Of course not. What could possibly go wrong?
An update on this story. "Syariah judge: Fears among non-Muslims unwarranted," from The Star, November 19:
PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA: Islam will not discriminate against any race or religion even if the common law and the Syariah courts are to merge as suggested by a former Chief Justice.
Syariah Court Judge and Syariah Judicial Department director-general Datuk Ibrahim Lembut said such fears among non-Muslims were unwarranted.
"Islam will defend everybody. The impression that merging the two court systems will override the rights of the non-Muslims is wrong," he said.
It's just a question of what your rights actually are.
"Syariah laws and Islam will think of every religion and race," he told reporters after attending the International Seminar on Comparative Law at Marriott Hotel here yesterday.
"However, we still have a long way to go before we can merge the two court systems although we have held talks between civil and Syariah lawyers on the possibility of harmonising the laws," he said, adding that Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail had also given his views on the matter during the meeting.
Ibrahim said some civil lawyers attending such talks had refused to even consider harmonising the laws between the two systems.
He was commenting on a statement by MCA legal bureau chairman Datuk Leong Tang Chong that any merger would subject non-Muslims to Syariah jurisdiction on all legal matters, including inter-faith cases relating to marriage and divorce.
On Nov 6, retired Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad said he foresaw that the combination of the two courts would harmonise common law and Syariah law principles in dealing with issues of conflicting laws and jurisdiction during his lecture at the Harvard Law School in the United States.
Earlier, Chief Justice Tan Sri Zaki Tun Azmi, in his speech, had said that the concept of comparative laws was important in the Malaysian context.
This was because Islamic law was important as its presence had become increasingly significant in a dual legal system and that the judiciary would find a midway solution to satisfy both the civil and Syariah legal systems, he said.
"We will try not to cause conflict and will find an amicable understanding," he said.
Midway solution?
We will be the boss, and you will be the dhimmi. No problem.
This reminds me of the cynical old proverb - 'Marriage makes two one: but *which* one?'.
We in Australia had better start getting ready for an influx of clever, highly educated and motivated Chinese and Indian non-Muslim people from Malaysia - Christians, Buddhists, Confucian-Taoists, Hindus and Sikhs - as conditions for non-Muslims in Malaysia are made steadily more and more unendurable.
"On Nov 6, retired Chief Justice Tun Abdul Hamid Mohamad said he foresaw that the combination of the two courts would harmonise common law and Syariah law principles in dealing with issues of conflicting laws and jurisdiction during his lecture at the Harvard Law School in the United States."
Is Harvard Law School going to offer courses in Sharia Law now? It wouldn't surprise me, with Harvard's love for former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami.
"Islam will defend everybody. The impression that merging the two court systems will override the rights of the non-Muslims is wrong," he said.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Sharia law does not recognize non-Muslims as being equal to Muslims. Islam only defends believers (male ones at that). Sorry, Charlie, but Sharia is not law.
Are you listening, folks in the UK?
Are you following this carefully, folks in the rest of the Western world, who may face these same "discussions" in the future?
Shit, why do I hsve to learn about this kinda stuff here?
Oh, right, I don't read the propaganda they call newspapers here. But still!
Uh, anybody got some free space for a political refugee?
gkong3
I'd advise making plans to migrate to Australia. If you're not a Muslim you're more than welcome, mate.
Many non-Muslim Malaysians have already made this move. My Italo-Australian best friend's brother is happily married to a lovely lady of Malaysian Chinese origins; allow your mind to contemplate the sheer delightfulness of their extremely handsome and intelligent Sino-Italian Eurasian-Australian son. There were other couples in the church I attended in Sydney, of similar composition: one mate Euro-Australian, the other Malaysian Chinese or Malaysian Indian.
The more non-Muslim immigrants Australia gets, the better. It will help boost the Infidel numbers over against our aggressive and demanding Mohammedan colony.
You can hook up with all the other refugees from jihad and sharia (the Copts, the Sudanese Christians, the Timorese, the Assyrian Christians, the Maronite Lebanese, the Christians and Hindus from Bangladesh and Pakistan) and try to wake up the currently mostly oblivious older Australians, whitefellas and blackfellas and every other colour, to the sheer awfulness of life under Muslim domination, and why we really do. not. want. to let any more Mohammedans into our country.
PSSST - gkong3 - if you *do* want to migrate to Australia, are you by any chance an engineer?
If so, particularly if you're a civil engineer and wouldn't mind working for the Main Roads Department or somesuch, rather than the private sector, you are likely to be received with open arms. (One of my brothers-in-law, who is a civil engineer with main roads, has complained vociferously on many occasions about the current parlous shortage of civil engineers to do much-needed and highly-overdue public works, due to most Aussie engineers preferring the much higher wages offered by the big mining companies who are digging up iron ore and coal and shipping it off to China).
Or if you're medically qualified and you wouldn't mind working in a country hospital, Australia would have *lots* of room for you...we'd much rather have a non-Muslim doctor than the dodgy Muslim doctors we've had far too many of, lately.