PRETEXT, NOT CONTEXT:

The Taliban's perversion of sharia law: The Taliban have perverted sharia law in a way that shames Islam and contravenes human rights (Houriya Ahmed, 5/03/09, guardian.co.uk)

Muslims who want to lead a life based on God's guidance from the Quran and Sunnah (Prophetic tradition) comply with sharia, which literally means "way", not law. Central to sharia are the aims of preserving life, property, intellect, progeny and religion. Going against this traditional understanding, extreme elements like the Taliban incorporate concepts of state and law into sharia by claiming that God's law is sacrosanct. Questions then arise as to who decides which Islamic schools of thought or practice are to be followed, and which criteria used to determine what is "Islamic" or not. When and where sharia law has been adopted, the tendency has been to force narrow and backward opinions upon society, in contravention of sharia's aims as well as human rights standards.

If the Taliban were to contextualise the Qur'an and Sunnah, they would realise that Islam's Prophet Muhammad aimed to reform 7th-century Arab society by giving women and weaker groups greater rights and relative equality. For instance, women were granted rights to hold property and slavery was discouraged. Whilst maintaining sharia as a set of norms, bearing in mind that it is not God but humans who legislate, Islamic practices can be re-interpreted to meet today's moral standards, where freedom and equality can and should form the basis of sharia principles. To legislate and structure society based on medieval rules and norms now actually contradicts Muhammad's message, which is avoid tyranny, oppression and injustice.

Down the centuries Islam has maintained and promoted pluralism, which extremists like the Taliban deny. That is why we see such a diversity of Muslim practice today, because Islamic scholars have understood that the eternal message of God needs to be interpreted in reference to geographical and temporal contexts. By legalising a twisted understanding of sharia, the Taliban are actually politicising religion.

Spengler has pointed out that the particular difficulty for Islam is that arguments that the Koran must be read literally are powerful because it basically holds the position that Christ/God does within Christianity.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 3, 2009 8:15 AM