Harvard’s capitulation to Sharia

Harvard’s capitulation to Sharia

Article follows my comments:

I believe this quote is pulled out of thin air and there are a few more mistakes in the article. It should not be passed on as "truthful" reflection of the situaion. “Here is a discussion of the ceremonial for collection of the jizya by the 13th century Shafi’i jurist an-Nawawi: “…The infidel who wishes to pay his poll tax must be treated with disdain by the collector: the collector remains seated and the infidel remains standing in front of him, his head bowed and his back bent.” formed the discriminatory system of dhimmitude imposed upon non-Muslims- Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists- subjugated by jihad.

Mike Ghouse

Harvard: America’s “Hub” For Sharia?
By Andrew Bostom Monday, March 10, 2008

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2184

Right on the heels of Harvard’s capitulation to Sharia mores at its Quadrangle Recreational Athletic Center, the Harvard “academic” community indulged an ideologue with much grander aspirations for implementing Sharia, UCLA Professor of Law, Khaled Abou el Fadl.

My dear friend and colleague Hillel Stavis had the morbidly fascinating experience of witnessing this pseudo-academic fraud peddle his paltry wares March 5, 2008 at Harvard’s Divinity School, during a lecture entitled, non-sequitur, “Conceptualizing Islamic Theology: Sharia and Human Rights Doctrine”

Here are Hillel Stavis’ cogent first hand observations, in his own words:

Of all the evasions, obfuscations and diversions uttered by UCLA’s Professor of Law Khaled Abou el Fadl yesterday [ i.e., March 5, 2008] at the Harvard Divinity School, none was more revealing than his opening declaration that Sharia Law’s compatibility or incompatibility with human rights was wholly “vacuous” and “irrelevant”. None of the 60 or so, mostly Muslim attendees, seemed to have had a problem with this statement. The audience reaction, from both Mr. Fadl’s academic colleagues (among whom was Harvard’s Roy Mottahedeh, Gurney Professor of History, a specialist in Persian history) and students was more disturbing than the actual presentation.

Professor Mottahedeh lamented the fact that Muslims have spent too much time trying to reconcile Shari’ah with the UN Declaration of Human Rights, urging the world to supplement it with the Muslim version. Of course, the former is truly universal, the latter particularistic.

And so, a Harvard tenured professor would essentially replace one with the other in a kind of perfecting process.

Nearly 5-years ago now, I warned that El Fadl’s much ballyhooed reputation as a reformer was completely unjustified. Specifically, I noted his pattern of uniformed or deliberately deceitful presentation:

Recently El Fadl elucidated his “construction” of the tolerant tradition in Islam as part of an essay collection. He focused this presentation, appropriately, on two of the most obvious challenges to any such construction, i.e. jihad, and the poll tax (jizya) levied on non-Muslims under Islamic rule. El Fadl’s arguments regarding both jihad and the jizya in this essay merit close scrutiny, as these institutions are integrated into the corpus of the Shari’a, or sacred Islamic law. I believe his omissions of evidence in this essay, combined with an excessive reliance on sacralized, whitewashed historiography, refutes the prevailing notion that El Fadl is engaged in a sincere effort to instill fundamental change in Islam.

El Fadl states categorically: “..Islamic tradition does not have a notion of holy war. Jihad simply means to strive hard or struggle in pursuit of a just cause...Holy war (al-harb al-muqaddasah) is not an expression used by the Qur’anic text or Muslim theologians. In Islamic theology war is never holy; it is either justified or not...” This contention cannot be supported on either theological-juridical, or historical grounds, and in fact contradicts the conclusion of an earlier essay by El Fadl.

El Fadl’s discussion of jihad is rendered meaningless by a blatant historical negationism of both Muslim and non-Muslim sources. In his analysis of the poll tax (jizya), he relies exclusively upon the sacralized early Muslim historiography of this institution. El Fadl thus attempts to uphold the “virtuous” aspects of the jizya, omitting any reference to the consistent, intentionally humiliating character of its application…El Fadl’s presentation excludes discussion of how the jizya was viewed by classical Muslim jurists. There was in fact a basic consensus among the four schools of Islamic jurisprudence regarding the intimate relationship between the institutions of jihad against the infidels, and jizya. El Fadl ignores these extensive writings, and instead asserts whimsically, “…there are various indicators that the poll tax is not a theologically mandated practice, but a functional solution that was adopted in response to a specific set of historical circumstances. Only an ahistorical reading of the text could conclude that it is an essential element in a divinely sanctioned program of subordinating the non-believer.”

Another important aspect of the jizya that El Fadl ignores is the widely upheld, although not unanimous view of the classical schools of Islamic jurisprudence about the “humiliating” imposition and procurement of this tax. Here is a discussion of the ceremonial for collection of the jizya by the 13th century Shafi’i jurist an-Nawawi: “…The infidel who wishes to pay his poll tax must be treated with disdain by the collector: the collector remains seated and the infidel remains standing in front of him, his head bowed and his back bent. The infidel personally must place the money on the scales, while the collector holds him by the beard, and strikes him on both cheeks…”

El Fadl also fails to discuss how the “contract of the jizyah”, or “dhimma” encompassed other obligatory and recommended obligations for the conquered non-Muslim “dhimmi” peoples. Collectively, these “obligations” formed the discriminatory system of dhimmitude imposed upon non-Muslims- Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians, Hindus, and Buddhists- subjugated by jihad. Some of the more prominent features of the system of dhimmitude include: the prohibition of arms for the vanquished non-Muslims (dhimmis), and of church bells; the restrictions concerning the building and restoration of churches and synagogues; the inequality between Muslims and non-Muslims with regard to overall taxation, and penal law; the refusal of dhimmi testimony by Muslim courts; the obligation for Jews and Christians to wear special clothes; and their overall humiliation and abasement.

And I concluded with this relevant assessment:

It should be abundantly clear that Professor El Fadl’s disingenuous revisionism hardly qualifies as a sincere effort to promote a meaningful Islamic “Reformation”. Intended or not, his whitewashed, “ahistorical” presentation is dangerous, and serves to justify alarming contemporary Muslim assessments of dhimmitude, and its appropriate application, even today! For example, Palestinian Authority (PA) Undersecretary for Awqaf [Religious Endowment], Sheik Yussef Salamah, representing the PA at a May 1999 “Inter-Cultural Conference,” in Tehran, praised the 7th century system of Ahl Al-Dhimma (i.e, the system of dhimmitude), as the proper paradigm for relations between present day Muslims and Christians 58. Palestinian Authority employee, Sheik Muhammad Ibrahim Al-Madhi later reiterated these sentiments with regard to Jews during a Friday sermon broadcasted live on June 6, 2001 on PA TV, from the Sheik ‘Ijlin Mosque in Gaza:"We welcome, as we did in the past, any Jew who wants to live in this land as a dhimmi, just as the Jews have lived in our countries, as dhimmis, and have earned appreciation, and some of them have even reached the positions of counselor or minister here and there. We welcome the Jews to live as dhimmis, but the rule in this land and in all the Muslim countries must be the rule of Allah.”

One needs simply to contrast El Fadl’s meager revisionist approach with the unequivocal statements of a Muslim academic such as Professor Bassam Tibi. Professor Tibi possesses the insight and courage to acknowledge that a meaningfully reformed Islam must embrace the pluralistic spirit of the Western Enlightenment:

“..In the context of religious tolerance-and I write this as a Muslim- there can be no place in Europe for Shari’a …Shari’a is at odds with the secular identity of Europe and is diametrically opposed to secular European constitutions formulated by the people… I hold out for the superiority of common sense over religious faith (i.e., absolute religious precepts); individual human rights (i.e., not collective human rights); secular democracy based on the separation of religion from politics; a universally accepted pluralism; and a mutually accepted secular tolerance. The acceptance of these values is the foundation of a civil society..”

Professor Tibi’s comments underscore basic truths that apologists for the Shari’a such as El Fadl refuse to acknowledge. For example, the 1990 Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam maintains that the Shari’a has primacy over the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and includes the specific proclamation that God has made the umma (Islamic community) the best nation, whose role is to “guide” humanity. This statement captures the indelible influence of jihad ideology on the Shari’a, rendering sacred and permanent the notion of inequality between the community of Allah, and the infidels. Thus we can see clearly the differences between the Shari’a-inspired Cairo Declaration, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which does not refer to any religion or to the superiority of any group over another, while stressing the absolute equality of all human beings. Indeed a Senegalese jurist (and Muslim), Adama Dieng, (then serving as secretary-general to the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists), courageously declared in 1992 that the Cairo Declaration introduced an intolerable discrimination against non-Muslims and women.

Subsequently, Daniel Pipes elaborated on El Fadl’s so-called “anti-Wahhabism,” which is negated by his continued apologetics for jihad terrorism, and open espousal of the implementation of Sharia in non-Muslim societies, as a leading pseudo-academic, cultural jihadist. Pipes highlighted, for example the fact that Sheikh Muhammad al-Ghazali (1917-96), an important 20th century Egyptian cleric, remains one of Abou El Fadl’s chief intellectual influences. However, as I have noted, the “anti-Wahhabi” al-Ghazali, then an official of Al Azhar University, supported the July 1994 vigilante murder of secular Egyptian writer Farag Foda. Testifying on behalf of Farag Foda’s murderer, al-Ghazali stated, unabashedly, “A secularist represents a danger to society and the nation that must be eliminated. It is the duty of the government to kill him.”

Over fifty years ago (i.e., circa 1955), Gustave von Grunebaum (d. 1972), a major scholar of Islam, well prepared to make sound judgments on matters related to Islamic societies, issued this prescient warning based upon actually studying the writings of the Muslim ideologues of his day, including El Fadl’s ideological inspiration, Muhammad al-Ghazali. [Gustave von Grunebaum, Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 1955, Vol. 14, p. 202, (Book Review of Muhammad Al-Ghazzali’s, Our Beginning in Wisdom, 1953, translated by Ismail R. al-Faruqi)]:

The political constellation of the moment which is likely to continue for some not inconsiderable length of time has induced us to envisage ourselves in a world of an “either…or.” We concern ourselves with the compatibility or otherwise of Islam with communism and regardless of the conclusion in which we acquiesce, we are apt to overlook the fact that the Muslim circles most emphatically opposed to communism are at the same time potentially if not actually the most formidable stronghold of hostility to the West. Ghazzali’s tirade against American Democracy (pp. 60-62) with its warning “against the spreading American ways,” with its condemnation of “the domestic as well as foreign policy of America” as “actually a systematic violation of every virtue humanity has ever known” should make us aware that the Muslim “extremists” will be with the West not because of any recognized affinity but merely out of momentary political considerations. Ultimately, the self-conscious world of Islam would wish to consolidate into a power center strong enough to set itself up by the side of the Russian and the Western blocks, strong enough to determine for itself what its primary political concerns should be, and strong enough perhaps to be no longer compelled to westernize for the sake of survival. The hot-headed half-truths of Ghazzali must not delude us into considering absurd the aspiration of those who feel that for its revival Islam needs less rather than more gifts of the West.

At present, more than fifty years later, the distressingly stupid leaders of our universities remain oblivious to (or if ever aware, hostile to) von Grunebaum’s profound insights, allowing post-Edward Saidian pseudo-scholars like El Fadl and Mottahedeh, to blissfully pursue their university-supported efforts aimed at “peacefully” subverting the US to Islamic Law.

Let me state bluntly, and humorlessly, I have lost all patience with such fraudulent “presentations,” and their utterly ridiculous academic patina—they are pernicious.

Mr El Fadl, and his equally deficient Harvard host Roy Mottahedeh want nothing less than for our liberal democracy to willfully impose upon itself the Ur-Fascistic totalitarianism of Sharia. Only the most empty-headed buffoons, their minds melted away by ceaselessly and uncritically imbibing the cultural relativism that prevails in our “academy,” and “public discourse,” would even begin to entertain El Fadl’s premise. And yet there he was, at Harvard, no less, espousing such hideous ideas along with the dangerously ludicrous Mr. Mottahedeh, who endorsed them.

Hillel Stavis sent me this apposite closing observation shortly after hearing El Fadl’s lecture, and the equally inane commentary of his host, Mottahedeh:

Harvard seems to have heard Mr. Mottahedeh’s message recently when it accorded exclusionary rights to Muslims by banning men from one of its gyms at designated hours to accommodate Muslim women. Given the professor’s desired trajectory of Islamic “ethics”, we might even see the ultimate penalty for apostasy applied to those foolhardy students who decide to change their religion while at Harvard.

Is that Sharia?

Although the concept of justices is good with Sharia, Why are the labor laws being sidelined? What is the need for Sharia's application in this situation?

Mike Ghouse

Is that Sharia?
Kim Bobo
http://religiondispatches.org/Gui/Content.aspx?Page=AR&Id=132&SP=1

In popular parlance the phrase “Is this kosher?” has nothing to do with food, or with ritual purity; it refers to the 'rightness', or justice, of something.

Of course 'kosher' never did refer only to a certain slaughtering process or a particular set of prayers; it involves a whole set of ethical standards. Kosher meat processing owners discovered this broader principle when their workers sought to organize unions. Two years ago in the midwest, the Twin Cities Workers’ Interfaith Network organized a Passover seder outside a kosher food processing plant challenging the owner’s kosher certification.

For more than a decade, a conservative rabbi from Minneapolis, Rabbi Morris Allen, has been trying to get the entire Jewish community to take seriously this concept of kosher. He argues that the humane treatment of animals is not enough in the determining of kosher standards--they should also ensure that the workers at the meatpacking plants and slaughterhouses are treated with respect and dignity.

In Islam, there is the concept of "shariah", referring to the guiding principles revealed in the Quran. On the most basic level, it refers to whether or not something is clean or just. (As with “kosher,” the word is often used in conjunction with food, although the word "halal" refers specifically to the process of ensuring that food itself is clean.)

Islamic or shariah-compliant investing, therefore, prohibits business activities--like gambling, alcohol and usury--that result in undignified moral behavior. In the Muslim world, more and more companies and financial institutions are aiming toward shariah-compliance, with millions of dollars at stake. Huge conferences are organized among business leaders to discuss and review shariah compliance, while in the U.S., Harvard University runs an annual conference on the matter.

Now, as Islamic investing makes its way into the mainstream, worker justice advocates are looking at how the principle of shariah can help workers. Indianapolis, smack in the heart of America, is now the center of such a discussion: a small group of janitors claim shariah should apply to them and are challenging the owner of the building where they clean to allow them to organize a union.

A little more than two years ago, janitors across Indianapolis began organizing to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions. The janitors, who were making less than $7.50 an hour at the time with no benefits, looked with envy at the salaries of unionized janitors in Chicago, just a few hours up the road, who were making as much as $12.50 an hour, with health care and pension. They had seen what the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had done to help janitors in Houston in 2006 when 5000 janitors organized and wages jumped from $6.25 (with less work hours) to $7.25. By January 2009, Houston janitors will receive $7.75 and hour. If janitors could organize in Houston, why not Indianapolis?

The religious community had been instrumental in janitor contracts in Houston and Chicago. The workers and SEIU reached out seeking support to religious leaders, including the Islamic Society of North America, which is headquartered outside Indianapolis. (Again, who would guess that one of the nation’s largest Islamic organization is headquartered in Indianapolis?)

The religious community did what it often does in such janitor campaigns; it met with janitors to hear their stories and encourage them to stand up for their rights; it led prayers at public events and rallies; it organized delegations to building owners encouraging them to allow the workers to organize without having to use the cumbersome National Labor Relations Board process (NLRB). This faithful band of Indianapolis religious leaders, led by Rev. Darren Cushman Wood, pastor of Speedway United Methodist Church and organizer Rev. C.J. Hawking, now the director of the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues, called itself the Indianapolis Clergy Committee. During one delegation, the clergy members even got themselves arrested--possibly a first in Indianapolis activist history.

One company that was visited (“delegated”) several times by religious delegations was the international real estate company HDG Mansur, the second largest property owner in Indianapolis. This company contracts with Executive Management Services (EMS) for its building cleaning services. EMS has vehemently opposed the organizing efforts of the workers; the janitors and their religious supporters claim EMS intimidates and threatens workers who have sought a union contract.

In the midst of the janitors' struggle, the religious community learned that HDG Mansur planned to launch the first-ever publicly-traded shariah-compliant investment fund, Al-Umran Global Property Fund Limited, on the London and Dubai stock exchanges. The Indianapolis religious leaders quickly studied the concept of shariah, and it appeared to them that shariah compliance should include justice to workers, given the clear teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.

Prophet Muhammad said, “Allah said, ‘I will be an opponent to three types of people on the Day of Resurrection: one who makes a covenant in My name but proves treacherous; one who sells a free person and eats his price; and one who employs a worker and takes full work from him but does not pay him for his labor’” (Al-Bukhari). As part of its effort to promote its shariah-compliance certification, Mr. Harold Garrison, the Executive Director of HDG Mansur, attended at the Islamic Real Estate Finance Conference in London. So too did Rev. C.J. Hawking, the Indianapolis clergy organizer, and Sheik Abdool Khan,officially representing the Islamic Society of North America. They met with investors and shariah scholars to reiterate the importance of the worker justice component in determining a company’s shariah compliance.

In a letter to prospective investors, Sheikh Abdool Khan, an Islamic scholar with the Islamic Foundation, said shariah compliance should not be reflective of the end product alone, but of the entire process in general. In the case of HDG Mansur, its hiring of a cleaning company that violates basic labor rights comes in conflict to the principles of shariah. “To blindly sign them off as shariah compliant would do a disservice to the spirit of Islamic shariah, not to mention the disservice to poor helpless janitors and their families,” Sheikh Khan said.

The ISNA Secretary General, Dr. Muneer Fareed, shares this concern. In a letter to investors, he said, “The unjust treatment of workers poses a threat to both the integrity and reputation of Islamic investment practices, but also to Islam’s vision of social justice.”

In the Middle East, shariah compliance is provided by shariah boards composed of scholars. In the U.S. the official certification procedures are just being put into place. A Fiqh council--the Fiqh Council of North America--has been organized with 18 national Islamic scholars and leaders to oversee the shariah compliance certification process. The case of the Indianapolis janitors has brought new urgency to this council.

Meanwhile, despite HDG Mansur’s continued recalcitrance, janitor in Indianapolis are negotiating with a council of building contractors and a first ever Indianapolis janitors contract is expected soon.

It might be only a matter of time before "Is this shariah?" becomes as common an expression as “Is this kosher?”.

Kim Bobo, Founder and Executive Director for Interfaith Worker Justice, is the author of Lives Matter: A Handbook for Christian Organizing, and co-author of the best-selling organizing manual in the country, Organizing for Social Change. Ms. Bobo earned her BA in Religion from Barnard College, Columbia University and her MA in Economics from the New School for Social Research.

Syariah conference in Aceh

Syariah conference in Banda Aceh, Indonesia

If there is one thing that needs to be appreciated about this conference in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, it ".....drew together an unlikely spectrum of over 300 national and international guests, Muslim and non-Muslim, progressive and conservative, academics, government officials, religious authorities and media representatives." This was done in the true spirit of Islam.

Robert Spencer, a prominent Islam basher puts out two conferences about Islam with no Muslims on the panel. He gets Wafa Sultan and two other former Muslims, who are bent on cashing in from those suckers who were ready to shell out money, the more ranting they give, the more money flows in for the neocons. It is dishonest to present the conference without the people who it is about. Of course, which neocon cares about facts? Honesty demands that we give an ear to all views for the truth to emerge from the fog. He and I had a debate... which ended up in the Front page magazine http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27847 . Even Muslim conferences are wrought with "like minded" people to discuss for all people. Unless we involved all the parties concerned, our success is compromised.

I am creating a resource for Sharia in simple terms for those who have no idea what it is... http://sharialaws.blogspot.com/

Islam during the times of Prophet co-existed with other faiths, as it is in democracies today. Their approach was pluralistic. They lost that during the medieval times, the scholars were not exposed to other faiths, nor were they sensitive to others, and their thinking was molded by singular point of view. We must however acknowledge that some of those scholars who instituted the hadiths, died at the hands of the kings for not succumbing to their whims.

The world Muslim congress is working on creating a model religious organization where it will have on its advisory board, members of every faith as directors. The idea is to developing an inclusive approach to conflicts, it is a paradigm change in making.

Mike Ghouse
# ## #

Modelling Syariah in Aceh
Inside Indonesia
No. 91: Jan-Mar 2008

A conference in Banda Aceh reveals divergent opinions about what
model of Islamic law Aceh should adopt

By Jemma Parsons

photo: Gathering to pray at Banda Aceh's Baiturrahman mosque.
Jemma Parsons

Since it began in 2000, the implementation of syariah in Aceh has prompted lively debate. Aceh's form of syariah is based on aseries of regulations known as 'Qanun'. They provide both the substantive aspects of Islamic law in Aceh as well as for the establishment of Islamic legal institutions such as the syariah courts and the Consultative Ulama Council (MPU). There remains uncertainty, however, as to the direction in which Islamic law should develop in Aceh. There is also a question mark over the official status of the Qanun within Indonesia's hierarchy of legislative instruments.

The actual content of the Qanun is still being debated. Some insist on a distinctively Acehnese model of syariah, based on the territory's own local customs and history. Others say the Acehnese should look outward in search of an appropriate model to import. A recent conference in Aceh reveals the depth of the divisions, both among the Acehnese themselves, and between the foreign Islamic experts invited to attend.

International input

Banda Aceh's 'Hermes Palace', the hotel that claims to be the only five-star, openly beer-selling hotel in the provincial capital, was the location chosen for the international conference on 'Syariah and the Challenge of the Global World; The Quest for an Actual and Dynamic form of Syariah Implementation for Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam'. The conference was organised by the State Institute for Islamic Studies (IAIN) Ar-Raniry, with sponsorship from the Indonesian government's post-tsunami Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Body (BRR). Anobjective of this event was to address some of the uncertainties surrounding the future of Islamic law in Aceh in an open,academic forum. The three-day event drew together an unlikely spectrum of over 300 national and international guests, Muslim and non-Muslim, progressive and conservative, academics, government officials, religious authorities and media representatives.

As diverse as the attendees were the broad-ranging presentations and the views they represented. In a conference hall that divided male and female attendees into two separate camps, a controversial keynote address was delivered by the high-profile, US-based, Sudanese Professor of Law, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im. An-Na'im rejected outright the idea of a religious state and claimed that it was the duty of the Acehnese to protect syariah (seen as belonging in the private sphere) from the reach of the state. According to An-Naim, 'enforcing' syariah was anathema to the idea of religious freedom and Islam's guarantee of no compulsion. 'Is our view of Islam such that we have to keep people in by the threat of the death penalty?' he questioned
provocatively. He stressed Aceh's responsibility to uphold universal human rights and to appreciate that diversity was affirmed by the Qur'an.

An-Na'im was an interesting choice for keynote speaker given his staunch opposition to state-regulated syariah – the very thing Aceh is applying. Waving a finger at his audience, An-Naim went on to warn Aceh not to attempt to import foreign interpretations of syariah from places such as Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran or Pakistan. 'Only Aceh can provide a model of syariah for Aceh' he stressed.

An-Na'im's presentation prompted immediate backlash from another esteemed international guest, Syariah Faculty Professor from Cairo's distinguished Al-Azhar University, Muhammad Muhammad Abduh Imam. Abduh Imam's lengthy retort in Arabic, directed at Arabic-fluent An-Na'im, was little understood by the majority of attendees. However, it was clear Abduh Imam was wholly unimpressed with An-Nai'm's presentation and a translator's summary subsequently confirmed Abduh Imam's disdain for An-Na'im's views. According to Abduh Imam, An-Na'im had no idea what syariah was and had lost sight of the truth of Islam.

None of the participants seemed surprised by the eruption of opposing opinions. Perhaps they had been prepared by an incident that had occurred the previous evening at the opening ceremony for the conference held at the governor of Aceh's residence.

An-Na'im and Abduh Imam were seated at the same table although it was obvious they had little in common. During the Acehnese dance performance which followed the dinner, more eyes seemed fixed on Abduh Imam and An-Na'im than the dancing. On the left sat Abduh Imam, arms folded, staring into his lap, in apparent protest that there were female dancers on the stage. On the right, An-Na'im was clearly enjoying the entertainment, clapping to the music and smiling. Abduh Imam left abruptly before the end of the performance. The following day, a number of conference organisers privately remarked that they had been disturbed, offended and embarrassed by the incident.

Local responses

As the conference progressed, other outbursts and protests emerged with increasing frequency. Most memorable for its intensity was Abduh Imam's protest at the views expressed by renowned Muslim feminist and Indonesian Ministry of Religion official, Dr Siti Musdah Mulia. Mulia had been flown in from Jakarta to present at the forum. She spoke with grace, patience and wisdom. Her suggestion that khalwat (a man and woman unrelated by blood or marriage being alone and in close proximity) might not be the most important thing to focus on when thinking about how to implement syariah in Aceh was met with shouts to the contrary from the male side of the audience.

Unruffled, Mulia continued to explain that women were consistently the first target of recent regional efforts to implement syariah-inspired legislation throughout Indonesia. 'Why is controlling women's freedom and dress always the first place to start whenever a region in Indonesia begins to implement syariah in Indonesia? Surely issues such as health and education for the underprivileged would be a more useful place to start? Isn't that more Islamic?' According to Mulia, the reason women are targeted is that they are a symbol of power that men feel the need to control in order to secure their own position of authority.

Dr Khoiruddin Nasution from the State Islamic University (UIN) in Yogyakarta, delivered a paper arguing against polygamy. He challenged the men in the audience to explain why it was the case that, if polygamy was really all about helping vulnerable women, almost all second, third and fourth wives were so much younger and better looking than the previous one? Nasution's
question was met with a wave of raucous laughter. However, the fact that an Indonesian, Muslim man was able to stand confidently in front of the several hundred-strong, predominantly Acehnese audience and question the contemporary validity of practicing polygamy, is a reminder of the high level of tolerance for diversity of opinion prevalent not only in Indonesian Islam, but in Aceh specifically. Needless to say, no one dared formally respond to Nasution's question.

Many raised their hands to either offer heartfelt support or criticism for Mulia's feminist perspective on syariah. However, all paled in comparison to the vociferous verbal attack launched by Abdul Imam who told Mulia she had no idea what Islam was. He went on to criticise the entire forum, claiming it had become a forum to confuse (men-syubhat-kan) Islam – a direct insult to the IAIN organisers.

In response, a female Indonesian participant stood up to address Abduh Imam's comments. After praising Mulia's presentation, she looked directly at Abduh Imam and said 'Islam here is not like it is in your country. Islam here is diverse.' Her comment seemed to sum-up the theme of the entire conference. Rather than resolve any of the lingering legal uncertainties surrounding the implementation of syariah in Aceh, which had been the aim of the meeting, the conference had invested a majority of time in listening to and debating the many divergent opinions about syariah and Islam in Aceh. Moreover, the fact that the Acehnese organisers had invited such a diverse group of participants, from literal and conservative-minded Muslims to contextualists and modernists, from the Islamic world, from western countries and from throughout Indonesia, indicates not just tolerance, but a clear willingness to value input from a broad range of streams(aliran) of Islam. The event also demonstrated a clear understanding that there is not just one way – that no one person or institution has a monopoly on the interpretation of syariah for Aceh. This would suggest that the path to syariah-formulation will be a consultative one.

The overall experience of the conference and the stark contrast of the Egyptian professor's views with those of the comparatively pluralist and tolerant Acehnese drew into perspective the type of Islam that characterises both Aceh and Indonesia. During one of the conference luncheons in the hotel foyer, a conference organiser must have noticed my dismay at seeing the two lunch buffets on opposite sides of the room – one for men and one for women. 'Don't worry', he smiled, 'this is just a formality to please some of the international guests. In Aceh we don't normally bother with this kind of thing. Our history and custom is different to other places – our women were warriors!'

Jemma Parsons (j.parsons4@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au) is currently completing a Masters of Public and International Law at the University of Melbourne and works in the Melbourne Law School's Asian Law Centre. Her current research interests include Islamic education in Indonesia and Islamic law and development

-