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Hudud in a non-Islamic state - A Humble Submission | The Star Online

Hudud in a non-Islamic state - A Humble Submission | The Star Online:

MUCH has been written about hudud. Many have pointed out that to implement hudud, or at least hudud as proposed by PAS to be carried out in Kelantan on Muslims, would be unconstitutional.

So far, we have not really seen a convincing rebuttal from PAS or others who want hudud to be implemented in Kelantan on how these legal and constitutional hurdles may be overcome. Even if Parliament passes the two Private Members Bills proposed by PAS, there is every likelihood that it will be struck down by the courts.

This article will not revisit the same legal and constitutional angles. Instead, it is an attempt to present a view on implementing hudud, as proposed by PAS, in our present, non-lslamic state.

Hudud is one part of Islamic criminal law. Islamic criminal law, meanwhile, is just one part of the Syariah, the entire legal system in an Islamic state.

In Islamic criminal law, there are generally three types of crimes. The most serious crimes are known as hudud - crimes "against God" or "against limits ordained by God". In an Islamic state, the sovereign is tasked to punish these crimes if individuals have transgressed them. The punishments for these crimes are fixed and the judge cannot reduce or change them if the offender is found guilty.

Because of their seriousness, these crimes are limited in number. Most scholars agree that hudud crimes are theft, highway robbery, drinking alcohol, illegal sexual intercourse (zina) and false accusation of zina. Scholars are split on the crime of apostasy; some say it is a hudud crime while others disagree.

Apart from hudud crimes, other types of crimes under the Syariah are ta'zir, qisasand diyat. Ta'zir crimes are crimes against the state and they are discretionary; the state has the discretionary powers to punish these crimes. Qisas are crimes punishable on the principle of "an eye for an eye". Diyat are crimes that may be punishable like qisas but instead, the victim may accept compensation or "blood money" instead.

The burden of proof to establish a hudud crime is extremely high. It is far heavier than the burden of proof that we have in our current system of "beyond reasonable doubt". To find a person guilty of a hudud crime, there must no doubt at all as to the guilt of the person. If there is any doubt, the judge must not find the person guilty of a hudud crime and instead commute it down to ta'zir crime, for which the punishment is discretionary.

Hudud is one part of a whole system. Islam envisages a comprehensive system of values for society. Not just laws, but in terms of obligations to God, obligations to each other and obligations to the Islamic state. In such an environment, hudud is just one aspect, the extreme end that provides for punishments for the most serious of offences.

In such a system, hudud would be able to achieve its objectives, which include justice and deterrence of crimes. But what PAS is proposing instead is to lift one part of the whole and import it in our current, non-Islamic state and say that it will achieve justice.

To take one aspect of Islamic law and to import it into the current system would not do justice to hudud and the Syariah as a whole. Hudud should be implemented only in a state where all the institutions of the state are in line with the Syariah.

That is why we can immediately point to the problems that would occur if PAS' hudud plans for Kelantan are implemented. Issues with Muslims in Kelantan being subjected to two sets of criminal laws. Issues where Muslims in Kelantan would be subjected to heavier penalties compared with non-Muslims in the state. Issues of crimes committed jointly by Muslims and non-Muslims. Issues of double jeopardy. Issues of compelling non-Muslims to attend the Syariah Court for trials of hudud when the Syariah Court has absolutely no jurisdiction over non-Muslims. Hudud, when implemented in an Islamic state, is not just for Muslims but is applicable to all. Instead of achieving justice, PAS' plan would instead create inequality and breed injustice.

Islamic scholar Mohammad Hashim Kemali argues that any arbitrary and selective division of the general of Syariah is bound to harm the spirit and structure of the Syariah and would be tantamount to oppression, the opposite aim of what hudud should achieve. An Islamic political order should first be established, before hudud can be implemented.

He cites the example one of the rightly guided Caliphs, Umar al-Khattab, who suspended the hudud crime of theft during a year of famine. The rationale for this was that it would be unjust to enforce hudud in such circumstances, as people were more likely to commit theft when food was scarce.  Many other Islamic scholars, including the respected and celebrated Tariq Ramadan, have also argued for a moratorium on hudud when the conditions are not suitable for such laws.

As mentioned by Hanipa Maidin, the PAS MP for Sepang, in his recent article, hudud is "…only capable of dispensing true and effective justice when it is implemented in a perfect Islamic environment where good governance and sound policy prevail. On the contrary, in the absence of good governance, hudud, despite its aim of bringing genuine law and order, may be counter-productive especially if such laws are implemented by a failed state."

We are not yet a failed state. But there are many aspects in which the institutions of the state have failed. We have a crisis of confidence in our public bodies. We have not achieved social justice. Those who are in need of assistance and protection have not been adequately assisted and protected. We are still grappling with issues when it comes to having a dual system in the area of family law. We have not upheld constitutional guarantees. The list of woes is long and growing, and it needs our undivided attention.

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Australasian Conference on Islam - Centre for Islamic Sciences and Civilisation - Charles Sturt University

Australasian Conference on Islam - Centre for Islamic Sciences and Civilisation - Charles Sturt University:

Inaugural Australasian Conference on Islam

“Muslim Identity Formation in Religiously Diverse Societies”

Date: 24–26 November 2013

Conference hosts: Centre for Islamic Studies & Civilisation, Charles Sturt University and the Islamic Sciences & Research Academy of Australia (ISRA)

Place: Sydney, Australia (venue TBA)

Abstract submission date: 28 February 2013

Organising chairperson: Dr Derya Iner diner@csu.edu.au

 

Background 

Muslims and Muslim societies are rapidly changing in the modern world. The revival and resurgence of Islam wherever Muslims live – including Muslim minorities in Australia, the West and Asia-Pacific – shows that Muslims are more and more turning to their faith with a hope to meet their spiritual needs and address their social and political problems. In doing so, Islam forms or transforms the identities of individual Muslims as well as the identities of the societies in which they live. At the same time, Muslims’ response to religious, cultural and social circumstances around them influence the way their identities are shaped within increasingly religiously diverse societies. Although religious diversity is more pronounced in the Western and Asia-Pacific context, such diversity even exists in predominantly Muslim societies. Key drivers in identity formation include Islam, nature and level of Islamic education, generational transition, the nature and extent of religious diversity and rapidly changing social and political landscape. How all these factors impinge on the identity formation of Muslims and Muslim societies will be explored in this conference.

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Kalimah Allah: Penjelasan Dr. Haron Din

Taylor & Francis Online

Religious education and intercultural understanding: examining the role of religiosity for upper secondary students’ attitudes towards RE

DOI:

10.1080/01416200.2012.717015

Anders Sjöborg^a*

pages 36-54

Version of record first published: 17 Sep 2012

Taylor & Francis Online

BBC News - US anti-Islam filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula jailed

BBC News - US anti-Islam filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula jailed:

US anti-Islam filmmaker Nakoula Basseley Nakoula jailed

Nakoula was arrested after going into hiding amid death threats over the film

Continue reading the main story

Anti-Islam film protests

• Q&A: Anti-Islam film
• Film protests in pictures
• Viewpoints
• Protests explained

A US man behind an anti-Muslim film that led to mass protests in the Middle East has been sentenced to a year in jail for probation violations.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula was sentenced by a judge in California after admitting four violations which stem from a 2010 conviction for fraud.

None of the charges was connected with the content of the controversial film, Innocence of Muslims.

Dozens of people died in the Middle East in protests over the film.

US District Judge Christina Snyder said Nakoula, 55, must spend 12 months in prison followed by four years of supervised release.

Prosecutors had been seeking a two-year sentence.

Internet ban

After the 2010 conviction, Nakoula had served most of a 21-month jail sentence for using more than a dozen aliases and opening about 60 bank accounts to conduct a cheque fraud scheme, prosecutors said.

The Los Angeles Times said that it was while he was in prison that he read the Koran, looking for ways to criticise Islam.

On his release he was barred from using computers or the internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.

Nakoula, who was arrested in September, also goes by the name of Sam Bacile, Nicola Bacily and Mark Basseley Yousseff and is believed to be an Egyptian-American Coptic Christian.

US authorities have said they believe Nakoula was the person behind the controversial film, but have not said whether he was the person who posted it on the internet.

Muslims around the world took to the streets in protest, outraged by the film's portrayal of the Prophet Muhammad.

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Rohingya Concerns Extend Beyond Myanmar - Southeast Asia Real Time - WSJ

Rohingya Concerns Extend Beyond Myanmar - Southeast Asia Real Time - WSJ:

A recent protest by 2,000 Rohingya Muslims in Kuala Lumpur illustrates how the stateless ethnic group’s plight has become a regional problem rather than just a bilateral issue between Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Tensions between the Rohingyas and the Buddhists in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State erupted in recent weeks after a local woman was raped and murdered on May 28th, allegedly by three Rohingya Muslim men. Subsequent fighting left at least 50 people dead and more than 2,000 homes and buildings destroyed. As tensions flared, Bangladeshi officials refused to accept boatloads of Rohingya refugees who tried to flee the area. Myanmar security forces have appeared to tamp down the violence in recent days, though emotions remain raw and many residents fear further outbreaks of trouble.

Whatever happens, anger over the situation is appearing far away from the central fighting zone. At the protest held Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Rohingyas marched from a mosque after prayers shouting  “Allahu Akhbar” or “God is great” en route to the Myanmar embassy to hand over a protest note. Some held  placards that read “stop the genocide” and “stop the religious violence.” The demonstration lasted for about an hour before the protestors were told to disperse by the police.

Myanmar Ethnic Rohingya Human Rights Organization Malaysia (MERHROM) President Zafar Ahmad Abdul Ghani told Southeast Asia Real Time that the protesters were not able to meet with any oficials from the Myanmar embassy because “no one wanted to come out and see us.” Efforts to reach Myanmar officials at the embassy for comment were unsuccessful. Mr. Zafar said the group handed a copy of its protest statement to security guards at the U.S. embassy instead.

According to Mr. Zafar, there are about 30,000 Rohingyas spread throughout Malaysia.

The presence of so many Rohingyas in Malaysia helps underscore how they continue to look for a permanent home across Asia after years of persecution along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border. Myanmar officials regard the Rohingyas in Rakhine State to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and denies them citizenship. Bangladesh, meanwhile, says Rohingyas have settled in Myanmar for centuries and argues that it has too few resources to offer refuge to any of the estimated 800,000 Rohingyas living in Myanmar in abject poverty.

Left without passports, many of the Rohingyas have fled Myanmar in rickety boats, hoping to land in Malaysia or other countries where they can find a new life. Many are lost at sea. Some find land, only to be towed out by local authorities and set adrift once more, as happened in Thailand in 2009.

Others have actually made it to other countries such as Malaysia, where they are increasingly pressing for recognition.

Mr. Zafar, who is 42, hails from the township of Buthidaung in Myanmar. After a student uprising in Myanmar in 1988, he fled to Malaysia, where he has lived the past 22 years, marrying a local woman.

“The media in Burma is not giving the correct report,” said Mr. Zafar, using Myanmar’s colonial name of Burma. Although the government says the situation is okay now, “I am receiving news daily that the violence is continuing.”

Myanmar officials have said they are working hard to control the situation but have also warned that if the violence continues, it could set back reforms aimed at creating more political and economic freedoms in the country over the past year.

Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs likewise has expressed concern over the sectarian violence, saying in a statement that it welcomed a Myanmar government effort to establish an investigation committee to probe the conflict. “Malaysia is also ready to extend humanitarian assistance deemed necessary by the government of Myanmar for the people affected by this conflict,” it added.

Of course, there’s another concern for Southeast Asian governments: The possibility that more boats filled with Rohingya refugees could start flowing their way if the conflict intensifies and Bangladeshi authorities refuse to take them in.

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