What is sharia law?
Meaning “path” or “way” in Arabic, sharia refers to the moral and legal code of Islam.
Sharia law can be applied to public and private aspects of life including criminal, family, banking and business law, politics and economics.
It has many sources, including the Koran, the Hadith and centuries of scholarly interpretation and case law.
The legal framework based on the moral and legal code of Islam is rarely out of the news.
The most extreme interpretations of sharia are being enforced by Isis and Boko Haram, it is railed against by Republican presidential candidates, and the Independent recently revealed how sharia councils in Britain are locking women into “marital captivity” and doing nothing to officially report domestic violence.
But how do Muslims feel about sharia ?
An international Pew Research Center poll of Muslims, conducted in 2013, found that this varies widely across countries – shown in the above graphic produced by Statista.
Respondents were asked if Sharia should be the official law of the land in their country.
In Afghanistan, 99 per cent said yes, with Iraq (91 per cent), the Palestinian Territories (89 per cent), Malaysia (86 per cent) and Niger (also 86 per cent) the countries next most in favour.
A majority of the Muslims in Europe want sharia should have precedence over the secular laws of their European host countries.
This according to a new study by WZB Berlin Social Science Center where Muslims in six countries interviewed, including Sweden. A study that should concern Western politicians, according to the researchers.
The study posed three questions to the immigrant Turks and Moroccans in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Holland and Sweden:
- Do you think sharia is more important to you than the laws of the country you live? (66%)
- Do you mean that there is only one legitimate interpretation of the Koran that should apply to all Muslims? (75%)
- Are you saying that Muslims should return to their “Islamic roots”? (60%)
Those who answered Yes to all questions be referred to as “consistent fundamentalists” – and these represent 44 per cent of those questioned Muslims in Europe.
The fundamentalist attitudes are as common among younger Muslims among the elderly.
According to the study (conducted as early as 2008, but only now have been published), the situation is worst in Austria. Where 73% of the Muslims replied that sharia is more important than the secular State laws, 79 percent that there is only one correct interpretation of the Koran that apply to all and 65 percent believe that the Muslims to return to their Islamic roots. A total of 55 percent replied by the Austrian Muslims in the survey that they agreed with all three allegations.
The report’s author, the Dutch sociologist Ruud Koopmans says that the study reveals remarkably similar patterns in comparison with other German studies.
For example, Muslime in Deutschland (Muslims in Germany) which in 2007 showed that 47% of German Muslims argued that the religious policies is more important than democracy–exactly the same number as in this study believe that Quranic laws is more important than the German laws.
Equally disturbing is that the study shows the significant Muslim hostility towards other groups. For example, 60 per cent of Muslims replied that they refuse to have gay friends and 45 percent say that you can not trust Jews.
Even in these matters is distinguished the Austrian Muslims.
69 percent refuse to have gay friends, and 63 percent say that you can not trust Jews.
In addition, said 66 percent of the people that the West is trying to destroy islam.
To have something to compare the response with European Muslims, non-Muslim Europeans was also asked about his position on suspicion of Jews (8 per cent), gay (10 per cent), Muslims (21 percent). 1.4% were opposed to all three groups.
According to Koopmans is Islamic fundamentalism “is not an innocent form of strict religiosity. … While about one in five indigenous Europeans may be referred to as “Islamophobe”, is the degree of anxiety to the West among Muslims — which oddly enough is no words, but may call it occidentofobi [Occident = West] – much higher: 54% believe that the West’s goal is to destroy islam. ”
“These results contradict quite clearly what we often hear, that Islamic religious fundamentalism is a marginal phenomenon in Western Europe and that it does not differ from the degree of fundamentalism among the Christian majority.
Both of these claims are obviously false, because almost half of European Muslims want the Muslims to turn back to Islam’s roots, that there is only one interpretation of the Qur’an, and that the laws are more important than secular laws.
Among native Christians is that fewer than one in 25 who may be referred to as fundamentalist in this respect. Religious fundamentalism is no innocent form of strict religiosity, which clear the connection with their attitude to people outside the group shows.”
What exactly is included in Sharia law:
Beheadings
Stonings
Hangings
Crucifixions
Honor killings
Genocide
Burning infidels alive
Supremacy/global domination
Warfare/conquest
Beatings
Torture
Limb amputations
Genital mutilation
Death to apostates
Forced conversion
Slavery
Sex slavery and rape
Misogyny/sexism
Women enslavement
Wife beating
Child marriage/rape
Brutality against homosexuals
Censorship
Dictatorship
Bigotry and hatred
Robbery and pillage
Extortion of nonbelievers
Persecution and/or death for blasphemy/atheism
Animal cruelty
Prohibition of music/singing
Destruction of pre-Islamic antiquities
Etc., ad nauseam
Koopmans continues:
“Both the scale of the Islamic religious fundamentalism and its companion – homophobia, anti-Semitism and ‘ occidentofobi ‘ – should cause serious concern both politicians of the Muslim community leaders. Of course you should not equate religious fundamentalism with determination to support or participate in religiously motivated violence. But given the strong link between it and hostility towards the other groups, it is most likely that religious fundamentalism is fertile ground for a radikaliserande environment. ”
The German newspaper Die Welt writes in a commentary on the study results casting serious doubts about the unbridled optimism of the European mångkulturalisterna, those who claim that Muslim citizens in the long run will be covered by the Liberal, democratic thinking in the Western world.
“The study is not suitable for simple conclusions”, writes the newspaper. “But it must be recognised: democracies must beware of those who believe that a free society is something that must be defeated.”
More and more people in Europe are warning now also for the increasingly aggressive attempt Islamic organizations as OIC (57 Muslim countries) are doing at
Some descriptions of Sharia according to leading Islamic scholars:
