A Muslim group met in Chicago on Sunday to rail
against the evils of capitalism and to promote Shariah law.
Demonstrators gathered outside to protest the event, called the
"Fall of Capitalism and Rise of Islam," while speakers inside
rejected the very Constitution that protected their freedom to
speak. In the meanwhile, the number of Shariah courts in Britain has
been growing, and not all of the people using those courts are
Muslim.
Hizb-ut Tahrir:
The Muslim group Hizb-ut Tahrir held a conference in the ballroom at
the Hilton in Oak Lawn on Sunday to blame capitalism for much of the
suffering on the earth, including World Wars I and II, world
poverty, violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even inner city drug
use. The conference included videos and lectures by various
speakers, as well as question and answer sessions. Notably, men and
women at the conference were segregated, with women stashed away in
the back of the room to prevent, according to organizers, "people
from behaving like animals."
HT itself is not on the US government's list of terrorist groups,
and claims to be dedicated to non-violent reform. The group's goals
include the restoration of Turkey's Caliphate, which was abolished
in 1924 in favor of Western reforms. HT ultimately wants to see
worldwide implementation of Shariah law and government control of
major industries in order to cure the economic and social ills of
the nations.
Conference deputy spokesman Mohammed Malkawi denied that the group
associates with terrorists and declared that HT favored using
politics to achieve its purposes. Yet, HT has been called a
"conveyor belt for terrorists" because it has produced people like
9/ll mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and one-time Iraqi terrorist
leader Abu Musab Zarqawi. Malkawi claims to promote non-violent
change, yet he would not specifically condemn Al Qaida and the
Taliban in an interview with WBBM-TV in Chicago.
The extent of Sunday's blame-capitalism montage went beyond just
pointing out the causes of the subprime mortgage fiasco or world
economic troubles. One speaker blamed capitalism for the fact that
he smoked marijuana and his grandmother played the lottery, and
another even credited capitalism with responsibility for Michael
Jackson's desire "to shed his black skin." Keynote speaker Abu Talha
argued that capitalists were liable for the world's poverty, hunger,
and war. "It is time to deliver the world to Islam, an idea whose
time has come," he said.
HT is free to gather and promote its ideas in the United States, but
its activities have been banned in other countries. It is even
considered a fringe group by other Muslims. "They remain on the
margins of the community. They're not embraced by any of the mosques
in Chicago, in fact as a matter of fact I don't believe they can
pass out any of their literature in these mosques they have to pass
them outside," said Ahmed Rehab, with the Council on American
Islamic Relations.
The conference organizers managed to argue that even the tyrannical,
oppressive behavior of Islamic nations was the fault of the US.
Ironically, conference organizer Imam Jaleel Abdul Adil affirmed
that he would willingly throw out the US Constitution in favor of
Shariah – the very US Constitution that protects his freedom to
criticize the US government.
Shariah In Britain:
Shariah courts already exist in England. Britain has a relatively
large Muslim population, and according to the 1996 Arbitration Act,
Islamic courts are legally binding for those who submit voluntarily
to their adjudication.
In London, the Islamic Sharia Council has been making decisions on
divorce cases for years. The Muslim Arbitration Tribunal (MAT) has
been operating in London, Bradford, Birmingham, Coventry and
Manchester to handle disagreements between businessmen and mosques.
As many as 5 percent of those who are involved in MAT cases are not
Muslims, and observers note that there is a "creeping" trend of
Shariah acceptance in Britain.
One reason for turning to Muslim courts is their acceptance of oral
agreements as binding. British courts may not be willing to enforce
oral agreements between businessmen, but Islamic courts are. In a
recent case, a non-Muslim man took his Muslim business partner to
court over a dispute about the profits in their car fleet company.
The non-Muslim argued that the Muslim had broken an oral agreement,
and the court decided an agreement did exist and awarded the
non-Muslim £48,000.
Shariah, though, doesn't stop at oral agreements. Sheikh Suhaib
Hasan, who was instrumental in introducing the Islamic court system
to Britain in 1982, recently told The Times that enforcing
hard-line Shariah punishments would give Britain "more peace and
security." Dr. Hasan said he had no desire to come in conflict with
the British legal system, and would not push for or expect Islamic
punishments for things like theft or knife-violence because Britain
is not a Muslim country. Still, in his opinion, punishments like
amputating the limbs of thieves would make Britain safer because
they acted as strong deterrents against crime.
The slowly growing acceptance of Shariah is of great concern to
those who love political and religious freedom, not to mention the
rights of women. If a woman is raped, under Shariah in Pakistan, for
instance, she has to find four male witnesses to testify in her
favor, else the blame for the crime falls on her and she can be
punished for "adultery."
"It puts a woman in such a position that even if she is raped, in
the end she is left to face charges of adultery. It is next to
impossible for a rape victim to produce four male witnesses. Nobody
times the act to make sure that four men are present," says advocate
Mehboob, who works at the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in
Lahore.
Public beheadings, stonings and floggings, amputations, and serious
injustices toward women may not be the norm in Britain tomorrow, but
these things are expected in countries under Shariah. The HT may
promote Shariah as the cure for the world's ills, but the hard
reality is that Shariah promotes the government's extreme control
over a people, and we should all fear when its acceptance is allowed
to "creep" in.
