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Care about democracy? Criticize political Islam and Sharia, Darwish urges |
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Written by Joanne Hill
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Wednesday, 11 November 2009 |
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TORONTO – Canadians who care about democracy and human rights have a responsibility to examine and criticize political Islam and its legal system, known as Sharia, says author Nonie Darwish.
“Islam has expanded itself so much beyond the religion that it has become a one-party state with a very elaborate legal system that interferes in every part of your life even if you’re not a Muslim,” Darwish said in an interview with the Jewish Tribune. “It affects women, it affects children, it affects the duty of a man to his wife, it affects every aspect of society. It’s become so political that we really should take out the guilt that exists in Western society from criticizing Islam.”
"If you love Canada, and if you love your constitution, you have a duty to criticize Sharia and radical Islam. And if you don’t, in my opinion, you have abandoned your duty towards your country and your constitution.”
Darwish, founder and president of Arabs for Israel and director of Former Muslims United, spoke at the University of Toronto on Nov. 4. She said she is speaking out about Sharia “because Muslims in the West are demanding it as their religious right.”
Darwish was careful to distinguish between a religious practice (for example, praying, fasting and going to a mosque) and a legal system that denies equal rights and imposes a death penalty for leaving the religion.
“I am condemning a very archaic, oppressive law.”
Her book, Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law, examines the ways in which Sharia is used to control individuals and societies. She was assisted in her research by Hasan Mahmud, director of Sharia Law for the Muslim Canadian Congress.
Darwish was born and raised in Egypt. Her family also lived in Gaza until her father, a colonel in the Egyptian army, was assassinated by the Israeli Defence Forces. He is still honoured as a shahid, a martyr who has died in the act of jihad.
The doctrine of jihad is an integral part of Sharia and is “the major obstacle in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
“The definition (of jihad) in the mainstream books of Sharia is to war with non-Muslims to establish the religion. It doesn’t say anything about an inner struggle or self-analysis.
“In many areas of the Sharia books, it emphasizes that a Muslim head of state must do jihad against neighbouring non-Muslim countries. Does that give you an idea what Israel’s situation is?”
For example, she said, after former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed a peace treaty with Israel, he was denounced in mosques as an apostate and murdered by the Muslim Brotherhood. Under Sharia, the punishment for apostasy is death and this “apostasy card” is used to silence and kill intellectuals and reformists.
“This is the power of Sharia and it’s going to come here if we don’t stand up against it.” |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 18 November 2009 )
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