By Mike Ghouse
The right-wing Muslims will scream at me for questioning the divinity of Sharia, and the right-wing Christians, Jews, Hindus, and others will be calling me names, as this essay does not condemn Sharia. They simply cannot see another point of view.
Rather than the outright rejection of Sharia, which serves as a system of justice to the given populations in Muslim majority nations, we need to fix the laws; without it a large swatch of population becomes rudderless. Our own constitution has been amended several times, and that is what is needed to be done with Sharia.
However, the moderate majorities in all groups see the value in fixing the cancerous cells, rather than rejecting the whole system. Unless we fix things, injustice in the name of justice will continue.
The golden rule is central to all religions that say, “Treat others as you want to be treated.” There is not a religion on the earth that teaches one to treat the other any less. Most people get their religion right, and some don’t.
The conservative men tend to be insecure when dealing with women; no matter what faith they belong to, they behave the same. Their perceived safety hinges on keeping some one or the other under their thumb; usually women.
Sharia was a human effort to dispense justice to fellow beings in accordance with Quran and the Prophet’s examples; however, men are fallible beings and have failed to deliver justice. They have got it all wrong when it comes to women, apostates, blasphemers and the victims of rape. Sharia as practiced in a few of the Muslim nations does not reflect God’s wisdom or the practice of the prophet. It needs to be fixed badly.
Our conservative lot gets offended when Sharia is criticized as they (mistakenly) believe that Sharia is God’s law, delivered like Quran, and it is not. Criticizing Sharia is the right thing to do, after all how are we going to fix it?
Muslims need to feel secure that God is not going anywhere, Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) is not going anywhere nor Qur’an will disappear; they are eternal. God tells the prophet not to worry if people don’t listen to his message, because he is the one who gives guidance. God also says he will protect his system (religion), shouldn’t we trust in God? The conservatives, be it Christian, Muslim, Jews, Hindus or others, don’t really trust in God, and aggressively preempt him.
Just as Americans cannot fathom any other form of law other than the one we know, the Muslims in Muslim majority nations cannot imagine any other law either. Our laws are not perfect, and neither is theirs. We have amended ours many a time, and need to include marriage-equality amendment and more. The Muslims have not made amendments to Sharia in a long time. It is time to fix it and keep the laws to serve justice to the Muslim populations.
A majority of Muslim nations are not familiar with any other laws; they will resist pushing new codes on them, just as we would. Remember the Obama-care battle? We need to understand them and encourage amendments. There is nothing wrong with the intent of Sharia; it’s the corruption that needs fixing, when done, and Sharia would be as good as any other law aligning fully with the human-rights declaration.
Let’s deal with a few Sharia-related issues concerning rape victims, apostasy, blasphemy, and treatment of rape victims.
Dr. Mike Ghouse is the founder and president of the Center for Pluralism. He is a speaker, thinker, author, community consultant, pluralist, activist, newsmaker, and an interfaith wedding officiant. Mike is deeply committed to Free speech.