Sharia Experts

The ever-accommodating, all-inclusive Barack Obama closes doors to no one, no group, no ideology, no religion. His open-minded welcome to all and sundry marks him as a man for all reasons. Some of his appointments have caused a stir, some because the candidates appeared to some interests to be inimical to their own. Some have been challenged, some have voluntarily removed themselves from contention, lest they cast doubt on the intelligent design of America's new president, and some have forged on, despite concerns.

There has appeared one distinguished individual, appointed to the President's Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships who may now, in pursuing her mandate, be seen to be causing some concerns, in some faiths, in some neighbourhoods, questioning the partnership. None of us has the privilege of hindsight, however, and events simply unfold as they must, reflecting the vicissitudes of human nature, perceptions, and adherences to ideologies and religions familiar to some, mysterious to others.

But from Dalia Mogahed, she of the formerly-named Council, we have it on authority that the western view of sharia is "oversimplified". Furthermore, it is her expert opinion, that the majority of women around the world associated sharia with "gender justice". Which comes as a truly amazing surprise to non-Muslims and some Muslim women, alike. When the Province of Ontario was in the process of pondering the introduction of sharia law, it was the strenuous efforts of Muslim women who exerted their voting authority to shoot it down.

Sharia law, as many understand it, treats women as appendages to men. Men's entitlements and power over women are scrupulously limned for all to obey. The woman lives in bondage to the man's authority and desires. Her personal life shadows his. Sharia law deals with the insult to the social contract seen as 'promiscuity' and the damage done to 'traditional values' by dire punishments, inclusive of flogging, and even death. These are hard lessons to learn, but once learned most often permanent.

Sharia law deals also with the propensity for some segments of humankind to sociopathic tendencies such as theft. Thieves may, under sharia, do penance by surrendering - not necessarily voluntarily - the hand that plundered. Men who, in a sharia society, have the misfortune of surrendering to the confusion of same-gender longings, risk the great displeasure of society which can demonstrate their anger by incarcerating the offender, or enacting capital punishment.

Under sharia law believers who turn away from Islam and become apostates - worse, adopt another religion - are viewed as scum, unfit to share life among Muslims, and as traitors to Islam, and can be sentenced to death. A Muslim who sells formerly Muslim-owned land to a Jew or to an Infidel may, by that transaction, forfeit his life. It's little arcane bits of knowledge like that, so commonly bandied about by the ignorant unwashed critical of sharia law. But what do they know?

Ms. Mogahed, she of the President's Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, made herself available to appear on a British television show whose host is a member of the extremist Hizb ut Tahrir party that makes no secret of its belief in the eventual vanquishing of Western democracy through inertia (helpfully brought to fruition by the exalted birth-rate of Muslims), whereby an Islamic state under sharia, will rise on the ashes of Western democracy, throughout the globe.

The 45-minute discussion that ensued was rife with criticism of "man-made law", scornful of the West's "lethal cocktail of liberty and capitalism". It is sharia that should rightfully be the fount of all legislation, and furthermore women should never be tolerated in "a position of leadership in government". Ms. Mogahed appeared to have no problem ingesting these thoughts, herself identifying "promiscuity" and the "breakdown of traditional values" to be the lethal cocktail that will destroy Western democracy. She may be right.

"I think the reason so many women support sharia is because they have a very different understanding of sharia than the common perception in western media. The majority of women around the world associate gender justice, or justice for women, with sharia compliance. The portrayal of sharia has been oversimplified in many cases", she stated as her contribution to the television program.

Indeed, the world she and those whom she appeared with on that television program do inhabit an entirely other world. Can the two ever meet with any degree of mutual acceptance? On the basis of the thoughts and ideas reflected on that Islam Channel program Muslimah Dilemma, one might think not.