected with some contagious disease.”
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johnpi
Making up shariah as we go: Iran bans make-up for women on TV, state TV chief claims it goes against shariah.
“Make-up by women during television programs is illegal and against Islamic sharia law … There should not be a single case of a woman wearing make-up during a program,” Ezatollah Zarghami was quoted as saying by the reformist Etemad newspaper.
He also called for the media equivalent of a ghetto for women.
Zarghami, a former member of the elite Revolutionary Guards who has been re-appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also ordered that women guests should “preferably” be hosted by women.
Because if women interview men they’re likely to fall into each other’s arms before the end of the show. Right.
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johnpi
Al Shabaab applies its own ruthless brand of justice again.
Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth.
Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka.
An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby.
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johnpi
A decade of Sharia law in north Nigeria breeds frustration.
A decade after Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north re-introduced strict Islamic Sharia law, the fervour has fizzled while disillusionment is becoming more strident about its patchy application.
Out of Nigeria’s 36 states, 12 re-adopted a strict version of Sharia in 1999 nearly a century after it had been abandoned.
But even one of the radical Muslim clerics who in 1999 actively lobbied for Sharia in Kano State, Abba Koki, conceded there were problems.
“People are disillusioned with the insincerity, deception and hypocrisy which characterise the implementation of Sharia,” Koki told AFP.
Some of the criticism directed at the government (apart from those listed in the previous excerpt) is that its punishments are too timid:
Kano State governor’s spokesman Sule Yau Sule countered critics as narrow-minded.
“Some people think Sharia is all about stoning to death and amputation, which is a narrow perception. Sharia is about human development, making a person a better being in all spheres and I believe this is what we are doing,” Sule said.
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johnpi
AltMuslim has more commentary and perspective on Hizb ut-Tahrir in the wake of the group’s interview with Obama’s Muslim policy advisor, Dalia Mogahed, on a UK talk show called Muslimah Dilemma.
Mogahed expresses her anger about her treatment here.
Rather than read more commentary about the incident, why not watch the Youtube clip of the show here and form your own impressions.
I watched the show and did not find the Hizb ut Tahrir hosts to be nearly the cartoon bad guys Mogahed’s recollection of the experience led me to believe – though I did find Nazreen Nawaz’s (HT rep) narrative about current problems in Muslim majority countries to be evasive, and the vision of the problem-free life of the Caliphate unbelievable. Basically, every controversial incident in Muslim majority countries is a result of not following Shariah. All the self-identified Islamists whose understanding of Sharia has devolved into aggression, harsh punishment and repression of women are just wayward in their understanding of shariah. But the Caliphate is going to get everything right…
She says Shariah comes directly from Allah (swt) as a way of explaining that you can’t go wrong with Shariah – problem is, the Shariah is being delivered and implemented by imperfect humans who are as at risk of being influenced by racism, classism, tribalism, greed, corruption, sexism, etc as any other human – but that part of the Shariah equation is elided, as so much else is in her comments.
Removed to the plain of equivalency with other human-administered systems of justice, in example after example it seems too swift, too certain, too unrecoverable and brutal in its punishments (your amputated hands and feet will mark you with your crime for life), and too little interested in the redemption of those it punishes. In a religion that is thick with reminders (ritual) to return to God, it seems discordant to say that the ideal Islamic society removes that option from people by way of capital punishment.
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johnpi
Kuwait’s highest court ruled Wednesday that women lawmakers are not obliged by law to wear the headscarf, a blow to Muslim fundamentalists who want to fully impose Islamic Sharia law in this small oil-rich state.
The Constitutional Court dismissed a case raised by a voter who claimed that two of four women elected to parliament in May — Rola Dashti and Aseel al-Awadhi — can not be members of the legislature because they don’t comply with the Islamic dress code.
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johnpi
New York Times: ‘Extremism spreads across Indonesian penal code.’
Most of Indonesia still lives up to its reputation for a moderate, easygoing brand of Islam, and Islamist parties suffered heavy losses in this year’s national elections. But how Aceh went from basic Islamic law to endorsing stoning in a few short years shows how a small, radical minority has successfully pushed its agenda, locally and nationally, by cowing political and religious moderates.
Though extreme, Aceh [which recently passed the death penalty by stoning for adulterers] is not an isolated case. In recent years, as part of a decentralization of power away from the capital, Jakarta, at least 50 local governments have used their new authority to pass Shariah-based regulations regarding conduct and dress, though none have gone as far as Aceh to deal with criminal matters.
Rural Acehians support stoning:
People in Aceh’s rural areas were said to be Shariah’s staunchest supporters, though even most people interviewed here in the provincial capital said they backed the stoning of adulterers.
“If people are caught, they should be given a warning the first time,” said Fati Ibrahim, 43, a mother of four who was buying dustpans at a large store here. “But if they’re caught a second or third time, they should be stoned.
“Otherwise, they’ll give Aceh a bad image. They’ll embarrass us outside Aceh, that we’re not practicing Islam as it should be.”
What would the neighbors think?
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thabet
A report which explores the philosophical and theological perspectives on what it means to be a Muslim in Britain today has been published by the Centre for Middle East and Islamic Studies at Cambridge:
The group agreed that Muslims should assert and teach what they see to be the truth of their faith, but also recognise the existence of different religions and the right of others to do the same. Their study urges Muslims to identify shared values between Islam and other world views, pointing out the Qu’ran’s emphasis on qualities such as good neighbourliness, charity, hospitality and non-aggression.
The report also redefines a number of terms which the authors believe have been misinterpreted. It notes, for example, that both Muslims and non-Muslims often have “skewed understanding of the term Shari’ah, which conjures up images of floggings and beheadings.”
In fact, it stresses, Shari’ah is a way of life based on an ethical code that emphasises dignity, equality and justice for all. Islam, it says, teaches the equality of all human beings regardless of gender.
The report was produced by 26 British Islamademics, and there’s a foreward by the Grand Mufti of Bosnia. It’s 80-odd pages long so I haven’t in great detail yet, only skimmed through it quickly: they seem to be seeking to reconcile topics such as human rights and the sharia; politics, citizenship and God’s sovereignty; and secularism and religion.
(Via Yahya.)
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johnpi
In Malaysia, Islamic NGOs denounce Sisters in Islam for protesting cane whipping, vow to seek legal action.
Fourteen Muslim non-government organisations (NGO) have taken the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) and Sisters In Islam (SIS) to task for describing the Islamic whipping sentence on a part-time model as unacceptable and too severe.
The Pahang Muslim NGOs want JAG and SIS to retract the statements and apologise to Muslims in the country, said Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) deputy president Amidi Abdul Manan on their behalf.
“The Pahang Islamic Administration and Malay Custom Act 1982 (Amendment 1987), which is under the jurisdiction of the Syariah Court, was assented by the Sultan of Pahang.
“Insulting the Syariah law can be deemed as insulting the Sultan of Pahang. We also call on devotees of other religions not to interfere in Islamic affairs,” he told reporters here , Friday.
JAG and SIS, on Wednesday, said the decision to whip part-time model Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno for drinking beer was a torture, a breach of human rights and dehumanising.
Amidi said the NGOs would seek a declaration to stop JAG and SIS from making further derogatory remarks on Syariah penalties.
“We fully support the sentence and the stand taken by Kartika Sari Dewi and her family to accept the punishment.
“We had also lodged a police report against JAG and SIS for insulting Islam at the Kuantan police district headquarters today,” he said.
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thabet
We don’t like your religious symbols, but we want your cash:
Since launching a drive to develop Sharia-compliant financing and draw Middle Eastern capital to France around two years ago, Paris has made large strides on the legal and fiscal front, with much of the framework already set.
(Via FaithWorld.)
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thabet
The Bosnian mufti is in the news again. This time he is reported as saying sharia should be ‘incorporated into the Bosnian constitution’, although the Adnkronos International (AKI) report doesn’t actually quote his words.
I can’t reconcile the simplistic presentation in the report above with the other public statements of the mufti, such as this 2004 interview with Qantara, a German magazine which focuses on Islam-West relations:
But now these values are no longer tied to western civilization, they are values that others accept and claim for themselves. What is happening now actually represents a crisis of western civilization, which obviously does not want to share these values with others.
In the same interview he criticised tribal tendencies of movements like the Taliban for failing to understand the ‘universiality of Islam’; said Muslims citizens in the West can also be patriotic; and criticised Saudi funding of mosques and Islamic learning in Western Europe.
Given this, I find it difficult to believe the mufti was advocating a constitutional arrangement similar to Saudi or Iran as implied by the AKI report.
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thabet
Sharia arbitration in Helsinki.
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thabet
A new sharia index will measure and rank a country’s “Islamicity”:
Will this index rank a state’s performance on whether it protects people from arbitrary arrest and indefinite detention; protects its citizens from torture; and has open accountable government?
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aziz
a primer on Jewish Halakhah. Look familiar?
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thabet
Sharia finance in Scotland:
The Islamic Finance Council, which promotes the use of finance from Muslim sources in Scotland, is to meet Alex Neil, the housing minister, to discuss how Muslim wealth could be used to develop shared-ownership homes, in accordance with the principles of sharia — Islamic law.
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thabet
Writing about sharia arbitration in the US, Luke Goodrich of The Beckett Fund says:
I think he is right about this. There are clearly difficulties in sharia arbitration in the UK. But, as I have previously argued, specifically denying Muslims this legal avenue that is open to others is not be acceptable. Those who want an end to any form of religious arbitration should campaign for a change in the law that allows such panels to operate.
At the same time, there is nothing wrong in putting pressure on the state not to abandon its obligations to the vulnerable, and putting the activities of these panels under (well-informed) scrutiny (not hyped-up tabloid nonsense).
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thabet
The problem of sharia arbitration in Britain:
I don’t know about the other details the writer highlights. It seems like a complaint about the ’social pressure’, something which is hard to define. Trying to use the blunt instrument of the law against something like being shunned from your community’s peers would be disastrous.
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johnpi
Bengali mother caned for talking to Hindu man.
A Muslim mother has been caned for talking to a Hindu man in Bangladesh, police said Saturday, prompting fresh concerns about a rise in cases of harsh treatment of women under strict interpretation of Islamic law….
It was the third such reported case in two weeks in the country and stirred concern among women’s groups in Muslim-majority but officially secular Bangladesh about what they say is a rise in brutal treatment of women under locally applied Islamic laws.
“In the last few months, we have seen villagers invoking Shariah [Islamic law] to mete out barbaric punishments to women,” said Salma Ali, the head of rights group Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers Association.
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johnpi
Muslim NGOs criticize Malaysian government’s decision to require both parents consent before allowing a child to change religion.
Pembela, (link to website and article explaining the organization’s goals) a coalition of Muslim NGOs, believes the cabinet ruling will deny the parent who converts to Islam his or her right and responsibility over the future of the children. They feel that the decision is not fair to those who want to convert to Islam.
The decision was described earlier as an attempt to ease interfaith conflicts that have strained race relations after an estranged father got a ruling from a Malaysian Shariah court that his children must be converted to Islam over the objection of the non-Muslim mother. This has led to much criticism from non-Muslims that their rights cannot be adequately and fairly protected in Islamic Shariah courts.
Prominent Muslims are on the defensive that non-Muslims can obtain fair arbitration in Shariah courts. Former Mufti Mohamad Asri Zainul Abidin, who is described as popular with young Muslims, “defended the role of Syariah courts in arbitrating these matters,” according to the Malaysian Insider, “stating that the problem in Malaysia was not the fairness of Islamic jurisprudence but the inefficiency of the Syariah courts locally.”
“The problem is not Islam but Syariah courts not reflecting true Islam,” he said, and then goes on to discuss the lack of timeliness of the Shariah courts, which I’m not sure what has to do with this case.
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thabet
Another article on sharia finance, this time in the London Review of Books. It has one or two interesting, if unproven, claims about the use of sharia financial services by British Muslims. The part about some Muslims keeping wads of cash in their homes, rather than the bank, is definitely true (I can’t say how widespread it was); though I am not sure it was always done for the higher, purer, reasons Jeremy Harding cites…
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thabet
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thabet
Willem Buiter asks we should be able to sell what we do not own and concludes that “we should have a serious debate as to whether ‘naked’ derivative trading should be declared haram everywhere”.
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thabet
Talking of ‘faith-based’ laws, John Bowen in the Boston Review has another, dispassionate, look at so-called ’sharia courts’ (which are not courts at all).
(I am pretty sure Bowen gets a basic, but inconsequential, fact wrong. The Islamic Sharia Council on Francis Road in Leyton, E10, is not next to a Hindu temple, but a Sikh gurdwara. But they all alike…)
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thabet
So, it turns out not many people bothered to turn up to the One Law For All rally in Trafalgar Square organised by the Workers Communist Party of Iran to protest against ‘faith-based laws’. (And WCPI’s most well known member has the best ironic name ever: Maryam Namazie.)
I’d take these people more serioiusly if they were honest campaigners.
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thabet
A(nother) long article on Islamic finance; this time in Foreign Policy.
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johnpi
The Taliban in their own words.
Syed Saleem Shahzad interviews Muslim Khan, the official chief spokesman of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Swat.
There has been a wonderful conversation going on over at Muslimah Media Watch in the most recent Friday links about whether the Taliban are as incorrigibly bad as they are represented in the media.
Someone hyperlinked this article, A Jew defends the Taliban by telling the truth, which is a truely alternative take on the Taliban and their conduct than what you usually find in the Western Media.
