Video of girl's flogging by Taliban

[Saleem Adam]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/02/taliban-pakistan-justice-women-flogging

[Abdul Qadir]

by Jafar Siddiqui, Seattle


The story below, raises two different issues, both crucial to the debates of today.


I am not sure if I would call these people "Taliban" unless that is what they call themselves.


I can see that there are a lot of judgmental adjectives used on these people, which is probably why it makes it so easy and acceptable to blow them up with remotely-controlled missiles and bombs. Terms like "Militant" and "Fighter" serve only to distance 'US' civilized people, from 'THEM' the unwashed, dispensable ones. Obviously, if "they" are not "people", but "fighters" and "militants", it should be fine for us to "eliminate" them...and eliminate them, we do...with great gusto too.


We ask no questions and are satisfied by simply looking and judging. We know one of the men in the story (video) below holding the young woman down, is her brother and he said he was upholding the family honor, but was he?

What would any of us do if some armed and vicious people came to our village and told us to do certain acts, or else?

Having done those acts, would we condemn those who forced us to do them (and could return to get us) or, would we try to create a virtue out of a necessity?


The problem with dehumanizing, judgmental labels is that while one one hand, such labels and consequential (and sequential) actions against them, are greatly admired or silently accepted by us, they only help the recruiting lines of our newly-created enemies.

We make a few enemies and in killing ("eliminating") them, we also inflict "collateral losses" (we excuse ourselves by saying they should not have been there in the first place). Those extra deaths, of people, innocent even by our sweeping standards, create more hate against us and against all those seen as supporting us and the circle of those seeking vengeance becomes larger and larger.


"Why do they hate us?"


Look no further than our actions; perhaps our "enemies" are asking the same question.


The gutless Muslim regimes who permit a free hand to these so-called "Sharia"-based courts and the gutless Muslims who adopt a permissive attitude towards the fanatics who impose draconian rules against the weakest of people, are perhaps the greatest enemies of Islam and Muslims; greater the "experts", the lobbies and the faith-leaders and politicians, who so loudly and regularly rail against Islam and Muslims.

While these latter are guilty of creating hate and fear against Islam and Muslims, the former, who are themselves Muslim, are guilty of permitting atrocities against people under the fig-leaf of Islam and thus helping enemies by validating the false accusations against Islam and Muslims.


Granted that I am no scholar of either Sharia or Fiqh, it is clear that these fanatics are doing the devil's work and are doing nothing in keeping with Sharia or Fiqh.

In the story under discussion (below), there was no trial of the accused, no basis for punishment was presented as supported by the Quran or, an established Sunnah/Hadith (the ways of the prophet Mohammed and his sayings) and the accused was not allowed to defend herself. Four witnesses were not brought forward, only the secretive mumblings of someone with evil in his heart.

In the eyes of God and in the eyes of Man, there was no justice in the punishment of the victim, Chaand.


Even if we stretch all criteria in favor of the fanatics, the Quran is clear in saying:

"And as for the two of you who are guilty thereof (of lewdness), punish them both. And if they repent and improve, then let them be. Lo! Allah is Relenting, Merciful" (4:16)


The cowards punished only the woman and not the man.

I can understand why, because this is how a society is split across visible lines of race, religion and gender, in order to garner as much support as possible and isolate the targets; if men were also punished, then the very men who form the ranks of the fanatics, would start abandoning ship. there was also no possibility for the woman to "repent" her imagined "crime".


Mine is not a self-promoting call to "reform Islam"; a call, in my opinion, made by those who are looking to feather their own nests without understanding Islam or, without helping others to understand Islam. This is a call to apply Islam, to get on the same platform with the fanatics and have them use their own standards, but in keeping with the teachings of Islam.


If properly applied, Sharia code is probably more just and merciful than the so-called "Judeo-Christian" laws...the key phrase of course, is "if properly applied"!

Even the so-called "Judeo-Christian" laws are abused and frequently so, as the past eight years of the benighted Bush regime have shown us, with torture, imprisonment and extra-judicial killings becoming part of "Freedom" and "Democracy".

Thus, it should not become a source for the condemnation of Islam, Muslims or Sharia, if some group or groups decide to become recruits of the devil while invoking the name of God.


Taking Pakistan as an example, there is a clear and just way for governments to ensure the application of JUSTICE and to allow communities to use Sharia as the bases for their laws (fiqh) at the same time, but it does require determination and moral strength.


First, however, we have to acknowledge that the application of Sharia, while universal in its broader principles, varies from community to community and from sect (Madhab) to sect. Thus, the Sharia-based laws in say, the Sind Province of Pakistan, would be quite different from the ones in parts of the Frontier Province.


The next thing to consider is the fact that if Sharia-code is going to be applied on a person because it is the Islamic thing to do, then they must also consider his/her sect and apply the code as interpreted by his sect because, Sharia as interpreted by Shia, would be different (depending on the issue) than Sharia as interpreted by Sunni which in turn, would vary, depending on whether the Sunni sect is the Selafi with their black-or-white outlooks, or a Sunni sect with a more tolerant practise.

Sharia and Fiqh are NOT universally interpreted in the same way.


What is a nation to do?


Pakistan should first establish a Sharia Council of Scholars. This council should include people nominated by as many different communities as possible, but with every council member having proven his/her scholarly status.

From this council of a few hundred scholars, should be drawn a High Council of Scholars, with Provincial jurisdiction and also including representation from as many different sects as possible. This High Council could even select a Supreme Council of Scholars which would have jurisdiction over Sharia matters all over the country.


In the High Council of Scholars and Supreme Council of Scholars, we would now have an equivalent of a Federal (regional) Court and a Supreme Court that would be the final word for sentencing of people. Each community could be permitted to establish their own Sharia-based courts, drawn from the membership of the Sharia Council of Scholars, as long as the Judges (Qadis) are scholars who have either passed scholarship tests established by the High Council of Scholars or some other way of establishing their scholarship of Islam.


Communities may then settle matters locally and in accord with their interpretation of Sharia, with the avenue of appeal of capital crimes to the High Council and the Supreme Council.

Local courts should be made aware that their errors of judgment can and may be pardoned, but they would be personally held liable for the unjust decisions made when they knew or should have known better.


There is no reason why a just, Sharia-based system would not be extremely fair to Muslims AND to non-Muslims, as long as the temptations for abuse are reduced.

Such a system would also be a stronger and more effective opposition to intolerance, than missiles, bombs and special assassination forces.


Jafar Siddiqui http://www.jeffsid.com

American Muslims of Puget Sound

Cell: 206.228.5732

Sometimes, to be human, you have to take sides


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/02/taliban-pakistan-justice-women-flogging


Video of girl's flogging as Taliban hand out justice

Mobile phone movie shows that militant influence is spreading deeper into Pakistan


After 34 lashes the punishment stops and the wailing woman is led into a stone building, trailed by a Kalashnikov-carrying militant.


Reached by phone, Taliban spokesman Muslim Khan claimed responsibility for the flogging. "She came out of her house with another guy who was not her husband, so we must punish her. There are boundaries you cannot cross," he said. He defended the Taliban's right to thrash women shoppers who were inappropriately dressed, saying it was permitted under Islamic law.


....


The woman's brother is among the men pinning her down, she added. "It's symbolic that he does it with his own hands. It gives him honour in local society, that he has done it for the sake of religion."


The Swat Valley is controlled by Maulana Fazlullah, a charismatic preacher who initially gained popularity through radio broadcasts, then seized control through gun battles, suicide attacks and intimidation of the local population.


Since the peace deal, women have been beaten for shopping unaccompanied in Mingora's main market and dozens of girls' schools remain closed, many of them bombed.


Fazlullah has sworn loyalty to Baitullah Mehsud, the overall Taliban leader from South Waziristan who claimed responsibility for last Monday's eight-hour assault on a police centre in Lahore and has vowed to mount attacks in Washington.


On Wednesday a presumed American drone fired rockets at a compound controlled by his network, killing at least 14 people.

[Mubashir]

1. The girl committed adultery

2. She confessed

4. The case was heard by a Qazi, who pronounced the punishment

4. The Sharia punishment for adultery committed by a non married person is public flogging

5. The Talibaan were following Islam..therefore, they don't care what the world says, they believe they are accountable to God only!


Thanks.


Mubashir

[Sidqi]

An effective religous reality and true islamic history must be spread through out world by mass media, Tv, print , and live talk shows and local representation, will help to counter some wrong islams.

Books like " True history and false beliefs in Islam " by Dr. Shabbir Ahmed are counter platforms. Such books in various languages should be encouaged and circulated by governments.

I personaly think that unless the islamic world adopts an answerable and socially helping government system, the aggressive and violent conditions of people and states will not improve. Poverty is number one enemy of society and there should be a ""war on Poverty"" instead of "War on terrorism".


Sidqi.