Sharia Law

Miniskirts will be declared pornography and Indonesia will ban them as a politician says “provocative clothing” made men “do things”.

Indonesia’s Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali will ensure tough new anti-porn laws will include criteria such as “a skirt above the knee”, The Jakarta Post reports.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary speaker Marzuki Alie is drafting rules banning miniskirts in Parliament because “there have been a lot of rape cases and other immoral acts recently and this is because women aren’t wearing appropriate clothes”.

Continue reading "Stop skirting the rape issue and cut it off at the knees" »

It has just been confirmed this morning that Australian graves were among those desecrated in Libya. Kuranda Seyit, founder of the forum on Australia’s Islamic Relations, examines the furore that set off this unfortunate turn of events.

Last year the mad preacher of Gainesville, The Reverend Terry Jones, created a furore in the Muslim world by his threats and call for a global burning of the Islamic holy book, the Koran. Thankfully, that was averted after some pressure from the Oval Office.

Yet, last week some rogue US soldiers have taken this call one step further and burnt copies of the Koran, in all places, Afghanistan. It’s a death wish.

The US Army denied that this was deliberate and just a mistake, but do they really think that we are that stupid? Burning any book is really not kosher but burning one’s holy book when you are in a country as an invading force is a big slap in the face. The reality is that they got caught and now they are trying to backtrack.

Continue reading "Grave crimes of desecration" »

Happy Valentine’s Day. May your day be free from cutesy little devil horns and squealing flower recipients and (most of all) from pitying stares.

*Insert more appropriately acerbic and cynical commentary on Valentine’s Day here.*

While you’re audibly sneering at the hysterically happy young lass whose heart-shaped balloon is bumping against the ceiling, spare a thought for young lovers in Aceh, where Muslim leaders have banned Valentine’s Day.

Continue reading "Love in the time of sharia" »

A News Ltd survey of Australian imams unearthed a renewed call for the recognition of sharia banking in Australia. At The Punch we weren’t really sure what that meant, so we asked expert in Islamic banking Dr Hussain Rammal, a lecturer in International Business at UniSA, to talk us through the basics.

What are the main differences between Islamic banking and Western banking?

The main difference is in the way the two systems deal with money. Under the Islamic economic system money is seen as a medium of exchange and has no intrinsic value. Therefore charging a higher rate of return (interest) on lend money does not sit well under the Islamic system. Islamic financial institutions use an asset-backed system where they purchase the assets on behalf of their customers and then use various financing agreements to on-sell the asset to their clients. These include profit-and-loss sharing, leasing and hire-purchase, and mark-up based agreements.

Continue reading "Punch Q & A: What is this Islamic banking caper?" »

Politics. Religion. Combine the two and the result can be very nasty indeed. Think about a short list: the Crusades, the Inquisition, New York and the twin towers, the Holocaust, massacre of the Huguenots. It appears that when Church and State are combined into one, horrific things can happen.

Democracies usually separate religion and politics. The 1st Amendment to the American Constitution is absolutely clear: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. This has been interpreted firmly by the Supreme Court, including banning prayers in public schools and state aid to religious schools.

Continue reading "Thou shalt separate Church and State" »

Sharia should never be part of Australian law. In fact, Australian authorities should be making more concerted attempts to get to grips with sharia law as it is already practised in Australia, and to make sure that the benefits of a secular democracy are better understood in migrant communities.

First of all, though, let’s just be clear that what the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils has proposed in its submission to a multiculturalism inquiry is not about stoning women for adultery or lopping off hands for stealing. What they’re talking about – at this point – is family law; divorces and marriages.

And when AFIC says (in today’s news reports) that they want Government support for a wider spread of schools and halal shops to stop ‘enclaves’ forming, they’re not talking about empire building, but about community support.

Continue reading "I hear ya on sharia, but please no hysteria" »

I’m going, for the first time, to somewhere with sharia law. Alcohol is illegal, adulterers can be stoned, public floggings occur, and I’ll have to wear a jilbab (headscarf) and ankle-length skirts.

This isn’t the Middle East, it’s not Saudi Arabia or Iran - it’s our close neighbour, Indonesia. Specifically, it’s Aceh, that beleaguered Indonesian province still recovering from the Boxing Day tsunami.

Sharia law can mean all sorts of things. Muslims believe it is God’s law, as derived from the teachings of the Koran and the sayings of the Prophet Mohammed.

Continue reading "We’re all going on a Sharia holiday" »