http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-05-17/muslim-group-wants-sharia-law-in-australia/2717096
Muslim group wants sharia law in Australia
PM
Jacquelyn Hole

Updated May 17, 2011 21:49:00

The Australian Federation of Islamic Councils wants Muslims to be able to marry, divorce and conduct financial transactions under the principles of sharia law.

In a submission to the Federal Parliament's Committee on Multicultural Affairs, the Federation has asked for the change.

It argues that all Australians would benefit if Islamic laws were adopted as mainstream legislation.

That is not a view shared by many other contributors to the usually low-profile committee.

It has received hundreds of submissions on the topic.

Ikebal Patel, president of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils, agrees the very word sharia could invoke notions of a fierce, unjust, male-dominated legal code.

"Short of trying to really find or use another word, really I would like to suggest that what the Muslim community at least in Australia has to do is to try and explain that there's no aspect of sharia that is being tried to be introduced here," he said.

However, Mr Patel believes everyone would benefit if sharia law were utilised in a pluralistic society such as Australia.

"Under the global financial crisis that we had the established market, the sharemarket sector, the products that are there suffered very badly," he said.

"Whereas the sharia-compliant investment funds did tremendously well and that's been identified by the financial community around the world."

Even popular belief that sharia marriage laws are oppressive towards women are wrong, Mr Patel asserts.

Rather sharia guarantees women's rights that are not recognised in mainstream Australian courts, he said.

But author Ida Lichter, who has written on the lives of Muslim women in both the West and predominantly Islamic countries, disagrees.

"The members of the Iranian and Kurdish Women's Rights Organisation in Britain have drawn attention to these oppressive laws that they escaped by migrating to the West, and they've said that women are much better under legislation based on universal human rights," she said.

Law lecturer Ghena Krayem, who has researched the issue of legal pluralism, says the Islamic community does not want a parallel legal system set up.

"[We] found that there's no evidence from any community leaders of any desire to set up a parallel legal system and I think to pose the question in that way presupposes this assumption that the Muslim community wants an alternative or parallel legal system," she said.

Rather Ms Krayem says some of the processes around legal matters such as divorce and inheritance could take on board Muslim notions of dialogue and alternative dispute resolution, but the law should service all community members alike.

But Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland has ruled out any chance of sharia law being introduced to Australia.

In a statement released to the ABC, Mr McClelland said: "There is no place for sharia law in Australian society and the Government strongly rejects any proposal for its introduction.

"Australia's brand of multiculturalism promotes integration. If there is any inconsistency between cultural values and the rules of law then Australian law wins out."

Gotta love Islam, Fascism for horny men

cutting to the chase:
The nation's Islamic leader believes western women have only themselves to blame for getting raped by Muslims for not covering themselves like good Islamic women.



Originally Posted by Yahoo News
UNDER-fire Muslim cleric Sheik al-Taj al-Din al-Hilaly has apologised for any offence caused by his comments that immodestly dressed women provoke sexual attacks.

It was reported today that the nation's most senior Muslim leader had likened scantily clad women to uncovered meat that attracts cats, in a sermon he delivered last month.

In a statement today the sheik said: "I unreservedly apologise to any woman who is offended by my comments.

"I had only intended to protect women's honour, something lost in (the) presentation of my talk."

A spokesman for the sheik said the backlash and criticism had badly affected him and he had been depressed and confined to bed all day, breathing with the assistance of an oxygen tank.

Earlier, Prime Minister John Howard had added his voice to the widespread condemnation of the remarks.

"They are appalling and reprehensible comments,'' Mr Howard said.

Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward said the sheik should be sacked and deported.

Ms Goward said the sheik had a history of making such comments and many would feel Australia's tolerance had been abused.

"It is incitement to a crime. Young Muslim men who now rape women can cite this in court, can quote this man ... their leader in court,'' she told the Nine Network.

"It's time we stopped just saying he should apologise. It is time the Islamic community did more then say they were horrified. I think it is time he left."

A poll on this website has drawn overwhelming support for the sheik's deportation.

As of 4.40pm, 84 per cent of 900 respondents had voted for the sheik to be kicked out of the country.

In his Ramadan sermon Sheik Hilaly also alluded to the infamous Sydney gang rapes, suggesting the attackers were not entirely to blame.

While not specifically referring to the rapes, brutal attacks on four women for which a group of young Lebanese men received long jail sentences, the sheik said there were women who "sway suggestively" and wore make-up and immodest dress "and then you get a judge without mercy (rahma) and gives you 65 years."

"But the problem, but the problem all began with who?" he asked.

The leader of the 2000 rapes in Sydney's southwest, Bilal Skaf, a Muslim, was initially sentenced to 55 years' jail, but later had the sentence reduced on appeal.

In the religious address about adultery to about 500 worshippers in Sydney last month, Sheik Hilaly said: "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats' or the uncovered meat?

"The uncovered meat is the problem."

The 30 second segments depicted a young Chinese Malaysian woman wearing tight and scanty clothing, eating as her Muslim countrymen looked on, and shouting at a stall holder.

Each commercial aired on Malaysia's private 8TV channel cautioned viewers to show respect for Ramadan, which began on Monday, by not eating in public, eschewing revealing clothing, or talking loudly.

But the adverts drew the ire of Malaysia's Muslims and non-Muslims in its Chinese, Indian and Christian communities alike. They inundated the television station's Facebook page with angry complaints that the commercials insulted non-Muslim ethnic minorities.

The irate viewers said the adverts stereotyped the Chinese community in the country – where 60 per cent are Muslim Malays – and attempted to impose Islamic practices on other non-Muslims.

Azrul Mohamad Khalib said on one Facebook entry that not eating from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan was a demonstration of discipline, empathy and solidarity and "not about imposing your will on others".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/malaysia/8679145/Racist-Ramadan-adverts-pulled-in-Malaysia.html

(Eugene), aka Louis Fairycan, would be pleased.

(Groans)

Watch out for Sharia law

Ladies this last one that worries me affects mainly you. It alarms me because I have a daughter and three nieces right now in their late 20's. Any guy who has female relatives/friends should be a bit worried too.

I am not a fear monger, I just want us to all pay attention to what is going on even if it is "scary".

A woman in NJ filed a case against her separated husband from Morocco. Seems he went to her place, forced her to have sex. That is rape here,sex forced upon you. This woman is trying to get rid of the scumbag and had filed for divorce.

The judge dismissed the case. The man's defense was Sharia law (as in Iran or other muslim countries) permitted him to do this. The judge AGREED. Fortunately a second judge overruled the first.

70% of Oklahoma votes passed a law that outlawed the consideration of sharia law or other nations beliefs when considering court cases over the American law. A muslim complained it demonized his faith and found a judge who is going to strike down the law. I do not know if OK law passed after the NJ case or not.

I think those voters in NJ and OK need to impeach and remove a couple of judges. Do you ladies really want to go into a court where they might invoke sharia law? It treats women like dogs.

Think it cannot happen here? So did people in UK and France. There are population pockets there where sharia law is the de facto law. The governments stamp it out when they find it, but admitted it is a big problem. It keeps popping up.

I don't know if anyone else keeps up with, ummm, weird news like I do. Just thought I'd say the world is different and not necessarily better. We better be diligent about guarding our rights.

When an American citizen travels to another country we leave our rights and our laws at the border and are bound by what little rights and laws other countries have. I have lived out of the USA for years and even the democratic countries do not have the rights and laws we do. If you go to court there they do side with their citizen as you are an interloper.

When they come here, they need to realize they have great freedom. They also need to understand the American law is the law of the land and is all that will be used. I know our law is cumbersome at best even with a lawyer, but I guarantee you it is above the rest by far. Yeah, USA is messed up, but we can all work together to make it better because it IS the best country on Earth. I think only the Canadians come close to our freedoms.

I'm just saying watch yourself when you travel, you do not want to get in trouble in their courts. And don't use hand gestures, an a-ok or thumbs up will get your face punched in Italy. If you travel maybe you should take a familiarization course first?

And guys, do you really want Hooter Girls to wear berkas? Do you really want to go to the beach and see berkas and not string bikinis? I don’t think so. If you do not know what a berka is it is a Sharia law garment for a woman that covers her from head to toe, you can see their eyes only.

And yes, I am a male chauvinistic pig because I like the poetry of a woman in a bikini.

nice post, hippy... but thats what islam does, it slowly builds its ranks in a country, then when they get to about 10% population, they start enacting there beliefs and getting stupid. I saw a woman in congress the other day that was wearing a burka, and it got me to thinking... If she is a traditional muslim, and wears the burka, then she supports Sharia law. And that means whatever men are in her life control her and her thinking, and can and do tell what to do, how to think, and, more importantly, how and what to vote for. it is slowly happening, and before most people know it, it will be to late.

It will erode all our freedoms if we don't make sure it doesn't get a toe hold.