Muslim women facing arbitrary divorce under Sharia Law

There is God's (Quranic) Sharia which is just and equitable, and there is man's sharia which is selfish and cruel.

 

In case of a divorce, the Quranic Sharia calls for separation for at least three months, while making efforts to reconcile the differences, if reconciliation is not possible then comes the divorce, where the man takes full responsibility for child support and alimony if the woman has no other source of income.God's law is common sense. (Genesis of Sharia Law)

 

However, what Muslims have been practicing is Man's (Male's) Sharia, believing that it is the divine law, and it is not. It is misogynistic and does not care about woman. The guy can say the word divorce three times, and the life that was built over a life time can be done away in a minute. Women constantly live in the fear of this ugly pronouncement and it is not acceptable. No human should live in apprehension, particularly the married women in a society where the are dependent.

 

This has got to go, unless we are just to fellow beings, our spiritual growth is incomplete. Being just amounts to being Godly or being spiritual or achieving Taqwa.

 

Thanks God for giving courage to Muslim women in India to take the bold step of calling to get rid of this ungodly law.

 

Mike Ghouse
www.ShariaLaws.com

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SC concerned over Muslim women facing arbitrary divorce

October 29, 2015 in Home Slider, Indian Muslim, Women | 0 Comment | http://muslimmirror.com/eng/sc-concerned-over-muslim-women-facing-arbitrary-divorce/

  

Photo: asianews.it

New Delhi, Oct 29 : The Supreme Court has expressed concern over Muslim women facing arbitrary divorces and second marriages of their husbands even as their first marriages were subsisting.

Expressing concern on the issue of “gender discrimination… which concerns the rights of Muslim women”, the apex court bench of Justice Anil R. Dave and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said the issue of rights of Muslim women against arbitrary divorce surfaced number of times but was not addressed.

The court said in its judgment pronounced on October 16 that there was no safeguard “against arbitrary divorce and second marriage by her husband during currency of the first marriage, resulting in denial of dignity and security to her”.

The apex court said this while noting the submissions made by lawyers on the question whether the Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act, 2005 would have retrospective effect.

Directing for a separate public interest litigation to address the issue, the bench issued notice to the Attorney General and National Legal Services Authority, returnable on November 23.

Issuing the notice and directing for the registration of the PIL, the court said, “Although the issue was raised before this court in the case of ‘Ahmedabad Women Action Group vs Union of India’, this court did not go into the merits of the discrimination with the observation that the issue involved state policy to be dealt with by the legislature.”

The court judgment noted that it was observed that the challenge to Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, 1986, was pending before the Constitution Bench and there was no reason to multiply proceedings on such an issue.

The court noted that the matter needed consideration by the apex court as the issue related not merely to a policy matter but to the fundamental rights of women under Articles 14, 15 and 21 and international conventions and covenants. —IANS

Lesbian Rabbi Stands Up FOR Sharia Law

Rabbi Nafshi, thanks for standing up for the rights of others,  that is the right thing to do, and this Muslim and many more Muslims will stand up for your rights, the human rights of GLBT community in the pursuit of their happiness.  God's Sharia is not against you, but the man-made Sharia is, we see it practiced  in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan and Afghanistan, but not in 50 other Muslim states.

There is a great need for Americans to learn about it, the folks like Tea party folks don't use their own mind, and are driven by a few hate mongers who has everything to gain.  Here are two articles Genesis of Sharia Law and Fixing Sharia Laws at www.ShariaLaws.com that will give you a better understanding of the Sharia Law in our context, as it can be applied here in the United States.

Mike Ghouse
www.ShariaLaws.com 
www.WorldMuslimCongress.com
www.MikeGhouse.net
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Lesbian Rabbi Stands Up FOR Sharia Law
 Posted on Monday, December 8th, 2014 at 12:15 AM.

http://www.teapartycrusaders.com/commentary/lesbian-rabbi-stands-sharia-law/

by: Commentary Editor

By Ben Barrack

If there is one group of people that would be put at the top of the list of Sharia law advocates for punishment, it would almost certainly be lesbian Jewish Rabbis like Robin Nafshi. Yet, in what can only be described as a case of Stockholm Syndrome on steroids, Nafshi is standing up for Sharia law. In so doing, she’s fighting for her own extermination.

In an op-ed that appeared in the Concord Monitor, Nafshi writes:

As the leader of a religious community with a wide range of political views, I am always cautious when speaking out on partisan issues. But sometimes, I must. Now is that time.

On Sept. 20, the delegates of the New Hampshire Republican Party adopted a Platform of Republican Principles. It contains 83 bulleted goals. Number 83 reads as follows:

“Take any and all actions possible to protect against the implementation of any part of Sharia law in New Hampshire, including legislation outlawing Sharia law.”

Sharia means “the way” in Arabic, and Sharia law guides all aspects of Muslim life, including daily routines, familial and religious obligations, and financial dealings. It is derived primarily from the Quran and the Sunna – the sayings, practices and teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.

Sharia law for Muslims is quite similar to Halakhah for Jews. Halakhah means “the way” in Hebrew and it guides all aspect of Jewish life, including daily routines, familial and religious obligations, and financial dealings. It is derived primarily from the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud – the sayings, practices, and teachings of the early Jewish Rabbis.

Why has the Republican Party singled out Sharia law? Why doesn’t it seek to protect against the implementation in New Hampshire of any part of Halakhah, or for that matter, Roman Catholic Canon Law?

Because the New Hampshire Republican Party and other states that have sought similar bans are playing off of what they believe to be a growing fear in this country. We live in a difficult time, historically. Extremist Muslims – a very small percentage of the overall Muslim population – have hijacked a peaceful religion and perverted it into something narrowly construed and intolerant of the West, Jews, Israel, democracy, women’s education and more.

The politicians who endorse anti-Sharia laws are exploiting Americans’ legitimate fears of ISIS, al Qaida, Hamas and other extremist groups in order to ostracize and discriminate against the American Muslim community.

As the stealth jihadists no doubt laugh their heads off (pun intended) at the level of sheer ignorance displayed by Nafshi, she fails to understand that not only is she advocating for her own destruction but in so doing, she’s facilitating it. In fact, those whom she chides for being opposed to Sharia law are further down on the list of candidates to be subjected to that law.

To use a fattened calf metaphor, in such a case the farmer has to provide the feed, the facilities, the care and ultimately slaughter said calf, which is an unwilling participant.

In the case of Nafshi, as the figurative calf, she’s doing all that for the farmer while also fighting off predators that would kill her, not to protect herself but to save herself for the farmer.

Professor Stern has shared the Jewish experience on the Sharia issue. I have listed this in the top ten articles to understand Sharia from simple to complex perspectives at www.ShariaLaws.com on the left panel.

A Sharia conference is a must, Insha Allah, I will put a proposal, program outline and the content together, whoever wants to run the conference anywhere, they are welcome to do it on their own, it becomes a basic model to improvise and enhance from. Or they can fund the project, we can do it.

For this to be successful the guests have to be politicians running for elections, area Mayors, state and national representatives and of course, the clergy from EVERY religious tradition must be invited to participate and speak on the panel. I have identified Non-Muslim authors, politicians, clergy and professors who can present Sharia along with our Imams. We need to place all cards on the table and find comprehensive and sustainable solutions. The hardcore guys like Gingrich, Palin, Horowitz and others will not change, that is their livelihood, but the majority wants an assurance from us that there is nothing to be afraid of, we need to reach them.

Don’t Fear Islamic Law in America
http://sharialaws.blogspot.com/2011/09/dont-fear-islamic-law-in-america.html

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Please do attend the event on Sunday, September 5, 2011 - a Muslim initiative on 9/11 events in its 7th year public event. Details are at www.Unitydayusa.com, please share this with your friends.

Mike Ghouse
Committed to Cohesive Socities
www.MikeGhouse.net
Op-Ed Contributor

Don’t Fear Islamic Law in America

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/03/opinion/dont-fear-islamic-law-in-america.html?_r=3&hp

By ELIYAHU STERN

Published: September 2, 2011

MORE than a dozen American states are considering outlawing aspects of Shariah law. Some of these efforts would curtail Muslims from settling disputes over dietary laws and marriage through religious arbitration, while others would go even further in stigmatizing Islamic life: a bill recently passed by the Tennessee General Assembly equates Shariah with a set of rules that promote “the destruction of the national existence of the United States.”

Supporters of these bills contend that such measures are needed to protect the country against homegrown terrorism and safeguard its Judeo-Christian values. The Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has said that “Shariah is a mortal threat to the survival of freedom in the United States and in the world as we know it.”

This is exactly wrong. The crusade against Shariah undermines American democracy, ignores our country’s successful history of religious tolerance and assimilation, and creates a dangerous divide between America and its fastest-growing religious minority.

The suggestion that Shariah threatens American security is disturbingly reminiscent of the accusation, in 19th-century Europe, that Jewish religious law was seditious. In 1807, Napoleon convened an assembly of rabbinic authorities to address the question of whether Jewish law prevented Jews from being loyal citizens of the republic. (They said that it did not.)

Fear that Jewish law bred disloyalty was not limited to political elites; leading European philosophers also entertained the idea. Kant argued that the particularistic nature of “Jewish legislation” made Jews “hostile to all other peoples.” And Hegel contended that Jewish dietary rules and other Mosaic laws barred Jews from identifying with their fellow Prussians and called into question their ability to be civil servants.

The German philosopher Bruno Bauer offered Jews a bargain: renounce Jewish law and be granted full legal rights. He insisted that, otherwise, laws prohibiting work on the Sabbath made it impossible for Jews to be true citizens. (Bauer conveniently ignored the fact that many fully observant Jews violated the Sabbath to fight in the Prussian wars against Napoleon.)

During that era, Christianity was seen as either a universally valid basis of the state or a faith that harmoniously coexisted with the secular law of the land. Conversely, Judaism was seen as a competing legal system — making Jews at best an unassimilable minority, at worst a fifth column. It was not until the late 19th century that all Jews were granted full citizenship in Western Europe (and even then it was short lived).

Most Americans today would be appalled if Muslims suffered from legally sanctioned discrimination as Jews once did in Europe. Still, there are signs that many Americans view Muslims in this country as disloyal. A recent Gallup poll found that only 56 percent of Protestants think that Muslims are loyal Americans.

This suspicion and mistrust is no doubt fueled by the notion that American Muslims are akin to certain extreme Muslim groups in the Middle East and in Europe. But American Muslims are a different story. They are natural candidates for assimilation. They are demographically the youngest religious group in America, and most of their parents don’t even come from the Middle East (the majority have roots in Southeast Asia). A recent Pew Research Center poll found that Muslim Americans exhibit the highest level of integration among major American religious groups, expressing greater degrees of tolerance toward people of other faiths than do Protestants, Catholics or Jews.

Given time, American Muslims, like all other religious minorities before them, will adjust their legal and theological traditions, if necessary, to accord with American values.

America’s exceptionalism has always been its ability to transform itself — economically, culturally and religiously. In the 20th century, we thrived by promoting a Judeo-Christian ethic, respecting differences and accentuating commonalities among Jews, Catholics and Protestants. Today, we need an Abrahamic ethic that welcomes Islam into the religious tapestry of American life.

Anti-Shariah legislation fosters a hostile environment that will stymie the growth of America’s tolerant strand of Islam. The continuation of America’s pluralistic religious tradition depends on the ability to distinguish between punishing groups that support terror and blaming terrorist activities on a faith that represents roughly a quarter of the world’s population.

Eliyahu Stern, an assistant professor of religious studies and history at Yale, is the author of the forthcoming “The Genius: Elijah of Vilna and the Making of Modern Judaism.”

Sharia Politics - My random thoughts

Sharia law like any law is mis-implemented from time to time; innocent people get on the electric chair or the lethal injection in our own US of A.   In at least 3 out of 56 Muslim majority nations, wrong people get stoned to death for adultery or blasphemy. It is neither our laws nor Sharia that is wrong; it is the mis-application to suit the ones in power that is wrong.

Parents are not to abuse Children, yet, incest and beating of innocent children continues.  The men who beat their wives violently are Muslim, Christian, Jews, Hindus… and every one, it is not the Christian or Islam thing – it is the precisely because they did not get their own religion to guide them, even if they wear a loud label of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism or any religion or tradition and even if they go the Church, Mosque, Synagogue, Temple… you see them in all groups.

Qur’aan is a binary book, everything is addressed in pairs - when it talks about male, it is followed by the word female, day follows night, and life follows death. Traditionally Quraanic interpretations have been done my men, like in all other religions. Thank God, women contributions are pouring in and bringing a balance to the meaning of the words in Qur’aan.

Sharia interpretations have been men-appeasing and justice busting in some, but not all the cases. A very small percent of Muslim women endure the non-sense of men's Sharia misapplication - while women across the world be it in America or Arabia, Chile or China,  Native American or African are mistreated in jobs, harassment continues unabated, violence, rape... all of these are shameful acts that few men have stood up against. We need the majority to speak up.  

Great example is the interpretation of the word Daraba, which suited the men “to discipline the woman if she does not remain faithful to you” to “separation” by Dr Leila Bakhtiar that most people are subscribing to now, which was covered very well in the www.Quraanconference.com . Michelle Bachman talks about obedience to husband, rather than partnership. More women in America are violently killed by their spouse than anywhere else in the world; does that make Christian faith bad? Heck no.

Men in power and some Qazi’s are usually rigid when it comes to punishing others. They do not see the essence of Sharia; Justice. If the Sharia laws are turned over to Regular attorneys and let there be arguments and discussions, it will serve justice. There is no stoning to death in Qur’aan... There is no triple Talaq in Qur’aan as it is practiced; the men have allowed it to happen in three to four nations out of 56 Muslim majority nations.

We all, Muslims or not, have a stake in creating just societies and we need to speak up and thank God, in democracies we can do that. Unfortunately the kings and dictators care less about religion and more about saving their tail...

As an example of shared stakes in the world, take a look at the comment in face book from a Jewish friend Paul Goldstein – “Since Sharia, to my understanding, is similar to Halacha in Judaism, it might be helpful to consider its application within secular democracies as is Halacha. To take the U.S. as an example, there exist Jewish religious courts within sizable Orthodox communities such as New York. These courts are purely voluntary for all concerned; rabbis and religious scholars are the "judges" who decide cases, and litigants can be represented by lawyers familiar with Jewish law. There is no way to enforce the religious court decisions through the regular civil courts; enforcement is only through respect of community mores, community pressure, and maintaining one's standing as an honorable member of the religious community.”

Sharia counseling in the US is indeed voluntary. The decisions are not legally binding, but morally binding. Those couples, who want to be religiously right, prefer religious guidance. It's almost like sitting with friends or going to marriage counselor. It's to maintain one's standing as an honorable member of the religious community.

If the Republican Right wingers can come out clean and say – no one has a bloody right to tell a woman or a man, what to wear, eat, worship, believe or think, and then we can look forward to a positive change.  They are no different than the Bin Laden kind who believed in imposing his understanding of religion on others. Is the right wing Christians any different?

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Our first task is to communicate a comprehensive outline of knowledge to those who are attacking Sharia. The traditional Imam explanations give strength but are deficient in communicating with non-Muslims. Americans have to relate with each instance to understand it. God has blessed me and several other non-bearded, suit and jeans wearing Muslims in public, who can bridge that gap in communicating.

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We should expect every Muslim to know about his or her religion. The religion was completed and perfected while the prophet was alive. In his last speech he left the book for us, each Muslim to live by it. Prophet Muhammad did not assign any one, not one single person to interpret the religion for us. The Shia denomination of Muslims believes that Prophet had said to follow his progeny and we respect their belief, it works for them.  We are accountable on the Day of Judgment and not even the Prophet will do favors. We had the time to be right and the only thing we have on that day is our deeds, the good things we have done to fellow beings and environment in preserving God’s creation.   

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No Mufti, no Imam, no Khalifa is needed for Muslims.  You are individually responsible for your actions. When we began life in the United States… each one learned the religion on his own like Prophet wanted us to. Talk to the people who have been here from the sixties. The clergy in every religion including Islam have made the religion dependent on them, it is their job security.  Neither Jesus likes the clergy nor did Muhammad like it – if it becomes a profession. Clergy in every religion fall in the same proportions of good, ugly and greedy.

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Mother Teresa once said if you want to make peace, go talk with your enemies, you don’t make peace with friends and scholars. Hazrat Ali has also said something to that effect. A Chinese saying goes, if you want to eliminate your enemy, understand them and make friends, then you are free and they are free, if you fight head on, the battle continues. In light of these, I am pleased to carry the dialogue with my friends.

To be effective, we will have input from Imams, Scholars, Shari experts, non-Muslims, lay persons and others. We will encourage everyone to place his or her cards on the table so we can deal with the issue comprehensively.

 I have been reaching out to ISNA, ICNA, CAIR and others, if they cannot do it, I am planning to pick the slack and just organize it. If you recall last year Qur’aan and the Prophet were attacked by Pastor Robert Jeffress, no Muslim Organization took it up. Thank God with the help of 10 Pastors, Rabbis, Pundits, Shamans, and elected Reps (Lon Burnam) who read the so called troubled verses from Qur’aan to the audience, while the 5 Muslims; Imam Zia Sheikh, Imam Shakoor, Dr. Basheer Ahmed, Ahmadi Muslim and myself either confirmed their understanding or corrected the misunderstanding. Today, those Pastors from Mormon, Baptist, Catholic, Unitarian, Presbyterian, Methodist…. will correct any misquotes from Qur’aan. All the details are at www.QuraanConference.com
We are all in this together and find solutions.

Mike Ghouse is committed to building cohesive societies. His work is indexed at www.MikeGhouse.net and his current articles at www.TheGhousediary.com

SHARIA LAWS, NOT IN AMERICA

The intent of the Sharia laws was to construct a complete justice system with fairness to all members of society. Peace and a sense of security are the products of justice in a given society. The violations of justice and the rule of law are found in every faith, culture and political system, to varying degrees. In this respect no community is free of blame and no one can cast the first stone against another community.

American Muslims have placed their trust in the American justice system and will continue to oppose Sharia laws as they are currently applied in many places across the globe. I will be one of the first ones, if not the first one, to stand up against it. The Muslim majority in America is happy with the American system and does not want to have Sharia law here in America.

Continued - http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sharia-not-in-America-by-Mike-Ghouse-110622-556.html

Mike Ghouse is committed to building a cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a speaker, thinker, writer and a frequent guest on Hannity show and nationally syndicated Radio shows and Dallas TV, Radio and Print Media. Over 1000 articles have been published on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam, India and cohesive societies. Two of his books are poised to be released this fall on Pluralism and Islam. He is available to speak at your place of worship, work, school, college, seminars or conferences. His work is encapsulated in 27 blogs, four websites and several forums indexed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/.