Thailand Explores Greater Autonomy for Largely Muslim Provinces
Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Photo courtesy of Google Images
VOICE OF AMERICA (VOA): A Thai government policy review of the largely Muslim southern provinces is considering granting greater local autonomy with reforms including introduction of Sharia Law through Islamic courts. The strategy is part of efforts to bring to an end a five-year insurgency that has cost more than 3,000 lives.

The policy review began soon after the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva came to office in December. Speaking to foreign correspondents earlier this year, Mr. Abhsit set out the government's policy goals.



"The only long-term solution must be done through a comprehensive package that covers well beyond the security dimensions, but also addresses the issues such as economic development as well as addressing education and cultural diversity in the provinces," he said.

'Total development concept'

The government plan includes setting up a special office headed by a minister in charge of affairs in the Southern provinces. An interim committee of ministers has examined what the government calls a 'total development concept' directed to the three provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala.



The region is among the poorest in Thailand, heavily reliant on agriculture, especially rubber, as well as mining.



While Thailand's 63 million population is overwhelmingly Buddhist, there are more than six million Muslims, largely living in these provinces bordering Malaysia. 



A Thai government review paper, an English translated copy of which was obtained by VOA, says people in the region consider themselves Pattani Malays rather than Thai.



The review paper calls on government to adopt a strategy that is largely peaceful and suggests a military solution will fail to win local community support, even if it succeeds in imposing control. >>> By Ron Corben, Bangkok | Wednesday, March 18, 2009

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Malaysian Court Accepts Woman's Decision to Convert from Islam
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION (ABC): On the Malaysian island state of Penang, an Islamic court has upheld a controversial decision - allowing a woman to revert from Islam to Buddhism. 



It's one of the rare ocassions a Syariah court has allowed someone to leave Islam - a practice usually viewed very seriously under Malaysian law. The court said the woman had a unique case because her conversion to Islam had not been valid, but the case has touched on a sensitive issue that has long divided the Malaysian public. >>> | Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Listen to ABC audio: here

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Living Under Sharia: The Plight of Women in Saudi Arabia
OEN: Islamic legal code, the Sharia, continues to make grounds in the West. Sharia Court, operational in Canada since 1991, was abolished in 2006 in the face of intense campaign from human rights activists. Although widely practiced by the Muslim community over the year, Sharia Court received official recognition in the U.K. for dealing with civil and some criminal cases (domestic violence etc.) in 2007. Since some 40% British Muslims want the establishment of Sharia Court with a fewer of them opposed to it, this is possibly the first-step in the gradual process of establishing full-fledged Islamic legal codes in Britain. As Muslim immigrants in the West, from Europe to North America, are showing increasing support for Sharia, demand for Sharia Court in other Western countries will definitely intensify in light of this British concession.

What people in the West must make themselves aware of is that Sharia laws are extremely discriminatory, indeed humiliating and degrading, toward non-Muslims. It is also highly discriminatory and humiliating toward Muslim women. In order to get a grasp of the nature of Sharia law, one may have a look at Afghanistan under the Taliban, Iran and Saudi Arabia, where Sharia laws are applied to varying strictness. In the wake of the just-concluded International Women’s Day, this essay will attempt to make it clear what Sharia law means for Muslim women.

When Australian Mufti Taj al-Din al-Hilali raised furor in 2006 by calling unveiled women “uncovered meat” to suggest that eighteen such white women, raped (some even gang-raped) by Muslim youths in a Sydney neighborhood in 2000, actually invited the horrendous act upon themselves. Most Australians and Westerners have viewed it as utterance of a deranged ignorant cleric, not representing the Islamic creed and community. However, an investigation of the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia—the birth-place and heartland of Islam—reveals a strong Islamic rational behind the Mufti’s assertion.

Saudi Arabia, the sacred land of Islamic devotion, is the best place for evaluating the status of women in Islam, where Islamic holy laws—the Sharia, which should ideally guide Islamic societies for eternity—are implemented most rigorously amongst Islamic countries. The Saudi Basic Law says: >>> M A Khan | Saturday, March 14, 2009

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President Defends Islamic Law
NEWS 24: Kampala - Somalia's President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on Friday defended plans to implement Islamic law in his war-wracked country, saying it was aimed at appeasing militants opposed to his government.

"The purpose of this decision is to ensure that he who claims that he is fighting to have sharia no longer has a reason to fight," he told reporters in the Ugandan capital, where he met President Yoweri Museveni.

"Sharia does not allow for blood to be shed for political reasons. So that door is closed."

Hardline Islamist militia fighting the government have insisted on implementation of Islamic law, or sharia, which they have imposed in areas under their control.

The Somali cabinet on Tuesday agreed to introduce Islamic law which is to presented to parliament for approval.

"Sharia is something that everyone is Somalia believes in and lives by," Ahmed said. "And it has been in existence not only for years, but especially in recent years in Somalia it has been in practice." >>> AFP | Friday, March 13, 2009

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New Dark Age Alert! University of Maryland International Report: Muslims Say Yes to Shari’ah Law and Islamic Supremacy
Read the report here >>> | Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Hat tip: Jihad Watch >>>
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Pakistan Christians Worried over Sharia Law Plans
RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE: Christians in Pakistan have expressed concern over plans to implement Sharia law in the Malakand region.

The move was part of a package to secure a cease-fire with pro-Taliban groups in the region that includes the Swat Valley, but it has caused unease among the region’s Christian groups. Their concerns have been echoed by human rights groups. The concession by the federal government was agreed last week in an attempt to broker a truce with pro-Taliban groups in the region, but Christians say that the introduction of the Islamic legal system renders constitutional and juridical law redundant. [Source: Religious Intelligence] Nick Mackenzie | Wednesday, February 25, 2009

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Make Sharia Part of UK Law, Says QC
DAILY EXPRESS: SHARIA law will “inevitably” become part of the legal system and work should begin now to incorporate it into British law, a leading barrister said last night.

Stephen Hockman, QC, former chairman of the Bar Council, spoke at a meeting organised by the website Islam4UK, where another speaker was Anjem Choudary, former head of banned fanatical group al-Muhajiroun.



Sharia law has become associated with executions, stonings and hands being cut off.



But Mr Hockman told the Daily Express: “Given our substantial Muslim population, it is vital that we look at ways to integrate Muslim culture into our traditions.



“Otherwise we will find that there is a significant section of our society which is increasingly alienated, with very dangerous results. 



“There should perhaps be a standing committee comprising Parliamentarians, lawyers and religious leaders to consider how this could be achieved and what legal changes might be framed.” >>> | Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Hat tip: Pastorius of iBloga, where you can also comment on this absurdity.

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Sharia Incompatible with Human Rights: House of Lords
THE TIMES OF INDIA: LONDON: The House of Lords on Friday described the Islamic legal code Sharia as "wholly incompatible" with human rights legislation, a comment that could spark an outcry among Muslims in the United Kingdom.

The Upper House of the British Parliament has drawn sharp attention to the conflict between Sharia and UK law, calling the Islamic legal code "wholly incompatible" with human rights legislation.

The controversial remarks came amidst a debate in Britain over the appropriateness of incorporating Sharia courts into the UK's legal system, a move advocated by figures including the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams and Lords Phillips, the new senior law lord.

The comments in the House of Lords came today as it considered the case of a woman who, if she was sent back to Lebanon, would be obliged under Sharia law to hand over custody of her 12-year-old son to a man who beat her, threw her off a balcony and, on one occasion, attempted to strangle her. >>> | October 24, 2008

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Man Deserts Wife in Dubai, Converts to Islam and Remarries
DECCAN HERALD: A 39-year-old woman living in Dubai was allegedly deserted by her husband who converted to Islam and married another woman.

Vibha Suri, who now lives in the United Arab Emirates city, got to know in January this year that her husband Vikram Suri had married one Wassima Khan in October 2007, only after a letter from the Indian Consulate in Egypt reached her parents in Lucknow informing them about their son-in-law's second matrimony.

Vikram remarried in Egypt after converting to Islam.

"It has been a year now that my trauma and grief started. Vikram had violated our marriage by committing bigamy after he converted to Islam," Vibha said over phone from Dubai.

Vibha is now fighting a legal battle at the Delhi High Court as she accuses Vikram of restricting her children from travelling outside Dubai and violating an MoU that was finalised between them in February.

"Vikram used Shariat laws in UAE courts to restrict my children's travel outside the country. The MoU was agreed on issues relating to transferring of past financial assets and Vikram's moving out of our house in Dubai," she said. >>> New Delhi, PTI | October 19, 2008

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Sharia Law? Not Fit for Purpose!
Photo of Sadiq Khan courtesy of Mail Online
MAIL Online: A Labour Muslim minister has warned that Islamic law is too unsophisticated for Britain.

Sadiq Khan said women could be ' abused' by sharia courts, which may give unequal bargaining power to the sexes.
He said: 'The burden is on those who want to open up these courts to persuade us why they should.'

Mr Khan, who was made a community cohesion minister in this month's Government reshuffle, rejected the argument that the courts could operate in the same way as the Jewish Beth Din courts.

He said Muslim life in Britain was not advanced enough to run a similar religious legal system.

The MP for Tooting in South London added: 'I would be very concerned about sharia courts applying in the UK.

'I don't think there is that level of sophistication that there is in Jewish law.'

He also said that sharia courts would discourage Muslims from developing links with other cultural and ethnic groups.

In February Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, gave his support for the courts in Britain, saying that the legal recognition of them 'seems unavoidable'.

Mr Khan, who is a human rights lawyer and one of only a handful of Muslim MPs, said: 'The requirement to learn English is not colonial. English is a passport to participation in mainstream society - jobs, education and even being able to use health services.

'Having poor English creates multiple barriers to work,' he writes in the pamphlet for the left-of-centre Fabian Society. Sharia Law Is 'Not Fit for the UK', Says a Labour Muslim MP >>> | October 12, 2008

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Sharia Courts Set to Bring Muslim Law to Bear in Scottish Cities
THE SCOTSMAN: SECRET talks are under way to bring Islamic sharia law courts to Scotland, The Scotsman has learned.

Qamar Bhatti, director of the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT), which runs the courts, admitted discussions were taking place with lawyers and Muslim community groups in Scotland.

The group is believed to be aiming to set up courts in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In September it emerged that five sharia courts, ruling on civil cases from divorce to domestic violence and financial disputes, had been operating for more than a year in London, Birmingham, Bradford, Manchester and at MAT headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire.

The courts have legal powers, with their decisions enforceable through the county courts or high courts.

However, concerns have been raised about the establishment of a "dual legal system".

Women's domestic violence groups have also voiced fears, saying traditional sharia law arbitration is "dangerous and inappropriate" in cases of abuse.

Last night Bill Aitken, the Scottish Tory justice spokesman, said: "Informal private arrangements between individual members of the Muslim community are one thing, but in criminal matters Scottish courts must have total jurisdiction. "Matters of divorce and domestic violence require to be determined by conventional courts. We cannot have private arrangements when human rights are an issue."

The move to establish sharia courts has sharply divided opinion among Scotland's Muslims.

Some defend the right of the Muslim community to rule on its own affairs. But others say MAT has not consulted them and there is no demand for sharia courts.

Aamer Anwar, a Glasgow-based civil rights lawyer, said: "Those using sharia law are fully entitled to religious freedom as long as it doesn't conflict with criminal law. Because it happens to be Islamic , people jump to the conclusion it is barbaric.

"It is down to the community to decide for itself."

Commenting on criticisms over domestic violence, he said: "The woman has full entitlement to go before any court or to the police. With sharia law, when domestic violence is raised it always runs into a fanfare of hysteria."

Noman Tahir, of the Scottish-Islamic Foundation, said there was no groundswell of support for sharia courts in Scotland.

"Currently, Scottish Muslims resolve civil matters through the courts or voluntary third-party arbitration with Islamic scholars and imams," he said. "This has worked well for many years and we are not aware of any unhappiness with these arrangements or calls for change."

A spokeswoman for Shakti Women's Aid, which supports black minority ethnic women, said it was not in favour of the courts in Scotland.

"Cases of domestic abuse and divorce should be heard within the Scottish judicial system," she said. "We fear that many female victims of domestic abuse may be pressurised by their families and partners to accept the rulings of the sharia court as final and prevent them from seeking legal assistance from the Scottish court system, which might force them to continue living within abusive relationships."

John Scott, a human rights lawyer, said: "There is a place for sharia law, but we need to be careful those aspects unfavourable to women are not allowed to dominate.

"I have less concern about fears over a dual legal system than aspects which are inconsistent in practice with equality issues. But such courts cannot be set up unsupervised and they would need to be monitored." Sharia Courts Set to Bring Muslim Law to Bear in Scottish Cities >>> By Shân Ross | October 9, 2008

RELATED - EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS:
Sharia Law Set for the Capital >>> | October 9, 2008

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Islamists Slap Sharia Law on Somalia Town
AFP: MOGADISHU — Islamists in a town in southern Somalia have imposed Sharia law in line with their vow to bring back Islamic theocracy to areas where they were ousted two years ago, a spokesman said Friday.

The Mujahideens of Southern Somalia, a group allied to the radical Shebab movement on Thursday named a 23-member board to enforce the law in Celwaq, about 650 kilometres (400 miles) southwest of Mogadishu.

"This administration will govern the town using laws of the Holy Koran," its spokeman Mohamed Osmail Indhobur told AFP.

Celwaq, near the border with Kenya, is home to tens of thousands of people, boosted by refugees who have fled fighting in the rest of Somalia.

It has escaped much of the civil war, but local militia allied to Islamists have moved in to plug a power vacuum in recent weeks. Islamists Slap Sharia Law on Somalia Town >>> | October 3, 2008

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John Gibson: Minnesota Becomes First US Muslim State

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In an Act of Unprecedented Dhimmitude, the BBC Comes Up with This Crap!
BBC: In London's historic "Inns of Court", barristers practise law in the shadow of the distinctive medieval Temple Church. But does English law really owe a debt to Muslim law?

For some scholars, a historical connection to Islam is a "missing link" that explains why English common law is so different from classical Roman legal systems that hold sway across much of the rest of Europe.

It's a controversial idea. Common law has inspired legal systems across the world. What's more, calls for the UK to accommodate Islamic Sharia law have caused public outcry.

The first port of call when looking for an eastern link in the common law is London's Inns of Court.

"You are now leaving London, and entering Jerusalem," says Robin Griffith-Jones, the Master of the Temple Church, as he walks around its spectacular rotunda.

The church stands in the heart of the legal district and was built by the Knights Templar, the fierce order of monks-turned-warriors who fought Muslim armies in the Crusades.

London's historic legal district, with its professional class of independent lawyers, has parallels with the way medieval Islamic law was organised.

In Sunni Islam there were four great schools of legal theory, which were often housed in "madrassas" around mosques. Scholars debated each other on obscure points of law, in much the same way as English barristers do.

There is a theory that the Templars modelled the Inns of Court on Muslim ideas. But Mr Griffith-Jones suggests it is pretty unlikely the Templars imported the madrassa system to England. They were suppressed after 1314 - yet lawyers only started congregating in the Inns of Court after the 1360s.

Perpetual endowment

This doesn't necessarily rule out the Templars' role altogether. Medieval Muslim centres of learning were governed under a special legal device called the "waqf" under which trustees guaranteed their independence.

In an oak-panelled room in Oxford, historian Dr Paul Brand explains the significance of the 1264 statute that Walter De Merton used to establish Merton College. He was a businessman with connections to the Knights Templar. Is English Law Related to Muslim Law? >>> By Mukul Devichand | September 23, 2008

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Sharia-UK: Brits Head Toward Islamic Law
NEW YORK POST: 'IS Britain heading straight for dis aster?" George Bernard Shaw once began a BBC radio talk. "That is a question I can easily answer. Britain is not heading straight for anything." The reply works for the question: "Is Britain heading straight for sharia law?" It's heading that way - but by a winding path.

News reports this week have given a much stronger impression. They allege that sharia got a legal OK from the government and is already being enforced. A Muslim college in the English Midlands supposedly runs a sharia court that has so far decided more than 100 civil disputes.

In fact, that "court" made its rulings legally binding by a clever dodge: being accepted as a "voluntary arbitration tribunal."
Under British law, any two people can agree to take their dispute to such a tribunal rather than to court; the tribunal's decision is then binding on them. It can even be enforced by the official courts and the police.

Faisal Aqtab Siddiqi, a commercial-law barrister, had the bright idea of establishing a sharia court as the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal. He acknowledges that it so far only handles civil cases such as divorces and inheritance disputes, since British society isn't ready for such innovations as public floggings and hand-choppings. But these are early days. Sharia-UK: Brits Head Toward Islamic Law >>> By John O’Sullivan*

*John O'Sullivan is a Hudson Institute senior fellow and a former Post editorial-page editor.

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More Evidence of the Dawning Dark Age: Sharia Courts Have Come to Britain. It’s Official!
…if this continues Britain will break up as a unitary state governed by one law for all. Sharia law should be stopped, not condoned or encouraged. No other minority in Britain either wants or is permitted to live under an alternative legal system. This is the way a society fractures -- and then goes under. - Melanie Phillips

THE SUNDAY TIMES: 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. Revealed: UK’s First Official Sharia Courts >>> By Abul Taher | September 14, 2008

PUBLIC SERVICE:
Sharia Law Is Now Legally Binding: It’s been described by one commentator as an example of Great Britain ‘surrendering’ itself and the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams was criticised for saying it will happen, but whatever the reaction, Islamic law now officially operates in the UK.

Whereas before rulings by sharia courts in Britain could only be enforced if all parties in a Muslim civil case agreed to abide by them, now what the courts say will be legally binding, backed by county courts or the High Court.

The five sharia courts are Birmingham, Bradford, London and Manchester with others planned for Glasgow and Edinburgh. They will be run by the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal whose Sheikh Faiz-ul-Aqtab Siddiqi said: "We realised that under the Arbitration Act [1996] we can make rulings which can be enforced by county and high courts. The act allows disputes to be resolved using alternatives like tribunals." >>> | September 15, 2008

Hat tip: Jihad Watch

THE SPECTATOR:
No Longer One Law for All >>> | September 16, 2008

THE BRUSSELS JOURNAL:
From Magna Carta to Sharia Law – Britain’s Decline >>> By A Millar | September 15, 2008

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Sharia Courts in the UK: They Must Be Stopped

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Can Britain Survive Multiculturalism?
CBNNEWS: LONDON - Britain's top judge says the nation should allow Islamic Sharia law. The head of the Church of England said something similar.

Consequently, police dogs might have to wear booties when they search Muslim homes to avoid offending Muslims who believe dogs are unclean. And Britain's Home Secretary has decided Islamic terrorism should be re-named "anti-Islamic activity."

In the modern British politically correct state, multiculturalism runs amok. And the government persecutes and suppresses British culture and tradition, while allowing hate and injustice within radical Islam to flourish.

There is a real fear of Muslims in Britain that is far different than in America, and the headlines here sometimes make it look as if capitulation to Islam is inevitable.

It's somewhat astonishing that in a nation of 60 million people, a few million Muslims could cause so much concern. Critics of the government say that's because the nation's politically correct leaders are still hesitant to tackle the issue head on. Can Britain Survive Multiculturalism? >>> By Dale Hurd | July 23, 2008

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Western Society’s War Within
THE AUSTRALIAN: IT may begin with a chuckle, but it could easily end in tears. At least, if we are not careful. One may be tempted to scoff at the demand to legalise polygamy made recently by Khalil Chami of Sydney's Islamic Welfare Centre. But with the recent announcement by Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams that the adoption of sharia law in Britain seems unavoidable, the joke may turn out to be on us.

Britain provides an instructive lesson on the interaction between increasingly radicalised sections of the Muslim diaspora community and its Western host society.

From Dundee to Dover, traditional British values, already weakened to the point of collapse by a decades-long elite infatuation with mushy multiculturalism and cultural relativism, cannot provide resistance against the growing tide of extreme demands by radical self-styled community spokesmen.

The same way that the claim of racism has been used to shut down any debate on cultural identity, immigration and social cohesion, so is Islamophobia increasingly used to silence dissent. To merely raise certain issues is to give offence, and offending sensibilities is a hanging offence in our postmodern times.

While radicals agitate, a politically correct establishment, at pains to prove how enlightened and tolerant it is, even if it means tolerating the intolerance of others, usually stands on the sidelines, if not actively cheering on another challenge to the ostensibly oppressive, hegemonic Western culture and polity. Western Society’s War Within >>> By Brett Mason | July 8, 2008

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Turkey: Erdogan in Trouble
Photo of Recep Tayyip Erdogan courtesy of the BBC
BBC: Turkey's chief prosecutor has appeared before the country's Constitutional Court calling for the governing party to be closed down.

Founded by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Justice and Development Party, the AKP, won a landslide victory in the last election.

But its critics say it is trying to impose Sharia law on the secular state.

The party's attempt to ease a ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf is expected to be central to the evidence.

Prosecutor Abdurraham Yalcinkaya, who has argued that the party has become the focal point of anti-secular activities in Turkey, is appearing before judges in a closed-door session.

"This risk has been increasing every day" reads the 162-page petition submitted to the Constitutional Court by Mr Yalcinkaya.

"The danger is clear and concrete. There is no other way to protect society than to close the party down," it reads.

He is calling for the prime minister, president and 69 other party members to be banned from politics.

The AKP has condemned the case as an assault on democracy. A team representing the party are expected to present their defence on Thursday.

The EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has warned the case could jeopardise Turkey's bid to join the bloc - arguing such disputes should be resolved through the ballot box, not the courts. Turkish Ruling Party Put on Trial >>> | July 1, 2008

LISTEN TO BBC RADIO:
The AK Party won the last election in Turkey by a landslide, but its roots are in political Islam. Now Turkey's chief prosecutor is to give evidence to the country's constitutional court calling for the governing party to be closed down. The prosecutor claims it is trying to impose sharia law on Turkey, which is a strictly secular state >>> Sarah Rainsford reports | July 1, 2008

VOICE OF AMERICA:
Case Against Turkey's Ruling Party Gets Under Way: Turkey's constitutional court has begun hearing a case calling for the ruling Justice and Development Party to be shut down on the charge of undermining the secular state. The prosecutors are asking the court to disband the party and ban the prime minister and president from politics. As Dorian Jones reports for VOA from Istanbul, just as the case got started, Turkish authorities arrested more than 20 hardline nationalists, including two retired generals >>> By Dorian Jones, Istanbul | July 1, 2008

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