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Maya
Evans'
diary
Maya Evans
The recent media frenzy over Islamic law has
produced the common
reaction from non-Muslims in
this country  a collective
shudder and the assumption
that sharia means stoning
women and beheading criminals, an idea that the archbishop of Canterbury was trying to challenge.
I couldn't help feeling the
response to Rowan Williams's
speech was just another example
of the double-standard reaction
the mass media usually displays
towards Islam.
An old school friend who is a
practising Muslim pointed out
to me that the hardline interpretation of sharia law is just never
going to happen in a non-Muslim country.
She thought allowing people
to use some laws relating to
marital disputes and financial
matters would be useful, and to
an extent this already happens.
Indeed this is more or less
what the archbishop was saying
and, after all, orthodox Judaism
has similar powers in this country with the beth din rabbinical
courts.
For hundreds of years orthodox Jews have been able to deal
with divorces or litigation
through the beth din, which can
make binding judgements in
civil (but not criminal) disputes.
Double standards
There are those like Nick Clegg,
the Liberal Democrat leader,
who responded to Rowan
Williams's speech by saying:
"Equality before the law is part
of the glue that binds our society together. We cannot have a
situation where there is one law
for one person and different laws
for another."
But, as the archbishop said,
there are already other practicing religious legal systems in
this country. Equality means
treating everyone the same;
Muslims should have the rights
as other religious groups.
British Muslims should have
the right to choose to deal with
some civil matters in a sharia
court, if they want to, as happens with the beth din courts.
Rowan Williams also made
the very sensible point that
"adopting parts of Islamic Sharia
law could help social cohesion.
For example, Muslims could
choose to have marital disputes
or financial matters dealt with
in a Sharia court."
At a point in history where
most of this country's aggressive
foreign policy is directed
towards Muslim countries and
much domestic legislation more
often than not directly affects
Muslims in particular, I think
something definitely needs to be
done to help social cohesion.
Practical religion
I think what struck me most
about Islam when I first encountered it in my early teens was
how practical it was. In terms of
everyday living Islam has the
most detail of all the major religions.
This could be due to text
being written down while
Muhammad was still alive, or
perhaps because, relatively
speaking, it's the newest of the
world religions, or, as I like to
think, it's because Muhammad
was a highly practical individual
who liked to cover every eventuality.
Indeed the story of how the
Qu'ran ("Koran") was revealed
fits in with this theory; Muhammad prayed for revelations when
a problem was placed before him.
A code for living
I have a colleague who lives by
the gospel "never take the risk of
doing an arrestable action unless
you're completely willing and
prepared to be arrested".
Very wise and practical thinking but if carried out to the letter it makes for a rather restricted lifestyle.
I feel that in some ways the
originators of Islam were so conscientious in providing a guide
to living that some measures
which today seem rather
extreme were the result of someone trying to produce a foolproof method of living, ensuring
against bad things happening
before they happen.
As it says on the BBC website, sharia is actually much
more than criminal law, it's "a
code for living that all Muslims
should adhere to, including
prayers, fasting and donations to
the poor."
Having said that, in the
Qu'ran, there are extreme punishments for people who commit
adultery, theft and so on. I don't
condone them in any way but I
feel they were intended as deterrent punishments, not to be
used day-to-day.
I think the idea was that
crime just wouldn't happen if
you had a population of practising Muslims in a practising
Islamic country. (I don't think
there are now, or have ever been,
any countries that actually represent what Muhammad intended.)
Why would you commit adultery if your spouse is a good
practising Muslim? Why would
you steal when it's obligatory in
Islam for Muslims to provide
charity to the poor?
In theory, crime in an Islamic
country should never occur  as
in all utopias.
Muslims for freedom
I'm reading a book based on
Gallup polls called Who Speaks
for Islam - What a Billion Muslims Really Think (by John L.
Esposito and Dalia Mogahed)
which reports that majorities in
most of the ten Muslim-majority countries surveyed do want
"sharia" as at least "a" source of
legislation.
But, at the same time, a
majority in all these countries
also supports freedom of reli-
gion, freedom of speech, and
freedom of assembly.
Only a minority of Muslims
in each country wanted religious
leaders to be directly in charge
of drawing up constitutions,
determining legislation or setting foreign policy.
The majority of the Muslims
polled also supported a woman's
right to vote, drive and work
outside the home.
So most Muslims understand
"sharia law" in a more complicated and less oppressive way
than non-Muslims seem to think.
The Muslim "Live 8"
A few months ago, with the
same Muslim friend, I went to
an event described as "the Muslim Live 8". Several Islamic
music acts played at Wembley
Arena with Sami Yusuf Â
"Islam's rock star" Â headlining.
There were televised speeches by
David Cameron and Gordon
Brown who said how proud they
were of British Muslims, and
how much they wanted to help
Muslim countries like Darfur.
The reactions from the
60,000-strong crowd was fairly
mild with some low-level booing. It felt like I was the only
one shouting: "What about Iraq
and Afghanistan".
The mood of the crowd was
won back by compère Sarah
Joseph who argued that we
needed to work with our gov-
ernment in order to make things
better for Muslims in this coun-
try and abroad.
The evening had an extremely
positive feel to it, interestingly.
It was used as an opportunity for
Muslims to say: "We are British
Muslims and proud."
The greater jihad
When thinking back to my
experiences of Islam as a teenager I remember the feeling of
compassion I encountered from the Muslims I knew.
I was also struck by their honesty and sincerity in trying to be
good Muslims; probably most of
all I remember their constant
striving for humility.
The prophet Muhammad once
said: "The greater jihad is within," and isn't that the truth, the
struggle to overcome bad things within ourselves.
Maya Anne Evans is currently raising funds for a Justice Not
Vengeance documentary to explore issues around Islam.
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