Little mundane personal private harmless sharia
Amnah is going through a divorce and is baffled at being told that she must wait for three months to remarry, considering that she hasn’t seen her estranged husband for two years. Dr Hasan with an intense look…[Dr Hasan] meets this with a simple reply: “These rulings are all in the Koran. The rulings are made for all.” Amnah has little choice but to comply: Dr Hasan is a judge, and this is a sharia court – in east London.
She has little choice but to comply? Why? If it’s a sharia court in east London, then she does have other choices, doesn’t she?
It is one of dozens of sharia courts – also known as councils – that have been set up in mosques, Islamic centres and even schools across Britain. The number of British Muslims using the courts is increasing. To many in the West, talk of sharia law conjures up images of the floggings, stonings, amputations and beheadings…However, the form practised in Britain is more mundane, focusing mainly on marriage, divorce and financial disputes.
Oh, just marriage and divorce – no big deal then. No impact on people’s lives. Not about floggings and beheadings, therefore mundane and ho-hum.
The judgments of the courts have no basis in British law, and are therefore technically illegitimate – they are binding only in that those involved agree to comply.
Well then it’s not true that Amnah has little choice but to comply. She may have decided to bind herself to obey a sharia court, but she still does have a choice (unless someone is coercing her, which is not mentioned).
So let’s learn more about this Dr Hasan fella. He sounds interesting.
“Whenever people associate the word ‘sharia’ with Muslims, they think it is flogging and stoning to death and cutting off the hand,” he says with a smile.
Ah yes! Such an amusing subject – I can see why he would smile!
Dr Hasan is open in supporting the severe punishments meted out in countries where sharia law governs the country. “Even though cutting off the hands and feet, or flogging the drunkard and fornicator, seem to be very abhorrent, once they are implemented, they become a deterrent for the whole society…If sharia law is implemented, then you can turn this country into a haven of peace because once a thief’s hand is cut off nobody is going to steal. Once, just only once, if an adulterer is stoned nobody is going to commit this crime at all. We want to offer it to the British society. If they accept it, it is for their good and if they don’t accept it they’ll need more and more prisons.”
I wouldn’t accept it if I were you. My advice would be to say no thanks.
Ibrahim Mogra, chairman of the Muslim Council of Britain’s inter-faith committee, admits that to non-Muslims some laws may seem harsh on women. Those who are married to a man with a number of wives can be treated badly, for instance. But he insists that sharia is an equitable system. “It may mean that a woman married under Islamic law has no legal rights, but the husband is required to pay for everything in marriage and in the case of a divorce all the woman’s belongings are hers to keep.”
Oh I see – that does sound equitable! The woman has no legal rights, but – um – well, she has no legal rights. What could be more equitable? I’m like totally reassured.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, points out that during British rule in India, Muslim personal law was allowed to operate and sees no reason why it wouldn’t work now. “Sharia encompasses all aspects of Muslim life including personal law,” he says. “In tolerant, inclusive societies all faith groups enjoy some acceptance of their religious rules in matters of their personal life.”
You mean the men in the ‘faith groups’ enjoy that. The women don’t enjoy it quite so much.
I’m not British, nor am I a lawyer, but I don’t think adultery is actually a crime in Britain, is it?
Or is there a secret archipelago of adulterer-gulags stretched out across England? It would be filled with ministers from the Major government, I suppose…and I guess that’s where John Prescott has gotten himself off to as well…
“they are binding only in that those involved agree to comply.”
I don’t think I quite get this – if you can choose whether to comply, then how is it binding?
This, however, is very nice, I believe: “in the case of a divorce all the woman’s belongings are hers to keep.”
So sweet, so very thoughtful.
I suppose it means something like morally binding. You choose to consider it binding.
But then, one hopes, if you are confronted with stupid rules and your imam does nothing to explain them except show you that they are in the Koran – you realize you shouldn’t have made that choice, and you make a new choice, to drop the whole misbegotten idea of submitting yourself to sharia.
I know, isn’t that ‘what’s hers is hers’ just too touching? Brings tears to the eyes.
Hey thanks for all the compliments at J and Mo!
You’re welcome, barmaid ;)
Honour killings and sharia in the U.K what happened to the nation I grew up in?
Melanie Phillips makes a good point about the false Jewish law analogy:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/459831/the-war-within-and-against-the-west.thtml
I meant the false analogy within the article. Tingey is spot-on about the GG Jews being mentally imprisoned.
As I recall at the time somewhere in the London press a resident suggested that the wire have a length of pasta alongside. this would create a zone where Londoners of Italian descent could feel free to act in a more stereotypically Italian way than they would normally be comfortable with.
Wow. Magical imprisonment dispelled by magical poles at public expense. Yee-ha.
“Melanie Phillips makes a good point about the false Jewish law analogy”
So actually it is a very good analogy – Islamic law should be just as recognised as Jewish law in British courts, i.e. not at all.
Although I am oposed to religion, I must admit I can’t get steamed up about ‘eruvs’ or marital rulings of religious courts. The first doesn’t really impinge on anyone in any meaningful way, no more than telegraph poles, and the second, well, if people are stupid enough to accept that nonsense they deserve what they get. Last year there was an interesting court case in London, where the two daughters of a ‘curry millionaire’ (the Pataks empire for those familiar with British curries) challenged their father’s will in the High Court. In accordance with Hindu law he had left his daughters nothing and all to the son. Despite being religious women, this did not stop them from claiming a third. It will happen some day soon to a wealthy Muslim. Recently we saw one of the ‘wives’ of a Saudi King, trying to claim a massive payout in the London courts, so I think that there will be women who, because it doesn’t suit them, will challenge sharia law.
This is bizarre…
“A goth who leads his girlfriend around with a dog lead and collar was stopped from getting on a bus amid fears for passenger safety, a bus firm confirmed.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/7204543.stm
Re: Goth subculture, I saw that in B&W News. You should see the German gruttie in Wiki with a pair of rosary beads nearly stuck up his nose. It is indeed hellish! It is such a pity that the religious did not follow suit. I would surely give them a helping hand to insert the beads securely up their religious noses.
Yes, I found the woman who let her boyfriend lead her around on a leash very bizarre indeed, hence its presence in B&W news.
No doubt it was all terribly ‘ironic’…good old Goth irony.