Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi is the radical Muslim leader whose support for the new mosque in Boston was touted in their Arabic literature, but not in their English material. Today in Asia Times (thanks to Ali Dashti), Yukiko Ohashi explains his baneful influence on the contemporary understanding of Islamic law among Muslims in Malaysia and elsewhere.
Muslims in Malaysia, not unlike those in the Middle East, have resorted to appreciating Islam through the narrow prism of al Halal wal Haram fil Islam - which means abiding by the "lawful and prohibited acts in Islam", and which is detailed in a book of the same name by Yusuf Qaradawi.In this philosophy, submission to God is reduced to a series of dos and don'ts - a binary moral code. This approach was systematized by Qaradawi, dean of Islamic law at Qatar University, and the methodology gained currency in the Middle East, and subsequently in Southeast Asia.
Since 1960, when Qaradawi wrote his book in Arabic, his narrow approach toward Islam has predominated. In Malaysia, his influence is deep, even among the governing Muslim elites. When former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim was the president of the International Islamic University, Malaysia, he spent considerable time with Qaradawi, expressing his support for the latter's fiqh al aliyyah (introducing Islamic law according to priorities).
In his governmental post of deputy to prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar was able to bring some of Qaradawi's ideas into public policy. Eventually Anwar was dumped from the government and jailed on charges of sodomy and corruption; however, the thoughts and practice of Qaradawi have not been totally excluded from government policy, including the reductionist elements.
Islamic scholars and thinkers in Malaysia continue to look to Qaradawi for various Islamic interpretations and verdicts, such as on the legality of suicide terrorism. More important, the inspiration of Qaradawi is integral to the conceptual blueprint for an Islamic state as held by the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), which controls the Kelantan state government.
PAS's Islamic state is based on the permissible and the prohibited as outlined by Qaradawi. Observe the "Islamic state document" produced by PAS last year, the first of its kind in the history of the party, after much demand from Malaysians as to what a PAS-style Islamic state would actually represent.
In this document, it was clearly stated that PAS would implement "the Shariah [Islamic law] to achieve the five imperatives of the Shariah; therein to protect a Muslim's beliefs, life, intellect, dignity and property".
In seeking to fulfill these five imperatives, the document read: "In implementing the Shariah all vices and crimes that pertain to the above stated aspects would be controlled. Man-made laws have been [proved] a failure in securing the security and dignity of the human race."
Qaradawi's version of "Dating Do's and Don'ts" is endlessly amusing. In "Al Halal wal Haram fil Islam" (it is in English, and can be obtained in the U.S.--I bought a copy at a library sale, with someone's Arabic marginalia), for example, I discovered that a woman was forbidden from wearing her hair in the "shape of a camel's hump." I suppose that puts paid to those 1950s-style bouffant hairdos -- well, they were not flattering, were they?
Could be a party game: Halal and Haram. One person reads out something, and everybody else has to guess whether it is Halal or Haram. Keep it simple at first, then progress to more difficult items. Great fun for the whole family, and very educational.
Okay, ready?
Drinking wine -- halal or haram? That was easy.
Wearing your hair in the shape of a camel's hump?
--halal or haram?(Hint: look elsewhere on this posting).
Mutilating the body of an Infidel corpse -- halal or haram? (Hint: see elsewhere on this site).
Wishing Infidels Merry Christmas in a Muslim land -- halal or haram?
Wishing Infidels Merry Christmas in an Infidel land where, for the moment, you need some Infidel goodwill -- halal or haram?
Taking seriously the oath of citizenship to an Infidel nation-state, even if it means fighting against fellow Muslims -- halal or haram?
Beating your wife on the face so it shows -- halal or haram?
Entering into a "temporary marriage" with an Infidel woman for the purposes of sex while you are studying in the dar al-Harb, and jettisoning her after your studies are complete -- halal or haram?
Denying that Aisha really was six when Muhammad married her, and nine when he had intercourse with her, in order to protect Islam from Infidel critics -- halal or haram?
Insisting to Infidels that Islam does not condone violence and that the behavior of Muslims is simply a reaction to the aggressive attacks on them by non-Muslims -- halal or haram?
Wearing green and a leprechaun button on St. Patrick's Day, and smiling back if somone says "Top o' the mornin' to you" -- halal or haram?
Allowing your children to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands..." -- halal or haram?
Allowing Hindus to be treated as full equals of Muslims in Bangladesh -- halal or haram?
In Pakistan -- halal or haram?
In Kashmir -- halal or haram?
In India -- halal or haram?
Allowing nurses renting a room in a Muslim house to sing, behind closed doors, Christmas carols --halal or haram?
And if the house is in Saudi Arabia -- halal or haram?
Having sexual intercourse with a goat, or a sheep, or a camel, killing it afterwards, and then serving the meat at your son's graduation party -- halal or haram?
At an office Christmas party?
To a next-door neighbor?
To people in the next town?
The weekend is coming up. Supply your own questions, and of course, on the back of the card, give the answer, and the authority, whether in Qaradawi himself, or in one of the accepted collections of hadith (Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim will do fine), or in the Qur'an (Dawood, Ali, many other translations on-line and each verse given with various versions side-by-side for easy comparison, at www.usc.edu).
It's wholesome fun for the whole family (well, maybe not the whole family--you might want to keep questions concerning Aisha, or the rape and subseequent roasting of goats, to the special, "Adult Version" of the game, the one you keep in your bedroom for those special guests). Fun -- and educational too. Why, I can say without any fear of contradiction that if you have enough questions with answers, you can teach your loved ones, your party guests, even that special someone, more about Islam in an evening or two than they can possibly learn by reading all the books of John Esposito, Karen Armstrong, Michael Sells, or by taking any of the current courses on Islam offered at Harvard or Yale or many other famous universities.
This will not, I'm afraid, be coming out from Parker Bros. anytime soon. So you have a choice. You can do it yourself, with scissors, and a nice Qur'an, and Internet access to the collections of hadith (I'm anglicizing "ahadith" I know). If you do, I would recommend the kind of cardboard that comes with your gently-starched shirts. But use your own Yankee ingenuity.
If you don't wish to go to the bother, I will consult with Mr. Spencer and see if he would like to go into the business with me (by the way, I hereby trademark, copyright, trade-secret, patent, and every other damn thing under the sun claim eternal and exclusive rights to this brilliant idea), and if enough orders come in, well -- we'll manufacture them.
Perhaps Hirst Ali can be persuaded to will fly over from Holland and do some commercials for us. We'll figure out a price -- but first we need to do some market research here.
Any interest?
So, it's been decided: Freedom of choice doesn't work for humans. If we have freedom, we automatically run amok. People do not have the self-control, sense of ethics, or ability to figure out that law and order allow more people to be happy than chaos and corruption.
People are obviously animals with no ability to think for themselves (except for a very few who are ordained to hold authority over the rest)and must be trained and disciplined and kept in a child-like state for the duration of their lives, believing that the 'good life' will come after death.
This philosophy in the form of a 'religion' seems like a bad joke in the face of all we have fought for and achieved in liberty, individual freedom and the equality of women in this country and the West.
Of course it isn't perfect, of course we sometimes tire of the responsibility of learning, thinking and making choices, but the only other option is totalitarian authoritarian 'order' and suppression.
Will we allow this Sharia nonsense to take hold here as it threatens to do in Canada? I think not.
"In "Al Halal wal Haram fil Islam" (it is in English, and can be obtained in the U.S.--I bought a copy at a library sale, with someone's Arabic marginalia), for example, I discovered that a woman was forbidden from wearing her hair in the "shape of a camel's hump."
That's because Muslim - especially Arab Muslim - men are aroused by the sight of a camel's hump, which is also what they like to do to them.
hugh,
Very humourous, disturbing and sadly true. One small oversight (on the book’s part of course) was the Friday afternoon family picnics to watch the beheadings and other mutilations. Always fun during the children’s matinee.
How about raping and enslaving non-Muslims? Halal or haram? Cutting off a teenage girlsclitoris, halal or haram? Honor killing, halal or haram?
I doesn't really matter what is sanctioned or not by Islam... religious nuts will always let themselves be ruled by religious nuts, who will always become corrupt and demand craziness.
By the way, as someone who has an interest in root words, word origins, and etymology, didn't the word "harem" come from the word "haram"?
We know the word "assassin" comes from the Arabic word for "hashish" because adevotees of a certain peaceful religion used to get all tooted up on hash, then go assassinate infidels.
I usually don't do this, but on 24 April 2004 I posted an article on this "gentleman" in my blog, and I have been following his sermons with great attention. Thank you for your post, it is very interesting, and I have taken notes.
http://fightxfreedom.blogspot.com/2004/04/so-spoke-sheikh-al-qaradawi-by.html
Hugh,
Excellent post...chilling, but certainly does bring it all home.
KJ employs his faultless logic again...
"I doesn't really matter what is sanctioned or not by Islam... religious nuts will always let themselves be ruled by religious nuts, who will always become corrupt and demand craziness."
Funny, those non-religious nuts in Soviet Russia, Mao's China, and the Khymer Rogue's Cambodia did similar things. Or maybe it's not religion itself that causes people to do behave insanely? Or maybe not all religions are the same, hmm KJ? You demand to be treated as an individual and yet you go around putting individuals in the categories you've created even when counter-evidence abounds. In other words, you're just as bad as the people you condemn, because you're doing exactly what they do.
keithjoy: "How about raping and enslaving non-Muslims? Halal or haram? Cutting off a teenage girlsclitoris, halal or haram? Honor killing, halal or haram?"
raping and enslaving: raping- goes on today in america. enslaving: goes on today
cutting off a teenage girls clitoris: what??
honor killing: what exactly do you mean by that?never heard of harakiri?
Dear Editor,
You may use this article in any way you see fit but please include my name and web page www.missiongateministry.org in the credits. See “Kentucky Fried Christianity” under “Editorials” at my web site or email me: MissionGateMinistry@msn.com.
Letter to Iraqi Patriots
Dear Cousins,
Please accept the god we trust in and you too will share in these advantages of our culture:
1. Eliminating God from government and replacing Him with any god you may choose will conform to our “In any gods we trust” motto.
2. M.D.’s (murdering doctors) will kill your unwanted babies as they struggle to wiggle their way into the arms of parents that don’t want them.
3. The aged, disabled and unproductive will be given the option of a dignified death by the same M.D.’s that have said an oath of preserving life.
4. Queers and perverts will be able to marry and adopt children that will propagate the same mentally ill lifestyles.
5. Weekend marriages (married on Fri and divorced on Mon) will become the new rage.
6. Legalizing prostitution will eliminate the curse of immorality and adultery.
7. The underprivileged minorities will gamble their last dinar and the ruling class will pay fewer taxes because of their squandering of money and addiction to chance.
8. We will install our “dumbing-down” Department of Education so that the elite will continue to have control and authority over lower class repressed students.
9. Pornography will be very available in every form on the pretence that this will prevent “acting out” acts of sexual offences.
10. Our new enemy interrogation methods will be photographed and published uncut at a wonderful profit that will help the salary needs of “mentally sick” army personnel.
11. Our capitalistic corporate leaders will teach you how to rip off millions from fellow citizens and only have small and insignificant penalties to pay without complete restitution.
12. We will export our profitable prison industry as we have become the number one nation in the world expanding industry profits from incarcerating the most number of prisoners.
13. And we will show you how you too can merchandise “Kentucky Fried Christianity” as we have so that you too will never have to be accountable to God for the 10 Commandments our country was founded on.
Judge Roy Moore told me that the question our country needs to resolve is,
“Can the State acknowledge God?”
Upon that answer, our future as a nation “under God” rests.
We the ungodly people of Amerika do strongly encourage you to accept our superior culture or we will blow your country to dust, except the oil fields of course!
Signed:
The Godless people of Amerika
Word Count 438