In a startling move, the parliament of Iraq enacted three controversial laws on 21st January. It approved changes to the nation’s personal status law that opponents contended would effectively legalize child marriage. Islamic courts now have more jurisdiction over family issues, including inheritance, divorce and marriage, based on the amendments. Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, which unified family law and introduced protections for women, is reportedly undermined by the law, according to several activists.
The proponents of the modifications who were mostly conservative Shiite lawmakers described them as an initiative to lessen Western influence on Iraqi culture and bring the law into line with Islamic values. According to current Iraqi law, the majority of marriages must take place at the age of 18. Many Shia religious authorities in Iraq adhere to the Jaafari school of Islamic law, which permits marriages between girls as young as nine years old. The recent amendments would allow clerics to govern in compliance with their understanding of Islamic law.
Furthermore, the parliament passed a general amnesty bill that is perceived as favouring Sunni detainees and as allowing those engaged in embezzlement and corruption to get away with it. A land restoration measure that addressed Kurdish territorial claims was also passed by the chamber. The amendments to the civil status law, per human rights activist and Iraqi Women’s League member Intisar al-Mayali, “will leave disastrous effects on the rights of women and girls, through the marriage of girls at an early age, which violates their right to life as children, and will disrupt the protection mechanisms for divorce, custody, and inheritance for women.”
Allegations of procedural irregularities and mayhem marked the end of the session. A parliamentary official stated that “the legal quorum was broken because half of the lawmakers present in the session did not vote.” He was speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to remark publicly. He added that while some members climbed on the parliamentary podium, others vehemently opposed it. Many lawmakers voiced their displeasure with the voting procedure after the session, which saw all three contentious laws and each backed by a different bloc, be put to a vote simultaneously.
An independent MP named Raed al-Maliki conveyed, “Regarding the civil status law, we are strongly supporting it and there were no issues with that. But it was combined with other laws to be voted on together and this might lead to a legal appeal at the federal court.” Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the speaker of the parliament, hailed the adoption of the laws in a statement as “an important step in the process of enhancing justice and organizing the daily lives of citizens.”
On the other hand, Noor Nafea Ali, an independent lawmaker, called the session a “farce” and pointed out that the bills were enacted without the required number of votes. Meanwhile, according to a security official, an explosion at an ammunition stockpile killed at least three policemen on 21st Jnauary including the national security chief of the al-Tarmiyah district north of Baghdad, and injured four more.
The explosion happened as a joint force of the Iraqi army and the national security service conducted an operation after intelligence reports of the Islamic State (IS) group’s activity and an ammunition cache in the area, informed the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to brief the media.
The Islamist attempts to impose Sharia Law in India
There exists a clear intention and wish among several individuals of a particular community to impose the Sharia law in India as well. Open and covert appeals to enforce the same in the nation or its regions have been voiced and frequently by a many, including the dreaded jihadi organizations like the outlawed Popular Front of India (PFI), Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and even mainstream Islamic leaders, parties and politicians. In any case, terrorist groups from Bangladesh, Pakistan and other nations seek to subjugate India and Hindus to either eliminate or treat them as sub-humans under the law.
Afghanistan under Taliban authority or areas under IS or ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) rule provides a stark illustration of what life resembles for women and non-Muslims in a nation with Sharia law. The manner in which the Taliban has restricted women’s basic freedoms including education in spite of its claims to the contrary revealed plenty about the dark reality of being governed by such an archaic law. This is further demonstrated by how non-Muslim women, especially Christian and Yazidi females suffered abuse and assault at the hands of ISIS where they were traded like livestock and raped at the hands of their captors.
The status of minorities especially Hindus in Pakistan and Bangladesh, which complies with the law in both letter and spirit yet again exemplifies the horrors endured by infidels in Sharia law. Their miserable condition resulted in the foundation of the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) 2019. More importantly, although the law consistently dehumanizes and exploits women and non-Muslims, many in India want to see it enforced throughout the nation since it is consistent with their Islamic ideology and beliefs.
The calls of “gustakh e rasool ki ek hi saza sar tan se juda” (behead those who insult Prophet Muhammad and Islam) that are echoed in the streets of the nation at every incident perceived of blasphemy is another manifestation of the Sharia law where religious fervor supersedes rationalism, logic and even the sanctity human life. Notably, the slogan was originally taken from Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, an extremist-turned-political outfit formed by the late Khadim Hussain Rizvi in the Islamic Republic.
The tragic killings of innocent Hindus that occurred in the aftermath of the edited video shared by Mohammed Zubair of Alt News featuring former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma show the gruesome fate that alleged blasphemers often face, as evidenced repeatedly in various Islamic nations. Mob justice prevails in these states and those who manage to evade such violence ultimately confront a similar end through the legal frameworks imposed by the respective Sharia governments.
AIMPLB, Sharia Law and opposition to UCC
The main goal of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is to protect Sharia law from any legislation that allegedly violates it. “We have more than 100 Sharia courts in India under AIMPLB and there are several others running under Imarat-e-Sharia across states including Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, under Imara-e-Sharia Assam and Karnataka. Jamiat Ulema is also running Sharia courts,” its spokesperson Qasim Rasool Ilyas disclosed. “We are planning to establish Sharia courts wherever there is a Muslim population,” he added.
Funnily, he claimed that the AIMPLB is trying to lessen the strain on the Indian courts, which are governed by the Constitution, by setting up Sharia courts. The Muslim organization earlier announced plans to establish Darul-Qaza, or Sharia courts, in every region of the nation in 2018. Therefore, it also opposed the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Act of 2019 and any changes to the divorce laws for Muslim women. The board even released a book titled “Nikah-O-Talaq (Marriage and Divorce)” to defend Sharia law.
It has long opposed the UCC (Uniform Civil Code), claiming that it would be “against the spirit of the Constitution” and that “implementing the Uniform Civil Code will deprive citizens of the privileges provided to them by personal laws (guided by Sharia law).” The board even threatened that its implementation would result in hampering peace and harmony in the country. AIMPLB has applied every effort to uphold Sharia law in the nation, from challenging the Supreme Court’s decision to permit divorced women to seek maintenance following the “iddat” (a period of waiting and abstinence that a Muslim woman observes after the death of her husband or a divorce) to contesting the Uttarakhand UCC law.
Muslim lawmakers and leaders are mostly rejecting the long-awaited legislation because they consider it to be incompatible with the regressive Sharia law. The protest is also coupled with serious threats undermining the country’s law and order. “We are against the UCC and if it is forced upon us, the reaction will be the same as it was for the CAA and NRC (National Register of Citizens). The Muslims of the country will never tolerate it at all,” warned the president of Hyderabad-based Tahreek Muslim Shabban, Maulana Mushtaq Malik, last year.
Controversial Samajwadi Party leader Abu Asim Azmi expressed similar sentiments and conveyed, “1400 years ago a constitution of Islam was formulated but the government wants to make amendments even in that. They want you to marry according to their laws and divide your properties as per them. What shall we do? Should we follow the government’s Uniform Civil Code or the teachings of the Holy Quran and Allah. The situation is deteriorating in the country and Muslims are worried.”
Notably, the Muslim leaders and groups are fighting against the constitutional UCC only because they want religious Sharia law in the country. Their hypocrisy is revealed, though, as they only want it to apply to their personal laws and not the criminal code.
Presence of Sharia law in marriages and other walks of life
The Madhya Pradesh High Court made a startling judgement last year when it pronounced that a marriage between a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl is not lawful under Mohammedan law. The court stated that even if the marriage is registered under the special marriage act, it will be regarded as an irregular (or fasid) marriage under Muslim personal law. The couple’s request for police protection was denied by the court, which added that neither the Hindu girl were willing to convert to Islam nor the couple want to live together without getting married. The court also ignored the argument that the Special Marriage Act permits such interfaith weddings and hinted that the Hindu girl must convert to Islam in order to marry the Muslim male for the marriage to be recognized by Sharia law.
Moreover, in a landmark decision in last August, the 1935 Assam Muslim Marriages and Divorce Registration Act and Rules, which were a remnant of colonial rule, were repealed by the government of Himanta Biswa Sarma which led to significant changes to Muslim marriages such as the elimination of Qazis (the marriage and divorce registrar), the prohibition of child marriages, compulsory registration of weddings. Section 8 of the act made child marriage legal by requiring legitimate guardians to apply for marriage registration if either the bride or the groom, or both, were minors.
Sharia law influences not only significant aspects such as marriage but also enforces strict limitations on everyday life, especially for females. “When we enquire about what we see, it is that there is an intermingling of men and women. Not just that, women are exposing their bodies and doing this exercise. The programme has even abolished the thought that men and women seeing one another is haram (forbidden),” general secretary of All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama, Kanthapuram A P Aboobacker Musliyar voiced recently while criticising popular physical fitness program Multi-Exercise Combination (MEC-7), in Kerala. He declared that the program was in violation of Islamic norms.
The opposition to the reclamation of Hindu temples, including the Ram Mandir, which were ravaged by Islamic rulers, represents another facet of Sharia law that is increasingly evident in India, both directly and indirectly, and in multiple forms. AIMPLB, Islamist political parties like All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) whose leaders are notorious for spreading hateful rhetoric against Hindus and many promiment Muslims have been vehementaly against the reclamation of temples by Hindus.
They have been challenging every move by the Hindu side in the courts and the street. The violence perpetrated by Muslim mob which transpired during the survey of Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal was an exmaple of the same. Interestingly, Waqf which is infamous for making fraudulent ownership claims about public and private properties including temples in India is also an integral part of Sharia law. Hence, there has been such a fierce agitation against the Waqf amendment bill by Muslim groups and leaders. It is unfortunate that the opposition supports such elements for the sake of vote-bank politics and Muslim appeasement.
Conclusion
The imposition of Sharia law in its complete form often serves as a mechanism for the severe oppression of non-Muslims, child marriages and the public flogging of women through unfounded accusations, thereby infringing upon their human rights and turning their existence burdensome, as evidenced in Afghanistan and Iran where females have been murdered over headscarfs.
Otherwise, like in Bangladesh and Pakistan, it turns into a tool to single out non-Muslims and persecute them on bogus grounds. Overall, the law consistently yields dire consequences for non-Muslims, which is why radical elements advocate for its application in India, aiming to replicate the efforts of Islamic invaders to cleanse the land of Hindus and make it into an Islamic nation which was also highlighted in PFI’s vision document.