Should sharia law be allowed to interfere with court rulings?
Quran by Cezary Piwowarski
Sharia law has seen its influence being wielded in legal systems of most Muslim countries. More recently a more pertinent and growing group of Muslim immigrants and societies have been seen to gradually enforce their law in the West and other non-Muslim dominated countries.
Sharia law is the law of Islam and it addresses a vast array of domestic and personal matters including marriage, divorce and inheritance. It has harsh criminal punishments, an area of the law that is probably the least developed. Under sharia law, robbery or theft will result in amputation of the criminal’s limb, adultery results in death by stoning and conversion to another faith leads to probable execution.
Reports show that in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan, eight in ten Muslims condone these harsh punishments and although western laws do not allow for such atrocities to take place in their home turf, the fact of the matter is that otherwise unacceptable actions like honor killings, marital captivity, child marriages and discrimination against women are still taking place under this law.
The influx of Muslim immigrants into European countries has resulted in the creation of several no-go zones; areas that have become completely lawless and which law enforcement are hesitant to approach because they fear that they may inadvertently spark riots and protests.
Europe’s relaxed immigration laws have resulted in the population of an estimated 44million Muslims with Germany and France having the largest Muslim population.
The UK has the third highest Muslim population in Europe. According to a report by Gate Stone Institute, Islam is the second most popular religion practiced in the kingdom.
In Britain the group “Muslims Against Crusaders” have launched a project that seeks to enforce sharia law into 12 British cities. The situation has escalated to Muslim gangs walking in the streets enforcing sharia law. Locals are not allowed to carry alcohol and shopkeepers fear to advertise anything that may be deemed immodest by these Muslim patrols reports gate stone.
In one instance a woman was yelled at by the gang members for wearing a skirt they thought was too short in the Muslim dominated area. The confrontations are usually filmed and posted on YouTube.
Thailand lawyers are ready to assist in criminal cases occurring in Thailand including offenses such as theft or assault in Thailand
In France, Muslims have dealt their own brand of justice. a Moroccan man stabbed a woman and her three daughters, apparently because they were scantily dressed. Another incident saw an 18 year old girl Maude Vallet being threatened and spit on by a group of girls on a bus in Toulon because she was wearing shorts.
Berenice Levet, author and professor of philosophy at the École Polytechnique said to the daily Le Figaro “Rather than produce figures that say everything and nothing, I want it recognized once and for all that if today the roles of the genders are forced to regress in France, if domination and patriarchy are spreading in our country, this fact is related exclusively to our having imported Muslim values.”
The immigration of Muslims has affected Sweden and Germany as well. Recent reports indicate that Sweden has developed, much like Britain, no-go zones that are dominated by Muslim people who refuse to adhere to Swedish laws and continue to practice sharia law.
Muslims in Germany have gained a strong foothold in German courts. An Austrian court legitimized the beating of wife because it is acceptable according to sharia law. In an article written by Serge Trifkovic, judge Christa Datz-Winter refused a Muslim wife’s petition for divorce citing that under Muslim law, a man could beat his wife.
Men wearing orange vests with the words “Sharia Police” were seen walking the streets of Hamburg telling people to stop drinking alcohol and to stop gambling as these are immoral vices.
The situation is not restricted to the western world. In India, the government is trying to amend sharia and Muslim personal law in order to bring about gender equality. Under article 14 of the Indian Constitution, all citizens are granted “equal protection of law”. However, according to Indian Express, personal issues such as marriage, divorce, custody of children etc, for Muslims in India are governed by the Muslim Personal Law which came into force in 1937. Because of this the Indian government has faced problems in granting equal rights to Muslim women in India.
The Muslim community organized a rally to protest the changes saying that the government had no right to change the law.
Narayan Rao, Backward Classes leader, said to the Hindu that sharia was not a man made law that could be changed at will. He said that the law is mandated by God and therefore cannot be changed.
In Muslim dominated Malaysia, reports show that The Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) is pushing to introduce a bill that will enforce stricter rules of sharia law in the state of Kelantam.
The bill will allow the court to enforce hudud, which is the system of crime punishment under which whippings, amputations and stoning are enforced.
The law has not only elicited the fears of minorities but also of Malay Muslim women. Rozana Isa, a member of Sisters in Islam has been quoted as saying to ABC news “As a Muslim I feel very unsafe.”
In Indonesia, a total of 13 people were caned at a local mosque in the province of Aceh. Aceh is the only province in Indonesia that has implemented Sharia law since it was granted special autonomy in the 2000s.
One of the women who was caned was punished for standing too close to her boyfriend.
A BBC report stated that Muslim think tank has admitted that majority of Muslim Imams discriminate against women when enforcing sharia law. Women are forced to stay in abusive marriages and some children are forced to marry men three times their age.
The concern with having sharia law implemented in western countries and the non-Muslim dominated ones is its refusal to adapt. Muslim populations want to have their law be recognized but questions arise regarding whether this law can co-exist with laws already set in place by the government.
Many European countries have legalized homosexuality, but under sharia law, lying with another man is a crime that is punishable by death. If sharia is allowed to implement its laws, Muslim gay men will be prosecuted for their sexual preference and the courts will be helpless to prevent it.
So, the question on everybody’s mind is whether sharia law and secularism can co-exist and if the law should be allowed to influence court decisions.
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