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The Bigoted West Won't Allow Sharia

Indigo Jo: Ignorance and bigotry unleashed by Williams speech.

The suggestion that the personal aspects of Shari'ah cannot be applied without cutting off thieves' hands or removing apostates' heads is absurd. This is exactly what is done in many Muslim countries where the criminal law aspects of the Shari'ah were never restored after the colonial powers relinquished control.

Is this fellow suggesting that Western societies emulate that?

Moore might well ask why there has been no reported incidence of Muslim "hit squads" administering floggings or similar physical punishments, and few if any incidents of revenge killing (despite honour killings happening fairly frequently). The answer is that Muslims accept that Shari'ah law is not law in the UK right now.

[Emphasis mine.]

One has to give him credit for patience and optimism.

While some Muslims have suggested that the Archbishop's comments were calculated to produce a backlash against Muslims, in light of pronouncements from the likes of Michael Nazir-Ali, I disagree and believe that some state recognition of minority religious laws would be a good thing. Many people are concerned with the status women might have under such a system, but they may well also benefit, if it becomes impermissible for families to cut women out of their inheritance in defiance of Shari'ah, or if plural marriages were recognised for the purpose of inheritance law, under which, at present, only the first wife benefits if the husband dies intestate, even if the marriages were conducted abroad - it is, after all, only the second and subsequent wives, not the men, who lose out under the present system.

This is a most amusing reasoning. Western states don't recognize polygamy, so a part of sharia should be brought in to short-circuit Western law; thus resulting in (a) benefits for polygamists, (b) a cruel family structure and (c) further disrespect for Western law.

The author thinks this is a good thing.

We Muslims should not cringe at the mention or advocacy of Shari'ah, which is not the stereotype which has been depicted in the media over the last two days, but a sophisticated and equitable system which, even if the majority of the population here do not care for it, works well when implemented properly by people who know how.

Just like communism.

Comments

Laura(southernxyl)

Isaac - is there one source for sharia law? Or is it whatever a group of people living in one community decide that Islam demands?

I was thinking that it would be good if some of the newspapers would run a series on EXACTLY what sharia would mean, for women and girls especially, so that people could see what Williams is really willing to push for. No guesses, no downplaying key elements. But maybe there's not a single source for it. You see people arguing about how much the Quran requires of women as far as covering themselves. Who gets to decide what sharia law is?

Cafe Alpha

I'm sure that Rowan is pushing Sharia because, if Muslim clerics get political authority, then so must the Archbishop - for fairness, of course. He's just drooling at the prospect of making his own fatwas.

Saul Wall

"Moore might well ask why there has been no reported incidence of Muslim "hit squads" administering floggings or similar physical punishments, and few if any incidents of revenge killing (despite honour killings happening fairly frequently)."

The people in the community who most strongly oppose honour killings are the ones who are least able to mount a "revenge killing", being dead and all. I guess this is a sign of the success of honour killings as a culturally sensitive alternative to the legal system.

But as for the hit squads - give it time. Saudi Arabia took quite some time to prefect the system of religious police. In other news...

Cafe Alpha

Some honor killings are Murtad[apostate]-executions. They're just not reported as such because the media is either clueless or biased.

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