Sharia 101

Can Sharia (Islamic Law) work in the 21st Century?

Sharia law is no longer an obscure niche in the study of Islam.

Today Sharia, its role in political Islam and its impact on the daily lives of Muslim women and humanity has made headlines everywhere, almost daily.

For example:

**in Canada amid lots of social controversy and resistance, a Sharia court has formally started working on domestic and business issues with the blessing of Canadian law.

** in Nigeria and Pakistan unmarried girls and widows or divorced women who gets pregnant even by rape, are flogged or sentenced to death by stoning.

** in Malaysia by court order, a woman got instantly divorced by her husband by message left in answering machine.

** in Afghanistan women are banned by law from performing on radio or TV even for news broadcasting.

** in Pakistan hundreds of women are jailed under adultery and blasphemy laws. ** in Bangladesh, women are forced into strangers' beds by Sharia law while raped minor girls are flogged under Zina (adultery) law.

** in Iran, Pakistan, Sudan and Malaysia etc, women are fighting against oppressive Sharia laws which limit their lives in countless ways.

One may wonder how these abuses can happen in a world aware of human rights. Are these really Islamic laws or misapplications of Sharia?

This brief essay will explore and analyze the origins, the development and the impact of Sharia law on Muslim women. It will end with a call to the West, and to Muslim's themselves, to realize the magnitude of Sharia's threat to humanity.

Since women's rights under Sharia law is a vast and complicated subject, we will present it in a simple manner and deal with it in the following sections:

http://www.freemuslims.org/document.php?id=41