What exactly is Sharia Law

[whiskeyjack]

Im totally confused about Sharia Law, in the West we hear it as a bad thing but to the muslims it seems like a good thing... Ive seen alot of different sides and stories on the net... But im still confused

In Afghanistan my country shat a chicken when kazari, was going to allow men to rape there wives... After NATO prrotested he withdrew the offer...

In Saudi Arabia, a judge says its ok to slap your wife who over spends....

I know these are individual cases

WHat is Sharia law???

[Sentenza]

Sharia is law based on the interpretations of the Verses of the Quran. These can differ extremely. There is no "set" Sharia law. Its a broad term. Its like saying, "they want a constitution". Which one is a different story, cause all constitutions of all countries worldwide are different. In all but 6 countries Sharia isnt applied, only in small proportions such as matters of inheritance etc.
Most Islamic countries have a secular constitution. Except for those 2 you mentioned for example and even Afghanistan doesnt really have Sharia laws. Karzai try to impose the law to satisfy the extremists in his country a little.

[whiskeyjack]

Which countries have Sharia law in Effect? Which of the 6 is the most extreme?

The only places i know of off the top of my head with sharia law in effect, is Iran and parts of pakistan. But i may be incorrect in the latter...

Karzai was crazy, people in Canada were talking about bombing his compound.... Myself included, im not a crusader for womens rights, they have there own but i was kinda disgusted it was even proposed...

[Sentenza]

Which countries have Sharia law in Effect? Which of the 6 is the most extreme?

The only places i know of off the top of my head with sharia law in effect, is Iran and parts of pakistan. But i may be incorrect in the latter...

Karzai was crazy, people in Canada were talking about bombing his compound.... Myself included, im not a crusader for womens rights, they have there own but i was kinda disgusted it was even proposed...

Its a little complicated, but i tried to avoid to write an essay. Many countries have small parts of Sharia law in effect, such as Egypt or Syria and a couple more but they only apply it in family issues such as inheritance and marriage if i remember correctly. Turkey is completely secular. I know for a fact that Egypt has a secular supreme court which has the final say over all issues of law which makes the extremists mad, but thats the way it is and its the same in the majority of islamic countries.
The 6 countries i was referring to would be Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan(certain parts), Northern Nigeria, Somalia (parts of it) and Mauretania. That is where you will get your hand cut off for stealing. And its getting even more complicated. You got 4 schools of law which intpretate Sharia differently and you got the Shi'i school of law which is separate from those 4. Those 5 schools come to different results and opinions in many aspects of Sharia
To give you an example how Sharia works (very very simplified), you got the discussion about the Veil (hijab) in most Muslim countries.
Now there is no clear stance on the issue since the Quran basically says that women have to conceal their "delicate parts". Now some scholars say that means covering the whole body (which would be the Burkha in Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia etc.) and some say it means covering only the hair whereas arms and face can be shown. Then some go as far that their is no need for a veil at all and it only means that women should just not dress inappropriate (i.e. tank top and hotpants) but the hair doesnt have to be covered.
About this issue and many others in Sharia you sometimes have 10 experts and 11 opinions.
So everybody who tells you that "this is the true Sharia" is a liar cause not even the Muslims agree at all on any issue.

In Afghanistan Karzai wanted to apply that law which demands of every woman to have sex with her man at least every 4 days which is basically an invitation to rape. But keep in mind that this would be the extreme end of a right wing interpretation of Sharia which 95% of the Muslims do not share at all.
That is like when you listen to David Duke and equal him with all white people and all of Christendome.

Its a very complicated issue. Btw. Sharia means "Street" or "Way" and it basically means in law "the way to justice" which way that is most Muslims disagree on.

[whiskeyjack]

Its a little complicated, but i tried to avoid to write an essay.

sorry dude

[Sentenza]

Its a little complicated, but i tried to avoid to write an essay.

sorry dude

No problem.

But if you go into every detail you have to write some 10+ pages cause there is a whole lot of history to it....

[whiskeyjack]

i was checkin it out

It was saying that back in the day when the christian nations didnt have womens rights, sharia law in the middle east gave muslim women more rights then christian women..... Although times have kinda changed a bit

[Sentenza]

And to give you an example of how Sharia can be abused. The Quran proposes the death sentence for street robbery since desert bandits were a huge problem back in the day and they raided the shit out of the cities and trade caravans. Now the government of Iran has passed a law that equates resistance against governmental authority with street robbery and they can impose the death sentence on opposition members and justify it with Sharia, when in reality that is some fake nonsense they do to justify their oppression with religious reasons.

[ViciousRidah]

Sharia law is prominent in modernized thriving 1st world Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and also in Islamic poverty stricken countries like Somalia . The ideas of Sharia Law is somewhat disputed by a lot of muslims whether it be Imams,fundamentalist , Wahabis and Shiites.But the scary thing about it is that there is some democratic countries like the UK ( a G-8 and UN security council member) that has enacted permission for sharia law jurisdiction under some citizens who would of course be ''muslims'' or civil cases that deals with muslims ie (muslim businesses),marital disputes (if you are married to a muslim) , child cases (if your spouse was a muslim).

[ViciousRidah]

Heres what I'm talking about

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/commen ... 749183.ece

ISLAMIC law has been officially adopted in Britain, with sharia courts given powers to rule on Muslim civil cases.

The government has quietly sanctioned the powers for sharia judges to rule on cases ranging from divorce and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

Rulings issued by a network of five sharia courts are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.

Previously, the rulings of sharia courts in Britain could not be enforced, and depended on voluntary compliance among Muslims.

It has now emerged that sharia courts with these powers have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network’s headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Two more courts are being planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi, whose Muslim Arbitration Tribunal runs the courts, said he had taken advantage of a clause in the Arbitration Act 1996.

Under the act, the sharia courts are classified as arbitration tribunals. The rulings of arbitration tribunals are binding in law, provided that both parties in the dispute agree to give it the power to rule on their case.

Siddiqi said: “We realised that under the Arbitration Act we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals. This method is called alternative dispute resolution, which for Muslims is what the sharia courts are.”

The disclosure that Muslim courts have legal powers in Britain comes seven months after Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was pilloried for suggesting that the establishment of sharia in the future “seems unavoidable” in Britain.

In July, the head of the judiciary, the lord chief justice, Lord Phillips, further stoked controversy when he said that sharia could be used to settle marital and financial disputes.

In fact, Muslim tribunal courts started passing sharia judgments in August 2007. They have dealt with more than 100 cases that range from Muslim divorce and inheritance to nuisance neighbours.

It has also emerged that tribunal courts have settled six cases of domestic violence between married couples, working in tandem with the police investigations.

Siddiqi said he expected the courts to handle a greater number of “smaller” criminal cases in coming years as more Muslim clients approach them. “All we are doing is regulating community affairs in these cases,” said Siddiqi, chairman of the governing council of the tribunal.

Jewish Beth Din courts operate under the same provision in the Arbitration Act and resolve civil cases, ranging from divorce to business disputes. They have existed in Britain for more than 100 years, and previously operated under a precursor to the act.

Politicians and church leaders expressed concerns that this could mark the beginnings of a “parallel legal system” based on sharia for some British Muslims.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, said: “If it is true that these tribunals are passing binding decisions in the areas of family and criminal law, I would like to know which courts are enforcing them because I would consider such action unlawful. British law is absolute and must remain so.”

Douglas Murray, the director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “I think it’s appalling. I don’t think arbitration that is done by sharia should ever be endorsed or enforced by the British state.”

There are concerns that women who agree to go to tribunal courts are getting worse deals because Islamic law favours men.

Siddiqi said that in a recent inheritance dispute handled by the court in Nuneaton, the estate of a Midlands man was divided between three daughters and two sons.

The judges on the panel gave the sons twice as much as the daughters, in accordance with sharia. Had the family gone to a normal British court, the daughters would have got equal amounts.

In the six cases of domestic violence, Siddiqi said the judges ordered the husbands to take anger management classes and mentoring from community elders. There was no further punishment.

In each case, the women subsequently withdrew the complaints they had lodged with the police and the police stopped their investigations.

Siddiqi said that in the domestic violence cases, the advantage was that marriages were saved and couples given a second chance.

Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The MCB supports these tribunals. If the Jewish courts are allowed to flourish, so must the sharia ones.”

Additional reporting: Helen Brooks

[frozen fire]

Sharia Law comes from three main places.

1) Quran: "The Qur'an is the main religious text of Islam, Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the verbal divine guidance from God"

2)Hadith and Sunnah: which are basically what the Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him) said or done.

3) Ijma: Basically if it there is an issue that isnt covered in the first two sources, the scholars put their heads in and use reasoning.

Thats all there is to it really.

Now as for which countries follow sharia law, that can be quite tricky. If you look honestly you can say every country in the world follows some part of sharia law, although not many will assume thats what their doing. Sharia law like any LAW that tries to govern a country needs to cover a wide array of topics, from economics to foreign relations, from healthcare to family values. For example, most developed countries have a government program for orphans. Now just because Sharia law states that Orphans should be taken care of, any country doing so would be in a sense following sharia law. It is also capable of being updated when it has to. A very simple example: Just because cars were not around when the Quran was first revealed doesnt mean its forbidden as a form of transportation, when people fail to use common sense disaster is inevitable.

Although all countries have some aspect of Sharia Law, no country currently follows sharia Law fully. Some people might find it uncomfortable when Muslims try to use Sharia Law in a non-muslim country. But you have to understand what that means. If a muslim is not allowed by sharia law to eat pork, then he/she will probably not be buying any pork from the butcher. just by doing so means they are following sharia law. If a muslim needs an Imam to get married, just like a christian might need a priest then what is the harm?

You might think thats not so bad, they are just exercising their right, to eat differently, dress differently and pray differently, just like everyone else who wants to live their life as they please.

To the individual muslim sharia law is a way of life.

Now certain people think theres more to it then that, when muslims meet up each friday at the local mosque, some heavy duty shit is going down behind closed doors, praying my ass, it doesnt take a whole community to pray! and When a Muslim girl wants to wear a scarf to school, she is actually the brain child of an underground Islamic movement aimed at toppling the secular state. One second its just scarves, the next it will be an AK-47....mark my words.

At first i admit it sounds ridiculous, quite amusing even. but when you hear this sort of thing long enough you believe it. I ran into this sort of thinking in the past against a different group of people. Jews......yeah, a lot of arabs believed the jews were bent on world domination, heck, they actually already ruled a good portion of the world behind the curtains. All jews were in on it, they communicated using jew-berries and talked about money and how to kill muslims all day long. Fact!

Cuz the only time arabs saw jews was when they were dropping bombs on palestine. The media sucks i know, but what you gonna do about it?

A little common sense can take you a long way.

Peace Out
Frozen Fire

[ViciousRidah]

Sharia Law comes from three main places.

1) Quran: "The Qur'an is the main religious text of Islam, Muslims believe the Qur’an to be the verbal divine guidance from God"

2)Hadith and Sunnah: which are basically what the Prophet Muhammed (Peace be upon him) said or done.

3) Ijma: Basically if it there is an issue that isnt covered in the first two sources, the scholars put their heads in and use reasoning.

Thats all there is to it really.

Now as for which countries follow sharia law, that can be quite tricky. If you look honestly you can say every country in the world follows some part of sharia law, although not many will assume thats what their doing. Sharia law like any LAW that tries to govern a country needs to cover a wide array of topics, from economics to foreign relations, from healthcare to family values. For example, most developed countries have a government program for orphans. Now just because Sharia law states that Orphans should be taken care of, any country doing so would be in a sense following sharia law. It is also capable of being updated when it has to. A very simple example: Just because cars were not around when the Quran was first revealed doesnt mean its forbidden as a form of transportation, when people fail to use common sense disaster is inevitable.

Although all countries have some aspect of Sharia Law, no country currently follows sharia Law fully. Some people might find it uncomfortable when Muslims try to use Sharia Law in a non-muslim country. But you have to understand what that means. If a muslim is not allowed by sharia law to eat pork, then he/she will probably not be buying any pork from the butcher. just by doing so means they are following sharia law. If a muslim needs an Imam to get married, just like a christian might need a priest then what is the harm?

You might think thats not so bad, they are just exercising their right, to eat differently, dress differently and pray differently, just like everyone else who wants to live their life as they please.

To the individual muslim sharia law is a way of life.

Now certain people think theres more to it then that, when muslims meet up each friday at the local mosque, some heavy duty shit is going down behind closed doors, praying my ass, it doesnt take a whole community to pray! and When a Muslim girl wants to wear a scarf to school, she is actually the brain child of an underground Islamic movement aimed at toppling the secular state. One second its just scarves, the next it will be an AK-47....mark my words.

At first i admit it sounds ridiculous, quite amusing even. but when you hear this sort of thing long enough you believe it. I ran into this sort of thinking in the past against a different group of people. Jews......yeah, a lot of arabs believed the jews were bent on world domination, heck, they actually already ruled a good portion of the world behind the curtains. All jews were in on it, they communicated using jew-berries and talked about money and how to kill muslims all day long. Fact!

because the only time arabs saw jews was when they were dropping bombs on palestine. The media sucks i know, but what you gonna do about it?

A little common sense can take you a long way.

Peace Out
Frozen Fire

I know when sharia law dictates that a man or women must get stoned for adultery ,must get his hand cut off for stealing , and think its alright to commot honor killings such as killing a man who paints a picture of the prophet (Muhammad)then it can't be the same as a democratic country's law. When a muslim can be stoned as a penalty for not wearing a hijab, sharia law is definitely extreme and over the edge.

Hijab Killing
http://www.breitbart.tv/muslim-man-kill ... ing-hijab/

Girl stoned for dating a boy from the wrong sect.
http://www.pakistan.tv/videos-honor-kil ... Uj4%5D.cfm

[frozen fire]

You can't do that, you cant murder people for dating or for not wearing Hijab. If anything, Islam would put those murderers to death for killing innocent civilians. "Honor killings" have been all the rage in the media, but having lived in the middle east for most of my life, i haven't seen any, nor have I met anyone that agrees that its okay. These are extremes and are a byproduct of ignorance and hate, not Islam.

[ViciousRidah]

You can't do that, you cant murder people for dating or for not wearing Hijab. If anything, Islam would put those murderers to death for killing innocent civilians. "Honor killings" have been all the rage in the media, but having lived in the middle east for most of my life, i haven't seen any, nor have I met anyone that agrees that its okay. These are extremes and are a byproduct of ignorance and hate, not Islam.

You maybe right, I have discussed this issue with muslims, and some have said there is no such thing as Honor Killings but you can't deny ,that many countries promote the idea, countries like Afghanistan would not detest the killing of woman for committing adultery or her even being suspected of committing adultery. But it seems some what understandable when they are Palestinians like the Hamas who are suicide bombers, that attack cities like Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem in Isreal, it is not not hard to conceive why people think muslims believe in honor killings.

[Scooby318]

Sharia Law is open to the interpretations of religious leaders which makes it dangerous. It would be similiar to a strict interpretation of the Bible used as a too to rule society. Everyone would have a different opinion, ideas would be corrupted, religious leaders would all thing their version of the 'word of God' is the truth. No way I could live under a government run under any strict religious rules.