Recently, Shari’ah has been synonymously connected to the word terrorism. Shari’ah invokes fear amongst western countries, like Australia for its Hudud Law. Muslims have been under constant vilification causing the hostile of Muslim due to political and public discourse. Many people believe that Shari’ah is a fixed set of laws for all context and concepts. Plainly, shari’ah is tangible and under context development. Facts are that shari’ah is reduced an archaic and a barbaric set of rules. Leading to questioning of their loyalty, their capacity to integrate with secular law and being titled under extremism and terrorism. However, people as Peter Costello, do not understand that Shari’ah consist of 70 percent laws pertaining to worship, 25 percent …show more content…
Shari’ah in Australia is limited to custody, divorce, marriage and inheritance. When referring to Islamic law, it is usually an “extra-judicial institution” (Saeed 2010, p. 224), utilising a meditative mechanism and the Australian law in family affairs. Yet, many Australian believe that shari’ah councils dealing with family issues is the introduction to a greater plan for shari’ah ruling Australia. Conversely, Muslim are demanding for recognitions of their ethical and religious norms in the limited zones of shari’ah. “People who've come here from overseas and people who adhere to a religious tradition like Islam, which has its own law, [are] going to have an attachment to it. You can't simply get off the plane, take off your coat and abandon all your law and culture at the same time. There is sometimes a difficulty in knowing which law to follow.”(Hussain 2008, p.1). However, Shari’ah law is not the only religious law currently operating on Australia soil. Jewish Beth Din court operate in Victoria dealing with conversion, divorce, adoption including commercial matters (Saeed 2010), nonetheless, no notice have been
Australian law has reflected the status of women in Anglo-Celtic culture. Today there are women in Australia from widely diverse cultural backgrounds and the law has a role in ensuring the safety, freedom, security and equality of opportunity for them all. As the status of women varies from culture to culture and changes over time, the law has had to adapt and evolve in order to fulfill its role.
However, with the emergence of multicultural policy, some difficulties have developed in the attempt to in place these policies. The challenges which have emerged include the problem of how to properly categorize minorities, the problem of conditions and sequencing, and the relationship between justice and security, (Kymlicka, 2013, pp. 8-9). Examining the relationship between justice and security, the question of to what extent should minority rights be preserved, and what risks are worth taking is brought forward, (Kymlicka, 2013, p. 9). Putting Sharia law into practice is controversial because while it follows multicultural, the practice also differentiates from Canadian law, and puts some Canadians at
In particularly Section 116, preventing the Commonwealth government from passing laws that ‘prohibit free exercise of religion.’ Despite religious motivations behind recent terror attacks, Commonwealth Parliament has actively implemented mechanisms to decrease the likelihood of unjustified religious discrimination. Notably, cabinet recently proposed the introduction of a Minister for Muslims. Devising such a position, accommodates principles of equality before the law embodied in the rule of law by ‘encouraging institutional participation, and representation of Muslim needs in policy development’ (Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 2014). Establishing counter-terrorism initiatives in consultation with Muslim communities reflects democratic principles by incorporating the needs of individuals and groups into political
There are few different branches of Islam but the two most prominent branches are Sharia law and Sufism. Sharia law and Sufism both seem to contradict each other. Sharia laws are the Qur’anic rules for the tangible world. The law includes predetermined punishment and rewards for actions, clearly defined by the Qur’an. It also has a spectrum of the lawfulness of actions, ranging from required to forbidden. Sufism, however, takes a more mystical approach to the practice of Islam. Sufism focuses on rejecting the material world and becoming one with God through self-annihilation. Despite the difference, I argue Sharia law and Sufism can be reconciled because although one person cannot practice both at the same time, but both versions of Islam
Although many Australian’s exhibit low levels of Islamophobia, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that there is growing discrimination towards Muslims in Australia, as the rate of terror attacks increases. As a result of lack of knowledge and close-mindedness, Muslims are wrongfully feared and blamed for the acts of Islamic Extremists. As explained, many religions do not support discrimination of any form; however, many people can disregard their religious teachings as they respond to the events that are occurring in the world. This is acceptable in a sense for the world to stand as one against terrorists; although, it is irrational to blame all Muslims for the actions of a selection of people. In today’s world the population may find it difficult to make distinction between regular Muslims and extremists, as well as all others in the world. Muslims do not necessarily have to have a particular racial background, as a Caucasian Australian with an Australia background can select to be a Muslim religion and can revert to a member of ISIS if intended. In retrospect, this aspect of the discrimination can be seen as there
Islam is a monotheistic religion with over 1.7 billion followers that spans the globe, many of the practices of a Muslim are committed daily. Devout Muslims would reject the statement ‘only those who fear punishment will treat others well.’ Because of the wish, a Muslim has to follow the lead Muhammad left as a model Muslim, as well as the connection a Muslim holds with to their core beliefs, through the Aqida al-Islam, the hadiths, Arkan al-Islam and shari’a.
In the recent past terrorism, especially in politically and economically unstable regions, brings a continuously growing threat for people from every color, religion or ethnic background. And also in rather safe areas, such as Europe or the U.S., people fear the threat of terrorism. For such inhumane violence a scapegoat is often easily found in Islam, the religion these groups affirm to fight for. Such belief can readily lead to condemnation of not only an actually peace loving religion, but also innocent minorities suffering under the perverted practices of liars. This discrimination cannot be tolerated, because Al-Qaeda, the most commonly known terror organization of the world, and their leader Osama Bin Laden, were founded on a political basis and find no countenance in the Quran, the holy book of Islam. The organization Al-Qaeda, following terroristic ideas and claiming to operate as surrogate for Islamic values, simplifies and intentionally misinterprets and shortens verses of the Quran, actually having no close connection to Islamic ideas, only claiming to do so in order to use it as a weapon to attack the United States and to convince potential followers to join the ' 'holy ' ' war fighting of Al Qaeda.
This is partially being seen through Muslims being able to be married by a Muslim marriage celebrant without having to have a separate ceremony. By implementing a parallel family law system, this would allow Australian Muslim citizens to deal with their family matters such as, marriage, divorce, and inheritance, in Sharia courts, while not affecting the rest of the population. As I’ve mentioned before, introducing Sharia courts into Australia, would not include such things as polygyny, which is currently illegal in Australia; it would be introducing aspects of Sharia law that abide by Australian law, as it is key for it to abide by the law of the land. The introduction of Sharia courts would simply allow Muslim citizens to keep their personal affairs within their Muslim communities, and to feel as though they are being represented fairly and by someone who understands their religion. It would be of little grievance to anyone to implement Sharia courts for family law, with the option of course to take it to a regular court if the individual
There is currently a debate of whether Australia should introduce legislation allowing religious groups, including Muslims, Jews and others, to surrender themselves to the religious arbitration in areas of personal law, similar to the model that was in force in Ontario, Canada, from 1991 to 2005. Canada ultimately denied formal recognition of the religious arbitration but still accepted its existence only within the informal processes if the parties of the disputes are willing to use religious arbitration. The paper is to undertake a comparative examination of the model, as it existed in Ontario and the current position in Australia and examine the pros and cons for an
In Australia, “A body of rules for the guidance of human conduct buy which may be enforced by the authorities concerned” known as law have vastly large different types and are applied into different area of society. In general, the law in Australia could be put into the following two categories:
The meaning of “Shariah”, we have earlier said that the worship of the angels is the great services they render to all creatures. But what are the established principles for the angelic services? This is what I intend to discuss now but before then it is pertinent to define the divine law which is technically known as Shariah. We should also talk about it aims.
Ceremonies, rituals and symbolism characterize Islamic life. Ceremonies and rituals honor Islamic faith which reflect their values and communicate those values through symbolism. Similar to Judaism law of Halakha, Islam follows Shariah law which governs Muslim nations legal systems and financial regulations, as well as Muslim everyday life. Shariah is meant to uphold the moral standards set by God which is found in the Quran and through the sayings and practices (hadith) of Muhammad (Black, 2012). Hadith of Muhammad makes up the Sunnah body of law, and together the Quran and Sunnah is the highest authority in all of Islam sects and schools. This foundation is what guides Islamic rituals.
The importance of school of Islamic thoughts of Sunni Islam and Shia Islam, including Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali and ShafiʿI, as well as other Sufism to better understanding totalitarian Islamists' doctrine, is essential. It also helped me to understand the background and context, the political importance of Islam in the contemporary Islamic world.
Khalid Zaheer is a fervent critic of liberal and religious extremism, and firmly believes that Islam provides a remedy for this plague by preaching an ideology of a pluralistic society that espouses of peace, harmony and egalitarianism. His article, “The Salman Rushdie Case: An Islamic View” was posted on his official website in July 2007 and is aimed at addressing the resentment against Salman Rushdie’s controversial book “The Satanic Verses” in the Muslim community. Muslims accused Rushdie of apostasy and blasphemy against their prophet and demanded his immediate execution. In his article, Zaheer bases his claims on credible historical religious evidence and argues that the Muslim demand for Rushdie’s death is absolutely un-Islamic, since Islamic law has never suggested capital punishment for blasphemy and irtidad - apostasy. Zaheer’s effective use of credible sources and logical progression of ideas along with the rhetorical devices efficiently develop his argument and persuade the reader. However, his occasional fallacious reasoning and overlooking of significant details make the reader question the reliability of his assertions.
The interaction between politics and religion in the Islamic context is one that descends from the model of the Prophet Muhammad, who served as a transcendental figure and as a community leader at the same time. Inevitably, then, these two aspects of Muhammad’s position interacted to some degree. Indeed, this intermingling of “the political” and “the religious” is seen in the very framework of Islam as we know it – the umma is at once a community defined around a religious identity and a political entity extant through that religious identity. Nevertheless, Islam remains a diverse religion encompassing a number of various “ideologies” – frameworks by which the textual and traditional material of the faith are interpreted and understood. This paper will examine a number of these ideological approaches to Islam – namely traditionalism, modernism, Islamism, and Sufism – and explain their visions of how Islam should relate with politics.