Tuesday, Mar 14, 2006
Opinion
Rooting for Sharia laws in Bradford http://www.hindu.com/2006/03/14/stories/2006031403570800.htm
Hasan Suroor
It is one thing to demand the democratic right in an open and free society to practise one's faith, but to want to have a parallel religious legal system is quite another.
SHARIA LAWS in Britain? The idea might sound absurd but, according to a recent survey, 40 per cent of British Muslims "want" Sharia introduced in "predominantly" Muslim areas of the United Kingdom. One can question the motive behind such a survey especially as it was commissioned by The Daily Telegraph, a right-wing newspaper not particularly fond of Muslims. One can also speculate whether the newspaper would have splashed it on the front page if the findings had been different. For instance if 99 per cent Muslims had said that they were content living under Britain's secular laws - no thank you, no Sharia for us.
But that does not detract from the main issue, which is that four out of 10 British Muslims want the Sharia. This is a sizeable proportion and any community in which such a large chunk wants to be governed by a theocratic regime renders itself vulnerable to the charge of being at odds with the values of a modern western society in which it has chosen to settle. It is one thing to demand the democratic right in an open and free society to practise one's faith, but to want to have a parallel religious legal system is quite another. Not surprisingly, the finding has served to reinforce the notion of Muslim "separatism." The head of the Racial Equality Commission, Trevor Philips, responded by saying that there was no place for such people in Britain and those who wanted to live under the Sharia were free to leave. Others raised the spectre of Britain becoming a "Londonistan" if such demands gained momentum, and at least one commentator warned that the day was not far off when predominantly Muslim British cities would come under Sharia laws.
"In a decade you will see parts of English cities which will be controlled by Muslim clerics and follow aspects of Sharia law," said Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, and himself a Christian convert from Islam.
It is tempting to dismiss these views as an over-reaction from usual suspects and argue that, instead, we should look at the positive aspect of the survey, which is that a majority of Muslims do not want the Sharia. Indeed, many will say that is the real story - and at one level that is true. But can we wish away the 40 per cent pro-Sharia Muslims? Sadiq Khan, a Labour MP, admitted the findings were "alarming" and said it reflected the fact that a "vast number of Muslims feel disengaged and alienated from mainstream British society."
The question is: why are they "disengaged and alienated?" And would permitting Sharia laws make them less disengaged and alienated? Of course, Mr. Khan was not arguing in favour of Sharia (as a Labour MP he cannot do it publicly, anyway) but the moment one starts to find a rationale for such things it amounts to giving them legitimacy. It is saying: yes, these people may have a point.
The fact, however, is that they do not have a point and it is the responsibility of public figures like Mr. Khan who represents them in Parliament to sensitise them - and indeed help them overcome their "alienation" and "disengagement" rather than using it as an excuse to explain away patently regressive tendencies.
The honest-to-goodness truth is that it has nothing to do with alienation but everything to do with educational and social backwardness and the total failure of the so-called community leadership to show them the way forward. No doubt, Muslims - as to some extent all immigrant groups - feel alienated because of racial discrimination and the post-9/11 anti-Muslim backlash but the answer to that is not burying themselves deeper into their ghettos.
By all means, they should stand up and resist if they believe that their legitimate democratic rights, whether as a racial or a religious group, are under attack but any such struggle must remain secular and non-sectarian if it is to receive wider support. Demands such as those for separate faith laws are only likely to further inflame the anti-Muslim sentiment. "It's like showing the red rag to the bull in the present climate when conspiracy theories about Islam are floating all over Europe," said one Muslim analyst.
Larger stakes
But there are larger issues at stake here - issues to do with a Muslim mindset that refuses to detach itself from centuries-old ideas of progress, freedom, justice, and the role of religion in society. To oppose the demand for Sharia laws is not an attack on Islam. It is not even to suggest that these laws were not progressive in relation to the period when they were conceived. But the world has changed, and even some of the most progressive notions of that time have now become obsolete, and this applies as much to Islamic formulations as those prescribed by other faiths.
It is important here to make a distinction between religious practices, which however obsolete and obscurantist are a matter of individual choice, and religious laws relating to marriage, divorce, women's rights, property affairs, and criminal justice that affect the entire community. Laws are dynamic and need to be routinely reviewed and updated to respond better to the changing needs of a society as a whole - not just one group. Hence the importance of secular laws that apply to all irrespective of people's religious beliefs.
Even in Islamic societies where Sharia laws have been updated, they remain problematic as the current controversy in Malaysia shows. Marina Mahathir, daughter of the former Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamed, who did much to modernise Islamic laws, has said that Muslim women in her country are being discriminated against to a degree that they are facing a virtual "apartheid."
In an article, which has created a furore in Malaysia, she said polygamy was still allowed for Muslims and, under Islamic family law, the father continued to be regarded as the primary guardian of children whereas in other religious groups both parents shared the guardianship of their children. "Non-Muslim Malaysian women have benefited from more progressive laws over the years while the opposite has happened for Muslim women," she wrote in the Star.
One does not have to accept everything that Ms. Marina says at face value to see the problem. Malaysia is regarded as one of the most progressive Muslim states, which has seen some genuine reforms. Yet it has not been able to resolve satisfactorily the conflict inherent in running a modern and culturally diverse country with the help of laws that have their roots in a tribal society of 1,400 years ago.
If a reform-minded and forward-looking government has not been able to manage the conflict, it is not difficult to imagine what would happen if the uneducated and reforms-resistant mullahs of Bradford were allowed to operate Sharia laws!
In a recent interview to The Hindu , Ziauddin Sardar, one of Europe's leading Muslim scholars, urged Muslims to "rethink and reformulate Islam as a contemporary worldview." This did not mean that they needed to compromise on basic Islamic notions but to use them to develop a more contemporary outlook. "Indeed, in my opinion serious rethinking with Islam is overdue. Muslims have been comfortably relying, or rather falling back, on age-old interpretations for much too long," he said. And Muslims living in Europe, he argued, had a particular responsibility.
"I think that rigidity and narrow-mindedness of certain quarters amongst Muslims in Europe is fuelling the rise of extreme right-wing extremism. So, European Muslims have a great burden on their shoulders - they need to develop a dynamic European Islam, underpinning European Muslim identities as an urgent social and cultural project," Mr. Sardar said.
Indeed, as he pointed out, there is a great tradition of the Muslim diaspora playing an important role in shaping and renewing Islam. There is a growing support for the view that favours Islam adapting itself to the local conditions - as it did in India, and parts of South-East Asia. The future belongs to an Islam with national characteristics (much like socialism with national characteristics), which will allow Muslims, wherever they live, to learn to co-exist with the social, cultural, and religious diversity around them.
Ironically, among the British Muslims who want the Sharia there are many who have forsaken the Islamic regimes of their own native countries and consciously chosen to settle in a non-Islamic country. Whatever may have prompted or compelled them to do it, they must now make a further - mental - leap forward and embrace the secular values to which they owe their place in Britain in the first place.
Copyright © 2006, The Hindu.