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K-House eNews
A Muslim group met in Chicago on Sunday to rail against the evils of
capitalism and to promote Shariah law. Demonstrators gathered outside to
protest the event, called the "Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam,"
while speakers inside rejected the very Constitution that protected their
freedom to speak. In the meanwhile, the number of Shariah courts in Britain has
been growing, and not all of the people using those courts are Muslim.
Hizb-ut Tahrir:
The Muslim group Hizb-ut Tahrir held a conference in the ballroom at the Hilton
in Oak Lawn on Sunday to blame capitalism for much of the suffering on the
earth, including World Wars I and II, world poverty, violence in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and even inner city drug use. The conference included videos and
lectures by various speakers, as well as question and answer sessions. Notably,
men and women at the conference were segregated, with women stashed away in the
back of the room to prevent, according to organizers, "people from
behaving like animals."
HT itself is not on the US government's list of terrorist groups, and claims to
be dedicated to non-violent reform. The group's goals include the restoration of
Turkey's Caliphate, which was abolished in 1924 in favor of Western reforms. HT
ultimately wants to see worldwide implementation of Shariah law and government
control of major industries in order to cure the economic and social ills of
the nations.
Conference deputy spokesman Mohammed Malkawi denied that the group associates
with terrorists and declared that HT favored using politics to achieve its
purposes. Yet, HT has been called a "conveyor belt for terrorists"
because it has produced people like 9/ll mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and
one-time Iraqi terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi. Malkawi claims to promote
non-violent change, yet he would not specifically condemn Al Qaida and the
Taliban in an interview with WBBM-TV in Chicago.
The extent of Sunday's blame-capitalism montage went beyond just pointing out
the causes of the subprime mortgage fiasco or world economic troubles. One
speaker blamed capitalism for the fact that he smoked marijuana and his
grandmother played the lottery, and another even credited capitalism with
responsibility for Michael Jackson's desire "to shed his black skin."
Keynote speaker Abu Talha argued that capitalists were liable for the world's
poverty, hunger, and war. "It is time to deliver the world to Islam, an
idea whose time has come," he said.
HT is free to gather and promote its ideas in the United States, but its
activities have been banned in other countries. It is even considered a fringe
group by other Muslims. "They remain on the margins of the community.
They're not embraced by any of the mosques in Chicago, in fact as a matter of
fact I don't believe they can pass out any of their literature in these mosques
they have to pass them outside," said Ahmed Rehab, with the Council on
American Islamic Relations.
The conference organizers managed to argue that even the tyrannical, oppressive
behavior of Islamic nations was the fault of the US. Ironically,
conference organizer Imam Jaleel Abdul Adil affirmed that he would willingly
throw out the US Constitution in favor of Shariah – the very US
Constitution that protects his freedom to criticize the US government.
Shariah In Britain:
Shariah courts already exist in England. Britain has a relatively large Muslim
population, and according to the 1996 Arbitration Act, Islamic courts are
legally binding for those who submit voluntarily to their adjudication.
In London, the Islamic Sharia Council has been making decisions on divorce
cases for years. The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) has been operating in
London, Bradford, Birmingham, Coventry and Manchester to handle disagreements
between businessmen and mosques. As many as 5 percent of those who are involved
in MAT cases are not Muslims, and observers note that there is a
"creeping" trend of Shariah acceptance in Britain.
One reason for turning to Muslim courts is their acceptance of oral agreements
as binding. British courts may not be willing to enforce oral agreements
between businessmen, but Islamic courts are. In a recent case, a non-Muslim man
took his Muslim business partner to court over a dispute about the profits in
their car fleet company. The non-Muslim argued that the Muslim had broken an
oral agreement, and the court decided an agreement did exist and awarded the
non-Muslim £48,000.
Shariah, though, doesn't stop at oral agreements. Sheikh Suhaib Hasan, who was
instrumental in introducing the Islamic court system to Britain in 1982,
recently told The Times that enforcing hard-line Shariah punishments
would give Britain "more peace and security." Dr. Hasan said he had
no desire to come in conflict with the British legal system, and would not push
for or expect Islamic punishments for things like theft or knife-violence
because Britain is not a Muslim country. Still, in his opinion, punishments
like amputating the limbs of thieves would make Britain safer because they
acted as strong deterrents against crime.
The slowly growing acceptance of Shariah is of great concern to those who love
political and religious freedom, not to mention the rights of women. If a woman
is raped, under Shariah in Pakistan, for instance, she has to find four male
witnesses to testify in her favor, else the blame for the crime falls on her
and she can be punished for "adultery."
"It puts a woman in such a position that even if she is raped, in the end
she is left to face charges of adultery. It is next to impossible for a rape
victim to produce four male witnesses. Nobody times the act to make sure that
four men are present," says advocate Mehboob, who works at the Human
Rights Commission of Pakistan in Lahore.
Public beheadings, stonings and floggings, amputations, and serious injustices
toward women may not be the norm in Britain tomorrow, but these things are
expected in countries under Shariah. The HT may promote Shariah as the cure for
the world's ills, but the hard reality is that Shariah promotes the government's
extreme control over a people, and we should all fear when its acceptance is
allowed to "creep" in.
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