Shariah Sense, from an Islamic Boarding School!

Excellent article earlier this month on the realities of shariah, and all the better because it comes from an impeccably Muslim source, an Islamic boarding school teacher based in Yogyakarta!

So let’s hope we don’t get some commenter trying to dismiss him as one of those terrible ‘Islamophobes’ – that, by the way, is a neologism invented by the most intransigent Islamists to deflect moderate Muslims’ criticisms.

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The Hamas-linked CAIR agitprop outfit in the USA loves to bandy the word around, and one of their favourite targets, on whom I’ll post tomorrow, is a patriotic American Muslim!

The biggest irony is that Aceh is among our five most corrupt provinces, even though in Islam corruption is a crime linked to public interest (al-mashlaha al-’amma). Thus, penalizing corruption should be a larger priority than raiding drunks and unveiled women.

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Shariah Goons in Action Against Women

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So the question is, would Aceh dare to punish corruptors by cutting off the hands of the perpetrators, in line with the literal and conservative interpretation of the punishment of theft in the Koran?

The writer quotes the example of Aceh’s establishment – including graft suspect Darni Daud, the former rector of Aceh’s Syiah Kuala University.

If he’s found guilty would he get the chop? The irony illustrates the nature of the application of the law: harsh toward the lower class, toothless toward the higher-ups.

This contradicts the well-known saying of the Prophet Muhammad: “If Fatima [his daughter] stole, I will cut off her hands!” Similarly, Saudi women are supposedly subject to mandatory veiling — except, it seems, Princess Ameera al Tawel.

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So off to a good start – just imagine the cheering crowds here in Jakarta if some of the current crop going through the courts were to be publicly whipped –  and how much more just that would be than flogging some little girls for canoodling, as happens up north!

But it gets better!

The man gets down to the nitty-gritty – the kind of words millions of ordinary Muslims must be waiting to hear in benighted places like Saudi, or Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan, or the horror-zones of Somalia.

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The first, main problem with the sharia implementation in Aceh is that making it official law means the interpretation is absolute — and this negates the diversity of views that exists in Islamic legal philosophy, or fiqh.

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• AND he actually talks sense too on the issue of headscarfing – reminding readers of how different views prevail among Indonesian and foreign scholars. The noted scholar Quraish Shihab is among those who disagree that the veil is mandatory for women…interpreting sharia to form bylaws just means narrowing the breadth of sharia…

This smart man even touches on the (to me) tiresome hostility to alcohol.

But it’s his obvious commitment to religious liberty that makes the biggest impression. Shrill demands that ‘apostasy’ should be punished by death are surely undone by his argument that embracing any religion or its teachings out of being forced to do so would lead to hypocrisy.

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Forcible conversion is an affront to everyone who uses his or her God-given brain, and ipso facto forcible retention of somebody who no longer believes in a creed is equally repugnant.

As ever, I would urge those actual ‘Islamophobes’ who read RRA to check out the whole piece in the JP link below – it is another small item in my arsenal of evidence for the case that there are PLENTY of good Muslims out there – and out here! – who do NOT share the fanatic agenda! 
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/02/13/aceh-s-sharia-negates-islam-religion-mercy.html