After the meeting of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), its spokesperson Kamal Farooqi sought to review and roll back some Supreme Court judgments regarding progressively enhanced safeguards for women in cases of divorce, marriage and maintenance on the ground that these are conflicting to the Islamic law. He also told that the Board will go to Muslims and encourage them to approach Sharia courts or Darul Raza for matters relating to inheritance, marriage and divorce, rather than going for litigation directly.

In this write-up, I will confine myself to the Sharia aspect only, though Islamic jehad, too, is directly related with it. Sharia today is one of the most troublesome aspects of Islam, wherever the Muslims are in majority or minority.

In Canada, the Government succumbed to the pressure of demands in a province for legal cover to Muslims in settling their disputes under the Sharia Law. But one founding member of the Voice of Canada for progressive Muslims, Tarik Fatah, and his group opposed it. He told a Pakistani newspaper in a telephonic interview that behind the guise of religious tolerance and accommodation, Muslims are facing discriminatory ghettoisation and marginalisation. He described it as a Christmas gift for Muslims of Iran and Saudi Arabia who would be rejoicing this decision and using it to validate their oppressive Government.

Muslims in Western Europe are always insisting on their dress code and many other aspects of the Sharia, including rejection of dresses for school-going children. The Sharia has been their rallying point. Recent organised violence by Muslims in Britain has been found having Pakistani connection.

The recent events of Glasgow have brought forth an Indian connection too. It has broken the myth that the educated Muslim is not susceptible to the Sharia. The Lal Masjid episode was born out of a Sharia mindset. They captured and detained police personnel, attacked music shops, raided beauty parlours alleging that brothels are being runt there and captured seven Chinese women. They are against male/female mixed sport events, declaring it unislamic. Lal Masjid had 6,000 students breeding Sharia mindsets along with thousands of madarsas in various parts of the country.

The Sharia mindset was bestowed on Muslims through the Quran 14 centuries ago. The society has undergone a series of changes since then. In fact, the world has seen dozens of revolutions. It has evolved a lot.

During this period, the concepts of democracy, secularism, freedom and liberty have played a meaningful role in changing society. But the Sharia mindset largely remained static with minimal change. Hard-line Islamists in their own extreme interpretation are sticking to it.

Look at Bangladesh. It had the opportunity to change to modernity when it got independence. The horrendous genocide inflicted by Pakistan, killing three million people, was a sufficient enough jolt to be utilised by Bangladesh for establishing secular democracy. But it relapsed to fundamentalism just within half-a-decade. Both former Prime Ministers Begum Zia and Sheikh Hasina are at the mercy of fundamentalists' support.

Scheduled elections did not take place and military supported President came to power. Today, Bangladesh is the second strongest base of Sharia dictated jehadis.

The biggest Islamic country, Indonesia had a fair image for its democracy. It is now backsliding into middle ages practices of public lashing, limiting women's right for free movement and chopping off hands. Such punishing methods do not make society better but worse. Sharia mentality has started growing in Malaysia also. While Saudi Arabia and Iran are totally Islamic States, interpretations apart, the Quran is virtually their constitution.

Though Saudi Arabia comes down heavily on extremism but it is for the safety of Sheikhdom and not for any other purpose. Egypt, Turkey and Jordan are comparatively liberal but, they too are opposed by fundamentalists of their own countries. In Kurdistan thousands of women were killed under the guise of honour killing. In Pakistan, in the eyes of law, two women witnesses are considered equal to one male witness. The Nigerian constitution says that they are Nigerians first and Muslims or Christians thereafter.

But many fanatic northern Nigerians insist that they are Muslims first and Nigerians thereafter. They have called upon either to accept Sharia or leave it. Male students are required to sit in the front and female students at the back.

Insistence on Sharia, a worldwide phenomenon, makes Muslim community troublesome and where they are in majority, they are tyrants.

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, July 22, 2007