by Mudar Zahran
Just like everyone else living under the rule of law, if we Muslims are afraid of our community "passing judgement" on us, we should not be committing crimes in the first place.
Also, as we Muslims here have chosen to live in the West, we should abide by its rules. Nobody is holding us here against our will.
What differentiates civilized societies from others is the rule of the law, where everyone must abide by the rules or face consequences. Nonetheless, as a Muslim living in the West, I have come to see that many of my fellow Muslims living in the West seem to expect a free pass when they break the law by using their religion as an excuse. Unfortunately, as the Western legal system is possibly afraid to be labelled "Islamophobic," this approach seems to work for some of them. Will the European legal system change its plea options into: "Guilty, Not Guilty, No Contest and Islam"?
In January 2013, an 18 year old British Muslim man who raped a 13 year old British girl was spared jail because he claimed he was not aware that it was illegal for him to have sex with the girl, since his education left him ignorant of British law. He added that he went to a madrassah [an Islamic religious school], where he was taught that "women are no more worthy than a lollipop that has been dropped on the ground".
The rapist, Adil Rashid, admitted he had met the young girl online and travelled to a different town in the UK to have sex with her. Still, if he is able to use the internet for grooming a young girl living miles away, how could he claim ignorance of the British laws, which he could have searched easily online? Besides, how could you grow up in a country and then claim you did not know its laws because you belong to a different religion?
Also, didn't he defame his own religion, Islam, by claiming it taught him that women are worthless?
Had a non-Muslim Briton said that in court; we probably would have seen a backlash from the Muslim community here and most likely protests in the streets.
Also, where is the Muslim community's rage and protest against what that rapist said? Or do they actually agree?
To me, this rapist has used his religion to avoid a prison sentence, and it worked for him; he raped a child and walked away with a suspended jail sentence. I wonder if we Muslims realize that cases such as this do even further damage to our image; in fact, I wish I had seen Muslims in the UK demand that rapist go to prison -- otherwise, our silences could mean that we either agree to what he said about Islam, or that we simply do not care. If so, why do we protest and fill British streets with anger whenever a cartoonist, a writer or a politician merely criticizes our religion?
Earlier this year, a British Muslim convert, Rebekah Dawson, refused to give evidence in court because the judge refused to let her wear her burka which shows only her eyes. Dawson, who is being tried for intimidating a mosque's guard, was earlier allowed to attend the court's sessions wearing her burka; the covering set a precedent that might open the door for other legal controversies, such as: will Islamist women in the UK start demanding that they keep wear the burka for their passport photos? How could the British passport, immigration and driver's licensing systems function if women are to be allowed to cover their faces for radical Islamist purposes?
Rebekah Dawson, pictured here in a jihadist video, refused to testify in a London court without her burka.
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According to sharia law, Muslim women are not allowed to cover their faces in Mecca while performing pilgrimage rituals -- a hadith (teachings of Muhammad) says: "a woman in Mecca is not allowed to wear a niqab nor gloves." This text was confirmed by Islamic scholars as saheeh [exact] by renowned Islamic Scholar Al-Albani [Al-Sahih Al-Jami'i, number 7445]. Why would they accept that in Mecca but refuse to show their faces in a British court?
Further, an Iranian asylum seeker, threatened with deportation from the UK to France, demanded to remain in the UK because his 11-year old daughter wears a burka, which is banned in France, and asserting that deporting them to France would violate her religious rights.
Ironically, in this man's native Iran, women commonly wear a scarf as a head cover, not a burka. The man might know that, but he also might be using Islam as an excuse to remain in the UK.
The court, in fact, should be asking the little girl if her father is forcing her to wear the burka, an act that would constitute a serious violation of her human rights and could amount to child abuse.
In a different case, a British judge banned the press from reporting on the trial of two Muslim lawyers, a brother and a sister -- accused of cheating to avoid a speeding ticket -- to save them from allegedly being shamed in the eyes of their community "because members of their family would pass judgment if the case was reported."
But what about non-Muslim defendants -- don't they have communities and relatives who also would "pass judgment" if their trials are reported?
What we see are Muslims in the West trying to get special legal treatment by using their religion as an excuse, and we also see an established judicial system bowing down to their demands perhaps because it is afraid to look anti-Islamic or worse, be labelled as "Islamophobic".
After a challenge by the Daily Mail newspaper, the judged lifted the ban. Nonetheless, the precedent has been set and we shall doubtless see more of us Muslims asking for more special legal treatments.
Just like everyone living under the rule of law, if we Muslims are afraid of our community "passing judgment" on us, we should not be committing crimes in the first place. Also, as we Muslims here have chosen to live in the West, we should live by its rules. Nobody is holding us here against our will.
How can we keep blaming Western societies when they develop fear or discontent about our faith when they keep reading news of us using our religion as an excuse when we break the law?
We Muslims should be more concerned with how we ourselves destroy our faith's image, not with others.
Mudar Zahran
Source: http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4223/islam-rule-of-law
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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