American Muslims reject separate ‘sharia’ law system

Indeed, Muslims like all other people of faith would love the personal form of Sharia, guidelines regarding one’s relationship with the creator, however, the American Muslims believe that American Laws will serve the relationships between the individual and others.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/sharia-law-not-in-america_b_653250.html

Mike Ghouse
# # #
American Muslims say they reject separate ‘sharia’ law system
 
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/interviews-american-muslims-reject-separate-sharia-law-system-194357992.html

By Liz Goodman

A new study based on interviews with more than 200 North American Muslims concludes that a recent spate of state laws banning "sharia law" from the court system may be an overreaction to a non-existent threat.

Oklahoma, Tennessee and Louisiana each passed laws or referendums to ban state judges from considering sharia and other foreign laws last year, and more than 20 other states have debated similar legislation. Newt Gingrich has called for a federal law to ban sharia, while his fellow Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has said sharia law is an "existential threat" to America.

The qualitative study, by University of Windsor law professor Julie MacFarlane and published by the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding think tank, is the first to ask American Muslims what they think of sharia, or Islamic religious law. MacFarlane interviewed 101 Muslim men and women, 41 imams and 70 community leaders and specialists about their uses of Islamic law in everyday life. (About a quarter of the respondents live in Canada, but MacFarlane found no significant difference between the Canadian and American responses.)

MacFarlane asked the respondents whether they thought American courts should apply Islamic law to non-Muslims in the legal system. All of them said no.

Three imams out of the 41 surveyed said they wanted a parallel Islamic family tribunal where Muslims could go to sort out their legal problems. But this idea was unpopular with every other respondent, who were content with the separate and secular civil court system. The study's sample was not random, and MacFarlane's findings are not generalizable to the American Muslim community as a whole. But the research still offers a rare look into Muslim attitudes about sharia.

MacFarlane began her research after a small group of Muslims in Toronto petitioned the government in 2003 to set up a separate Islamic family tribunal where Muslims could get binding legal decisions on family law issues. (The city already had such a tribunal for Catholic and Jewish Canadians.) The request--which ultimately was denied--sparked protests in Canada as well as in far-off London, Vienna and Paris. Protesters said the tribunal would violate the separation of church and state. In America, a well-organized network of experts warn of the threat of "creeping sharia," whereby American Muslims--who make up less than 1 percent of the population--attempt to infiltrate courts with Islamic law.

Most of the Muslims MacFarlane interviewed use religious law for family issues such as divorce, marriages, and inheritances in tandem with the regular court system, not instead of it. She focused her research on Muslims who are divorced, interviewing 101 people in that situation. Ninety-five percent of those 101 people said they signed both a nikah, or religious marriage contract, as well as a civil marriage license. Those who had a legal marriage also all formally divorced in courts, after receiving religious permission to do so from an imam. Some imams would not grant a religious divorce until the couple first brought in the civil divorce decree.

"For most American Muslims, sharia represents a private system of morality and identity, primarily focused on marriage and divorce rituals," MacFarlane writes.
Most of the people who signed only a nikah, and not a civil marriage document, were recent immigrants to North America, MacFarlane told Yahoo News. (A nikah-only marriage is not recognized as legal in North America.) In a handful of cases, nikah-only marriages were used when a man was already married and wanted to have multiple wives. Some imams tolerated or encouraged this informal bigamy, MacFarlane says.

MacFarlane's sample isn't representative of the Muslim community as a whole. About 75 percent of the respondents were immigrants to America or Canada, and nearly all of them had at least a college degree. Half were of South Asian descent, 30 percent of Middle Eastern descent, and 10 percent of African descent. The remaining 10 percent were Caucasian converts and African Americans. (African Americans are estimated to make up about 35 percent of the total American Muslim population.)

MacFarlane's findings will be published in a book by Oxford University Press in April.

Islamic Public Law

A NEW BOOK

I was curios about the classification in this book;  Private and Public.
When I wrote the article on Sharia, I classifed it into private and public Sharia,  and was questioned for the classification as it was never done before. Here is this book with similar classification.

New Release from IUR Press:

Islamic Public Law (Documents on Practice from the Ottoman Archives)

by Ahmed Akgunduz, (Rotterdam: IUR Press 2011), Hardcover, 734 pp. Price 45 Euro plus Post Costs. ISBN 978-90-807192-6-2.

“Islamic law contains explications and divisions that imply a classification in terms of public and private law. In this book we will explain the outlines of Islamic public law, e.g. First Chapter; Islamic constitutional law (al-siyāsah al-shar‘iyyah) and administrative law (al-siyāsah al-shar‘iyyah); Second Chapter; penal law (al-̒uqūbāt); Third Chapter; financial law (zakāt, ʻushr, ḫarāj and other taxes); Fourth Chapter; trial law (qaḍā), and Fifth Chapter: international public law (al-siyar).

The fields of especially Islamic constitutional law, administrative law, financial law, ta‘zīr penalties, and arrangements concerning military law based on the restricted legislative authority vested by Sharī‘ah rules and those jurisprudential decrees based on secondary sources like customs and traditions and the public good (maslahah) all fell under what was variously called public law, al-siyāsah al-shar‘iyyah (Sharī‘ah policy), qānūn (legal code), qānūnnāmah, ‘orfī ḥuqūq etc. Since these laws could not go beyond Sharī‘ah principles either, at least in theory, they should not be regarded as a legal system outside of Islamic law.

But Islamic penal law, financial law, trial law, and international law depend mostly on rules that are based directly on the Qur’an and the Sunnah and codified in books of fiqh (Islamic law) called Sharī‘ah rules, Sharʻ-i sharīf, or Sharī‘ah law. Such rules formed 85% of the legal system.

In this book, we will focus on some controversial problems in the Muslim world today, such as the form of government in Islamic law and the relation between Islam and democracy. Islamic law does not stipulate a certain method of state government; nonetheless, we may say that the principles it decrees and its concept of sovereignty suggest a religious republic. As a matter of fact, Ḫulafā al-Rāshidūn (the Rightly Guided Caliphs), were both caliphs and religious republican presidents.

We could say that this book has three main characteristics.

i) We have tried to base our explanations directly on the primary Islamic law sources. For example, after reading some articles on the caliphate or tīmār system in articles or books by some Western scholars and even by some Muslim scholars, one might conclude that there are different views on these subjects among Muslim scholars. This is not true: Muslisms have agreed on the basic rules on legal subjects, but there are some conflicts regarding nuances and interpretations. If one reads works by Imām Gazzali, Ibn Taymiyyah, al-Māwardi, and al-Farrā’, one will not find any disagreement on the main rules, but there are some different interpretations of some concepts. We have tried to discover where they agreed and we have sometimes pointed to where they differed.

ii) We have researched practices of Islamic law, especially legal documents in the Ottoman archives. For example, we explain ḥadd-i sariqa but also mention some legal articles from the Ottoman legal codes (qānunnāmes) and some Sharī‘ah court decisions like legal decrees (i‘lāmāt-i shar‘iyyah). It is well known that nobody can understand any legal system without implementing and practicing it. That also holds for Islamic law because theory alone does not yield a complete understanding of Sharī‘ah rules.

iii) We have worked hard to correct some misconceptions and misunderstandings about Islamic law. That is why we appeal to the primary sources. For example, some scholars claim that the Ḥanafī jurist Imām Saraḫsī did not accept the idea of punishment for apostasy. We have studied his work al-Mabsūt and found this claim to be unfounded. The comparison between tīmār and fief is another example because the tīmār system is different from the fief system. Some scholars confuse the concept of sovereignty and governance. The Islamic state is not a theocratic state in the sense in which Europeans understand the term.”

Bergsingel 135, 3037 GC Rotterdam

T +31 (0)10 485 47 21

F +31 (0)10 484 31 47

E info@iurpress.nl

I www. iurpress.nl

No Shari'ah in America

Sharia laws are not divine, if you believe that they are, that is your choice, they are made by men with the intent of serving justice. Sharia laws are no doubt influenced by Qur'aan, but there is a huge human element in it, which misses the Mercy that Quraan is flooded with.

The Personal Sharia helps one follow his relationship with God like prayers, festivals, fasting, zakat, hajj and other rituals, which most Muslims follow. Where as the Public Sharia deals with more than one person and is subject to human fallacy and cannot be universally applicable. It needs Ijtihad and it is hard to come by, the Neocon (extremist) Muslims will hang you.

The recitation of Bismillah is not for God, it is for us to understand its value and make it a part of our life, an average Muslim perhaps says it over 50 times day, it is such a beautiful prayer we are blessed with. The Sharia laws of Taliban, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, some laws of Pakistan and Malaysia are not based on equity and Mercy. I am positive, very few Muslims want to live under those laws, not me and not a majority of Muslims. Hence for us, the American Muslims and American Muslim women our civil laws serve justice and we have no need for the Public Shariah laws.This group exchanges are about the topic and not me or you, please avoid comments on any one's persona, usually a reason not to post the comment.riginal postings and

1. http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2009/06/no-shariah-in-america.html
2. http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2009/05/5000-reward.html
3. http://blog.dawn.com:91/dblog/2009/06/04/the-frozen-solution/comment-page-2/#comment-14086.

Shari'ah continues to be a hotly debated item among Muslims and discussions are always welcome, with each successive discussion, we can learn more about the topic. However, most American Muslims are content with laws of the land and would not want Sharia laws, as the models practiced elsewhere are not good examples, You can visit this site http://www.worldmuslimcongress.org/ and do the control find for "Sharia" - a lot of information will appear. Reference: http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2009/05/5000-reward.html. You are welcome to write your comments at the end of this corrospondence as well.

Dear Hussain, Thank you for sharing your opinions about Sharia.

The issue is about serving Justice to humankind; the American Justice system is one of the most humane systems in the market today, not the best, but the most humane and serves the human aspirations well – freedom and justice.

The personal Sharia deals with how you connect with the divine and the things you need to do to be at peace with yourselves. In fact all of the guidance in ‘how to’ (the ritual part) comes from the Personal Sharia and the way I perform my prayers, fasting etc are guided by it.

The public Sharia, the rules that affect the conduct between individuals, and regulation of the same was designed by men with good intentions and perhaps may work in exclusive societies where Muslims reside. The safeguards from carrying on mis-justice are not fail proof in the system when it comes to dealing with divorce and apostasy for instance. There is no consensus on the issues. Many a Muslims have not extricated themselves from years of conditioning that Sharia is divine, it is not, and it is made by humans for humans.

What they practice in Afghanistan, Sudan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Iran are gross injustices to the individual, it is the law of the Mullah rather than justice, and that kind of extremism is encroaching in Malaysia, Bangladesh and Pakistan now; it is not justice anymore.

Compare that to the Justice system in America, again made by men for men to serve justice. The mistakes are made in this system as well, but the ordinary people are usually served with Justice. Gross injustice is rare. The system has the ability to correct itself to serve justice, and there is a process of consensus building as well, and not bulldozing a fatwa on a poor soul. The tyrants have killed the element of Ijtihaad and consensus building in the Public Sharia and certainly a majority of American Muslim women and men do not feel the need for it, they have done without it.

The intent of Sharia law was good and was based on Justice; the essence of Islam. However, it has lost all its traction of good governance, self correction and Ijtihaad to the authoritarianism which shamelessly proclaims their nations to be Islamic in Character. Elimination of crime in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere is a myth, they just do not report the rapes and injustices, instead the victim is punished. With Free press and democracy, the government would be responsible to the public in serving as justly as it can.

Qur’aan starts with the guidance about learning, and the prophet says, if we have to learn we can even go to China, thank God we have gone on and are living in such democracies where learning is continual. Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)’s society accommodated every faith, in fact, he took the initiative to legitimize co-existence, but that society disappeared within 100 years of his death and mono-religious society emerged. However, that society has taken refuge in democracies and I welcome our civic laws, despite its flaws.

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing Islam, Pluralism, Terrorism, India, Peace, political and civic issues. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed on his personal website http://www.mikeghouse.net/.

# # #

SHARIA IS NEVER AN IMPEDIMENT TO PROGRESS IN ANY AGE
From Hussain Khan, Tokyo
Mike,

American system of justice is producing a rotten way of life, full of crimes, drugs, homicides, financial and political scandals, rapes, divorces, disintegration of family life and what not
How a pious Muslim can recommend such a rotten collective life to American Muslims?

“ If we study Quran, Sunnah and principles of Ijtehad, Shariah can render a better system of justice than what is now prevailing in America. Despite being orthodox, Saudi system of justice has almost eliminated crime in Saudi Arabia. Taliban also eliminated crime and drugs from Afghanistan during a brief period of their rule. Can you claim that American system of justice, with which you are satisfied and happy, can eliminate crime, drugs, rapes, divorces and several other evils in their social, economic, financial and political lives? Do you think the new financial regulations being introduced by Obama can cure all the financial ills of interest and leveraged-based, speculative American Capitalism? Will the debt-ridden American society be saved by such cosmetic measures of Federal Reserve Board, as printing dollars and rescuing banks and the bankrupted companies like General Motors and Chrysler, which were once pride of America, through those printed dollars in addition to trillions of Federal debt sold in bonds to China, Japan and other Asian countries? Can American system of justice produce that level of Morality, which Islam can? Are there no scandals in Wall Street and in entire financial and political life in America? You are recommending such a rotten system to Muslims! How it can be superior to a collective life that Sharia would produce? We should rather make Dawah to non-Muslims for divine Shariah to save them from their present wretched, hell-like life, full of stress and with lack of peace of mind and heart. Allah has sent guidance to us not only for the private life. It is our duty and mission as a Muslim to let them appreciate that they are now suffering in their collective lives due to not accepting the divine guidance in their financial, economic, political, social, family and all other walks of life.”

By Hussain Khan, Tokyo

Sharia is never an impediment to progress. It is very strange that a pious Muslim like you can think of abandoning Shariah to achieve progress. The truth is rather the reverse of it. Muslims can progress through Sharia. I again recommend you to read Feldstein, a Harvard Law Professor, book on Shariah. He maintains that Muslims became and remained rulers of the world for 12 centuries as long as they maintained Sharia as their Supreme Law. They became wretched and slaves of the West due to abandoning Shariah in private and public life.

Through Itjehad you can accommodate modernization. All your quote is 100% right. Modernization is of course not Westernization. All your quote does not imply that Sharia should be abandoned for achieving the objectives of progress as desired by you and by all Muslims. Better you also go through Allama Iqbal book “Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam” ,based on his six lectures in Madras in English. Due to the door of Ijtehad being open until the Last day of Qiyama, Sharia can accommodate all latest changes in science, technology and in all kinds and in all branches of knowledge. Rather Muslims had been the pioneers of all sciences during the peak days of their rule and suzerainty over the world for centuries. It is a very outdated idea that Shariah is an impediment to progress. This reflects paucity of knowledge and utter ignorance about Shariah. Better to study what is Sharia before proclaiming that American Muslims do not need it. It is a great misunderstanding that Sharia can ever be an impediment to progress. I recommend to read above referred-to book of Allama Iqbal to clarify the concept of Sharia. Allama Iqbal was neither a Mullah nor a partner of any FATWA factory, which you are always condemning. He was a great scholar and had a PHD degree in Philosophy from Germany. He has given his reasons that Shariah can never be a hindrance to progress in any age.

Even the development of Islamic civilization since 7th to 18th century or up to the Industrial Revolution of England indicates that Muslims remained pioneers of all sciences and knowledge, under the inspiration of Quranic verses to seek signs of God in all branches of knowledge and sciences, as long as they were pious Muslims and accepted Quran and Hadith in all walks of life, not simply in private life, as you suggest. Today we are not good Muslims and that is the cause of our lack of progress. If we could become pious Muslim like you not only in private life but even in our political, social, economic, financial and all sectors of collective life, we can again reach to the same pinnacle of humanity and scientific progress which had made the Bedouins of Arabia not only the rulers of the world in political field but also made them the Masters and pioneers of knowledge in all its branches and sciences. Our progress lies not in abandoning Shariah, rather in understanding it and in its implementation in all sectors of life, be it private, collective or public life

Your problem is different. As I have written elsewhere, I quote it here again with some improvement: “This is an age of democracy. You have to solve problems in a democratic way. In the long run, you will have to negotiate with the Taliban You like it or not, there are people in Swat valley who want Sharia, a system of justice based on divine Law. They are familiar to this system for the last 110 years before their forced annexation into Pakistan by a military dictator, Gen. Yahya Khan. He cancelled all Sharia immediately after the takeover of Swat to Pakistan.

They do not want a system of justice based on American Law, as pleaded by Mike Ghous, a pious Muslim, for American Muslims. Such pious Muslims are described in Quran as, AFATUMENOONA BEBADHIL KITABE WO TAKFURUNA BEBADH. “Do you believe in a certain part of the holy Book and refute the other part”. Such pious Muslims are ready to follow Islam in their private lives but want to follow American system of justice instead of the one based on Quran and Sunnah for their public or collective life.”

If we study Quran, Sunnah and principles of Ijtehad, Shariah can render a better system of justice than what is now prevailing in America. Despite being orthodox, Saudi system of justice has almost eliminated crime in Saudi Arabia. Taliban also eliminated crime and drugs from Afghanistan during a brief period of their rule. Can you claim that American system of justice, with which you are satisfied and happy, can eliminate crime, drugs, rapes, divorces and several other evils in their social, economic, financial and political lives? Do you think the new financial regulations being introduced by Obama can cure all the financial ills of interest and leveraged-based, speculative American Capitalism? Will the debt-ridden American society will be saved by such cosmetic measures Federal Reserve Board, as by printing dollars and rescuing banks and the bankrupted companies like General Motors and Chrysler, which were once pride of America, through those printed dollars in addition to trillions of Federal debt sold in bonds to China, Japan and other Asian countries? Can American system of justice produce that level of Morality, which Islam can? Are there no scandals in Wall Street and in entire financial and political life in America? You are recommending such a rotten system to Muslims! How it can be superior to a collective life that Sharia would produce? We should rather make Dawah to non-Muslims for divine Shariah to save them from their present wretched, hell-like life, full of stress and with lack of peace of mind and heart. Allah has sent guidance to us not only for the private life. It is our duty and mission as a Muslim to let them appreciate that they are now suffering in their collective lives due to not accepting the divine guidance in their financial, economic, political, social, family and all other walks of life.

Best regards,
Hussain Khan, Tokyo
Visit JAPAN MUSLIM THINK TANK (still under construction) website
Click http://www.muslimthinktank.info

From: hasniessa@yahoo.com [mailto:hasniessa@yahoo.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 3:33 AM
Subject: Fw: American imposed war in Pakistan condemned by a Toronto magazine

It's amazing how hypocritical some muslims can be, and still talk about sharia which if applied in its entirety, these people don't realize, could be impediment to progress.
Let me quote, which I read elsewhere..................

- modernization does not necessarily mean westernization.Non-Western societies
can modernize and have modernized without abandoning their own cultures and
adopting wholesale Western values,insttitutions, and practices.Modernization,
instead, strengthen those cultures and reduces the relative power of the West.
In fundamental ways, the world is becoming more modern and less Western.

Islam and modernization do not clash.Pious Muslims can cultivate the sciences,
work efficiently in factories, or utilize advanced weapons.Modernization requires
no one political ideology or set of institutions.As a creed, Islam satisfies management
consultants as well as peasants.The Shari'a has nothing to say about the changes
that accompany modernization, such as the shift from agriculture to industry, from
countryside to the city, or from social stabilty to social flux, nor does it impinge on
such matters as mass education, rapid communications, new forms of transportation,
or health care.

Zina, muslims like


--- On Tue, 6/16/09, Zina Khan wrote:

From: Zina Khan
Subject: American imposed war in Pakistan condemned by a Toronto magazine
Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 3:45 PM
You must define categorically for us what is Islamic, in the trues sense of the word? why are you guys chasing Pakistan only?

In Saudi Arabia if you are found wandering the streets during the time of Salaa and have a green colored Aqama, then you are liable to get caned and forced into one of those building they "mis" call Masjid in the Kingdom.

This is what is perceived as the true "Islamic" state by some of you folks !

Islam has looked at humanity with the eye of justice and logic and has enacted rational laws for it....not your man made trash that you are trying to propagate ..

Islam does not deprive anyone of his share nor given him more than his due. Every effort carries a reward and it is necessary for the society to honour this reward....is that what you see happening in and around you?

A good society does not allow that a hard worker should starve, and an idle person should benefit from the proceeds of the formers’ work. ....you can't even provide basics to the ordinary hardworking people and yet the rich vaderas with their gun totting goons have all the amenities in life...why? are these people also not muslims like you folks? are they also not human?

Muslims of the twenty-first century should beware of the renewed onslaught on their beliefs being conducted today from within our Communities all in the name of Qur'an and Sunna,but actually supported by certain regimes pursuing specific ideologies, they are taking over the mosques built by Ahl al-Sunna in Europe and North America - mostly Indian and Pakistani immigrants -- by means of elections and fundings -the reality of such beliefs is different from those of the main body of Muslims!

Muslims are into narcotics? are they not? Taleban grow and sell drugs to buy bombs to blow up people and kill and subjugate them...so which sharia is this?

A Saudi prince who shares whisky in the evening, sentences a man to prison in the morning for drinking !

All kinds of liquor is available freely in Middle East countries including Iran - it trickles into their mouths in China Cups as it is served in "Tea Pots" - I haven't found an islamic country as yet which does not sell alchohol and where some "good" muslims like you folks are transgressing the prohibitions against wine and spirits ! If the rich drink imported ones , the poor make their own ! so? which sharia is this?...do you want me to go on ?

--- On Tue, 6/16/09, Hussain Khan, Tokyo wrote:

From: Hussain Khan, Tokyo
Subject: American imposed war in Pakistan condemned by a Toronto magazine
Date: Tuesday, June 16, 2009, 8:19 PM

This article pleads that America has imposed a war on Pakistan to weaken it. countrymen are killing each other. Government objective is to please America. War could have been avoided by accepting Sharia rule in Swat. Instead of trying to avoid war, Zardari preferred to kill those who want Sharia in the same way as Musharraf killed Lal mosque students due to their demand enforcing Shariah in Pakistan. And yet Pakistan is called an Islamic state as its name is, 'Islamic' Republic of Pakistan. Where is it 'Islamic'? Those who demand Sharia have been cornered to become 'terrorists' and deserve killing by Pak army. This article is also available by clicking below:

Taqlid, Ijtihad and Democracy

I have read a few articles by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, and each one was filled with wisdom. It is so enlightening to read. Thanks to Yogi Sikand to bring this to the fore. The article Taqlid, Ijtihad and Democracy follows my comments.

A few self proclaimed guardians of Islam by virtue of their heading Shari’ah and Fiqh councils have been able to keep the lid on the box and do not show any sort of independence. They do not believe that Shari’ah was man-made interpretations of God’s words and Hadiths. To them Shari’ah is the absolute law from God, and they have successfully dumped this idea on to average Muslims (ones who does not have the time to question, but gulp what is given) who believe in it. Continue

Sharia Laws in America

Sharia Laws in America

For the sake of convenience, Sharia Laws can be divided into private and public – The private Sharia deals with how one performs prayers, observes fasts, performs Hajj, and participates in Zakat (tithe – charity). Individuals follow those guidelines and appreciate the existence of such guidelines.

Whereas the Public Sharia deals with the community affairs; such as marriage, divorce, inheritance, conversion, apostates and other rules that deal when more than one individual is involved in the issue. The intent is always Justice and fairness to members of the society. The American civic laws are founded on Justice and most Muslims feel that the American laws work for them and are a great substitute. Hence, they do not feel the need for another set of laws for public governance. It ain’t going to happen. The Neocons need not fear and create imaginary war scenarios to cash in from the gullibles.

Continue: http://sharialaws.blogspot.com/2008/10/shariah-in-america.html

Mike Ghouse