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Reaction to Archbishop's Sharia-speech highlights ignorance about sharia |
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Issues Explained
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Sunday, 10 February 2008 |
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The media hysteria filled with venom and hatred towards the Islamic
Sharia following the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams' now
infamous speech can only leave an impartial observer concluding that
Britain is rapidly sliding into a dangerous state of irrational,
anti-Islamic hysteria.
Both rightwing broadsheets and tabloids joined forces with politicians, religious leaders and commentators to cast a barrage of criticism towards the Archbishop for his comments stating the advent of some aspects of Sharia was inevitable in the UK legal system.
Even though the Archbishop's comments were in reference to the growing use of Sharia councils across the UK in Muslim populated areas such as East London that deal with community issues such marital disputes and inheritance, the notion that such councils should hold any level of legal jurisdiction was seized upon by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown, among others, to quickly reassert the superiority of secular common law over the Sharia by stating that British law had to reflect British values.
Muslims are well aware that the Archbishop's comments have been misrepresented and blown out of all proportion as they understand that the Sharia of Allah (swt) goes far beyond the simple settling of marital disputes and family problems and therefore in the context discussed do not constitute a parallel system of law or indeed the application of Sharia in the UK. Muslims living in the west and in the Muslim lands understand that as a way of life, Islam's legal code encompasses every area of personal and societal life including economic, ethical and judicial spheres. Muslims are also aware that the Sharia is a system that seeks to deliver divine justice for all people and not simply for Muslims. This is why the vast majority of Muslims in Britain have focussed the call for the return of political Islam and the implementation of the Sharia under the shade of the Khilafah exclusively at the Muslim world and not at the west.
What is also plain for Muslims to see is the blatant and blind hypocrisy of western politicians such as Gordon Brown and David Cameron who talk about British law reflecting British values while they support the imposition of western legal and political systems in Muslims countries by the barrel of a gun! The west invades Muslims countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq for regime change and imposes secular democratic constitutions that have a façade of Sharia. In addition, they also support dictators and despots who imprison and torture those that call peacefully for the comprehensive implementation of the Sharia.
But the hypocrisy doesn't end there as western politicians have the audacity to state that the west will never allow Muslims to establish Sharia and Khilafah in their own lands. In 2006, the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke stated in a speech he made while visiting the US "...there can be no negotiation about the re-creation of the Caliphate; there can be no negotiation about the imposition of Sharia Law; there can be no negotiation about the suppression of equality of the sexes; there can be no negotiation about the ending of free speech. These values are fundamental to our civilisation and are simply not up for negotiation." George Bush and Tony Blair have made similar statements. If British laws need to reflect British values, then do not the laws and systems of society in the Muslim world need to reflect the Islamic values held by the vast majority of the people?
These critics of the Sharia law are also unable to correlate the declining situation of our society, characterised by numerous social ills such as spiralling violence, materialism, debt, and alcoholism with the secular values they claim to be so superior to the Sharia. The growing intolerance towards Islam and Sharia in the UK is dangerous and is symptomatic of a deep ignorance of Islam and the black propaganda campaign against it that is an integral part of the global war on terror.
Hizb ut Tahrir Britain challenges the authors of this campaign to put an end to the politics of Islam-baiting and to engage in a genuine debate about the values and systems of Islam versus those of secularism. Hizb ut Tahrir Britain calls upon the Muslim community to join and support it in working to dispel the myths about Islam, the Sharia and the Khilafah through dialogue and discussion with the wider society.
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