Sharia...

[waitingman]

So... On the Australian TV show Q & A (a sort of current affairs debate open to the public) this week, a right-wing Senator was challenged by a Muslim woman over her (mis)understanding of 'sharia law' - something that has been a lightning rod for fear-mongering xenophobes, bigots & racists all over the world

Now, having read this article (surprisingly, on the news.com.au website - normally the home of white-bread news), I discovered that even I didn't really know what Sharia is... Of course, I'd like to do more reading on the subject than just a news item, but everyone has to start somewhere & this article isn't a bad place...

I'm not advocating for Islam, nor am I thinking of converting. I don't actually subscribe to any religion this world (or any other, so far) has to offer. But just remember - some of the worst, bloodthirsty, corrupt, belligerent, violent people of the last 2000 years have claimed to be Christians... Evil is ultimately separate from Religion, though the two get into bed with each other quite comfortably... & often. When they do - it's the world that gets fucked

Comments

[reynardo.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine on Facebook wrote this:

Sharia Law is the set of rules that govern what a person does each day to express his faith. For example, a good Muslim must cover his body properly and modestly. He must pray five times, having cleansed himself before doing so. These customs are ancient and are adhered to by all Muslims.

SOME Muslims, however, have chosen to interpret those Sharia rules in their own special way. You know: the same way the Catholics chose to interpret the Bible during the Spanish Inquisition. SOME Catholics in SOME countries went troppo with the Good Book and did a helluva lot of damage in its name.

This is exactly what's happening with the Qu'uran today. SOME Muslims in SOME countries are interpreting the laws of their religion in ways that were never meant. The full-body covering of women is a good example of this. In SOME Muslim countries, this is required because IN THOSE COUNTRIES it was felt the full-body covering best expressed a modest woman. Beats me why the men don't need to be quite as modest as their wives and daughters, but there y'go.

In addition, organisations like the Taliban are using their religious leaders to coerce people into violence. Remember: it's not the faith that's at fault, here: it's crooked religious and political leaders. It's a similar situation to the one in which the Mafia had an unholy influence on the Catholic Church and used crooked clerics to further the Mafia's own aims.

The word 'jihad' is hugely misunderstood as well. It simply means 'struggle' and is usually meant to describe an individual's personal internal struggle against sin. Crooked clerics have taken that word and used it in a totally unholy way WHICH MOST MUSLIMS UNDERSTAND AND REJECT.

You will find that the Muslim people who belong to organisations like ISIL are not your mainstream religious Muslims but rather out-there hotheads who come from poor or disenfranchised backgrounds and who have an axe to grind.They're fertile ground for the Taliban and al-Qaeda (both of which have less to do with Islam and more to do with political force).

I have to wonder to myself why Ms Hanson and Ms Lambie don't know all this stuff for themselves. If they set out to be leaders among us, why have they not at least done the basic work needed to inform themselves instead of relying on 'A Current Affair' for their knowledge base? That's shoddy and lazy and not worthy of a leader

[waitingman.livejournal.com]

Amen to that...

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

Well said. :-)