So, why does the UK permit sharia courts in the first place? The logic seems to be that, if the two contending parties are willing to abide by the decision of a third party, in this case, the sharia court, and both parties concerned do so willingly, then it must be fair and balanced. But, as this report points out, what of those veiled Muslim women in Britain who know no English, don't know their rights as citizens of Britain, and simply do what their men -- fathers, husbands, brothers -- tell them to do, that is, let a sharia court decide? Are they truly "free" in the matter?
"Some Imams 'biased against women,'" by Sanjiv Buttoo for BBC, December 15:
A Muslim think tank has found some UK Imams discriminate against women when enforcing Islamic Sharia law.Scholars at the Centre for Islamic Pluralism (CIP) interviewed 90 Muslims in London, the West Midlands, Lancashire and West Yorkshire.
They found some women did not get fair hearings in forced marriage, arranged marriage and domestic violence matters.
It comes after an NHS doctor was freed in Bangladesh following claims she was being held there for a forced marriage.
Sharia law governs every aspect of a Muslim's life, and Imams or scholars give out rulings on how to live by God's wishes. Some mosques hold Sharia courts.
The CIP's international director and its report's author Dr Irfan Al-Alawi said women seeking help in situations like forced marriages often turned to Imams for a ruling on what to do.
"Our research shows that domestic violence and forced marriages seem to be the dominant problems that women are facing and seeking Sharia rulings on.
"In every case it is a male who is the defendant coming from India, Pakistan or Bangladesh.
"Some ladies have approached the Imams and the Imams... have encouraged the ladies to stay with their husband or with their in-laws, whereby they have a duty bound under the Sharia."
He said he knew of a 15-year-old girl in Pakistan who was tricked into marriage over the telephone with a 40-year-old man from Sheffield, who had the mental age of a four-year-old child.
"The Home Office refused to recognise the validity of the marriage but the Islamic Sharia Council in Britain accepted it," said Dr Al-Alawi...
Read it all.
No. Really? That's news to me.
Let me guess. Those guys are the geniuses of the Islamic world arent they?
With their standard of education, that last statement might even be true.
"UK sharia courts "biased against women," says Muslim think tank"
NO! How can this be! The UK Sharia courts must be misunderstanders of Islam. There can be no other explanation!
I mean it's not like the teachings of Islam treat women like possessions or something......
Stop it you Islamophobes! Abdullah Behullah (the wacky Mullah) knows what you are thinking and he is not happy.
Muslim think tank
Translation: Stealth jihad sleeper cell/oxymoron.
Three interesting quotes from further down the article, all three attributed to Sophiya, forced into marriage at the age of 13.
Now, does Sophiya get a clue? No. A paragraph later, the writer tells us:
Sweetie, when EVERY SINGLE IMAM rules the same way, did you ever stop to think that perhaps the error in understanding "the true values of the Sharia" is yours? Perhaps, just perhaps, men who have studied Shariah for their entire lives might know a bit more about it than a teenager with a 7th grade education (or whatever the British equivalent is)?
Behold, the mental bondage of Islam.
"I saw three Imams but they all ruled that I was legally married according to the Sharia. I told them I had been forced but they said that did not change anything."
In Sahih Bukhari 9:86:98 (under the heading Tricks ), it is written: "The Prophet said, 'A virgin should not be married till she is asked for her consent; and the matron should not be married till she is asked whether she agrees to marry or not.' It was asked, 'O Allah's Apostle! How will she(the virgin) express her consent?' He said, 'By keeping silent.'
So the default option is acceptance. The prospective suitor need only claim that there was no answer one way or the other and he wins the bride. But just in case one is inclined to think that this part of the passage has been interpreted unfairly and out of context, it gets even more explicit...and worse. Here's the second part of the passage
"Some people said, 'If a virgin is not asked for her consent and she is not married, and then a man, by playing a trick presents two false witnesses that he has married her with her consent and the judge confirms his marriage as a true one, and the husband knows that the witnesses were false ones, then there is no harm for him to consummate his marriage with her and the marriage is regarded as valid.'"
It is therefore no wonder that the three imams found that the woman was legally married. What is a wonder is that the Moslem Think Tank finds that UK sharia courts are biased against women. What in the world is the Moslem Think Tank thinking? That Islam is long overdue for a reflective overhaul of its practices, and that in the West this might at last start? Or are they thinking that some quick PR is necessary to gull Westerners into thinking that Moslems are not all Neandethals?
If this think tank is genuine in its intent to reform Islam, then I would expect to see a full and open discussion of how these episodes happen in the first place, complete with guiding passages from the Qur'an and ahadith. I would expect to see new interpretations developed and promulgated. And lastly I would expect to see a quick, pronounced and permament decline in such episodes, in the UK at first and then throughout the West.
Until that time, I think that the pattern is clearly enough set by now to entitle all all non-Moslems to be just an itsy-bitsy sceptical about their intentions.
Well duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.
Well duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh.
Posted by: Lori B.
You called?... :)
A Muslim think tank by any other name is still a septic tank...Such tanks are easily identified by the odor of the contents...
From article: A Muslim think tank has found some UK Imams discriminate against women when enforcing Islamic Sharia law.
Since Sharia law itself discriminates against women, how is it possible to measure an Imams
judges discrimination against women?
Only if he go's outside Sharia and prescribes his own unfair edicts, can he additionally discriminate. Otherwise the discrimination against women is perfect, because it's parent, Islam, is perfect.
I phrase it in the form of a simple question: "When a burqa-clad woman from rural Pakistan sets foot in the UK (or the US) and sees a mufti in sharia court, does the phrase 'alternative dispute resolution' pop into her head?"
The conclusion is chilling: import more imams, stat!
"The report is due to be published next month and will be sent to the government and agencies.
It will recommend that Imams coming to the UK from south Asia and Africa need to be vetted to ensure they have a broad knowledge of Islam and a good command of English, so they can carry out their duties in a professional and competent way."
It's maddening that the topic of Islam is completely off the table in the UK. I'm always censored when citing the Quran or ahadith, even at Melanie Phillips' Spectator blog, never mind the Guardian or BBC. So it's actually possible for the BBC to imply there's some kind of secular progressive Islam out there the imams are presently missing.
Even if there were secular, progressive Islam, it's not to be found in Sharia. It is accomplished by throwing Sharia to the wind. By definition, Sharia can never be secular. It is the code of laws for a death-cult.
UK sharia courts "biased against women," says Muslim think tank
Naaah, tell me it isn't true! Maybe that explains the court theme song:
Sha-ria,
I - just - killed - a - girl - named … Sha-ria,
…
You know, from the Death to the West Side Story.
Quit insulting Neanderthals!
Semi-on topic: AM's been replying to some of my questions over at the Obama reboot topic, and the rights of women came up. Might want to check it out. Among other things he finally said that Mohammad and the Qu'ran are the perfect example! He also supports woman being worth 1/2 a witness because "we are different. God is the One who knows the differences better than you and I.".
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/023866.php