Rank: Advanced Member  Joined: 3/3/2008 Posts: 11,103
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Updated Mon Mar 8, 2010 3:35pm AEDT
Call for parts of sharia law in Australia
A senior Muslim leader is again calling for elements of sharia law to be legally recognised in Australia.
During an open day at Sydney's Lakemba Mosque at the weekend, the Australian Islamic Mission's president, Dr Zachariah Matthews, called for aspects of sharia law to function as a parallel legal system.
His comments have sparked concerns that doing so would introduce a penal system under which women could be stoned to death for adultery and corporal punishment handed out for other offences.
Dr Matthews says while Muslims only represent 1.7 per cent of the Australian population, changes are unlikely.
But he says there are some small aspects of sharia law the Muslim community would like to have recognised.
"The aspects that we would be looking at are definitely not the penal code system, in so far as people's fears around the cutting off of hands for the crime of theft and the stoning of adulterers," he said.
"The aspects that we would be looking at are aspects related to Muslim family law and perhaps Muslim inheritance law."
Dr Matthews says although these are minor differences, they are differences Muslims would like to have recognised.
"When it comes to Muslim family law there are issues relating to the legal age of marriage," he said.
"In Muslim law, for example, as in Singapore, the legal age for both parties is 16 rather than as it stands currently [at] 18.
"There's also the issue of the waiting period [between] separation and divorce, which is currently specified at 12 months. In Muslim family law that could be a lot shorter."
Controversy over the introduction of sharia law in parallel to existing laws ignited in February 2008 when the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, spoke about the "inevitable" role Muslim sharia law would one day play in British law.
But Dr Matthews says the minor changes proposed would only apply to Muslims.
"As long as that concession does not infringe on the rights of others and society at large, then the question I'm asking is, are we not mature enough or sophisticated enough to manage that type of diversity?" he said.
Source
Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? - Galatians 4:16
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Rank: Advanced Member Joined: 3/3/2008 Posts: 11,103
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Muslim group opens summer camp against terrorism
Posted Sun Aug 8, 2010 8:23am AEST
A Muslim group in Britain has opened what it calls a summer camp against terrorism to save the younger generation from joining a wave of terrorist recruitment in the West.
More than 1,000 young British Muslims are expected to attend the three-day camp at Warwick University which will include discussion groups about issues such as suicide bombings, as well as sports activities and music evenings.
Founder of the organising group, Mohammed Tahir ul-Qadri, says the silent majority needs to speak out against extremists.
"Extremists and terrorists are in the minority in Muslim Ummah [brotherhood]," he said.
"But they always have been vocal. The overwhelming majority of Muslim Ummah has always been against extremism and terrorism, but unfortunately they have always been silent."
During a speech Dr Qadri told a packed audience he had no doubt that Britain had problems with extremism and that too many scholars were afraid to speak out.
He called on the audience to embrace their British identity and marginalise preachers who argue that Islam and the West cannot coexist.
But some more traditional Muslim organisations have accused Dr Qadri of building his own movement at the expense of unity.
- BBC
SourceHave I now become your enemy by telling you the truth? - Galatians 4:16
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