GENEVA,
March 30, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - Tariq Ramadan, a world-renowned
Muslim thinker, issued Wednesday, March 30, a call for an
international moratorium in the Muslim world on the application of Hudud
(prescribed Islamic penalties), a call likely to stir controversy
among Muslim scholars.
“We
are officially launching today an international call for an
immediate moratorium on corporal punishment, stoning and the
death penalty in all majority Muslim countries,” Ramadan said in a
press release obtained by IslamOnline.net.
“This
call for a moratorium is being made considering that the opinions of
most Islamic scholars is neither explicit nor unanimous (indeed even
without a clear majority) as far as the comprehension of the texts and
to the application of the Hudud.”
Ramadan
further said the political systems and the state of the majority
Muslim societies do not guarantee just or equal treatment of
individuals before the law.
“A
still more grave injustice is that these penalties are applied almost
exclusively to women and the poor, the doubly victimized, never to the
wealthy, the powerful, or the oppressors.
“Furthermore,
hundreds of prisoners have no access to anything that could even
remotely be called defense counsel. Death sentences are decided
and carried out against women, men and even minors (political
prisoners, traffickers, delinquents, etc.) without ever given a chance
to obtain legal counsel.
“In
resigning ourselves to having a superficial relationship to the
scriptural sources, we betray the message of justice of Islam,”
Ramadan argues.
Ramadan,
named by Time magazine as one of the world's top 100 influential
thinkers, also called on all Islamic religious authorities of the
world, whatever their school of thought, to engage in a dialogue on
the issue of Hudud laws.
“It
is urgent that Muslims throughout the world refuse the formalist
legitimization of the teachings of their religion and reconcile
themselves with the depth of the message of Islam that invites towards
spirituality, demands education, justice and the respect of
pluralism.”
Click
to read Tariq Ramadan's Call in detail
“Serious”
 |
|
“When
this call comes from a respectable scholar like Dr. Tariq Ramadan,
it may encourage others also to disrespect the laws of Allah,”
said Siddiqi.
|
Muslim
scholars, however, beg to differ with Ramadan, warning that his public
call is a very serious matter.
“When
this call comes from a respectable scholar like Dr. Tariq Ramadan, it
may encourage others also to disrespect the laws of Allah,” Muzammil
H. Siddiqi, President of the Figh Council of North America and former President of the Islamic Society of North
America (ISNA), said in a statement to IOL.
“Some
may start calling for moratorium on the family law of Islam also, and
some others on the business and finance laws of Islam, and some may
ask for moratorium on the whole Shari`ah”.
Sano
Koutoub Moustapha, member of the Islamic Fiqh Academy attached to the
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), urged Ramadan to
backtrack on his controversial call “for the sake of the Muslim Ummah.”
“I
do have a great respect and love for Dr. Tariq. [But] If we call today
for an international moratorium on corporal punishment, stoning and
the death penalty, then tomorrow I am so worried that they may ask
Muslims to suspend their Friday Prayer,” he told IOL.
Salah
Sultan, member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research and the
International Association of Muslim Scholars (IAMS), called on Ramadan
to give his idea a second reading.
“Such
a call will only stir too much ado about an issue that is by no means
a priority,” Sultan told IOL. “It will further beef up seculars
and enemies of Islam, who will step up their war on Islam.”
Taha
Jabir Al-Alwani, President of Graduate School of Islamic and Social
Sciences and member of the Fiqh Council of North America,
agreed that Muslims had enough of problems and pressing issues.
“The
Muslim nation is facing nowadays enemies who are trying to pit Muslims
against one another,” he said, urging Ramadan and leading Muslim
thinkers not to fall into the trap.
Unfounded
Innovation
 |
|
“I
am so worried that they may ask Muslims to suspend their Friday
Prayer,” said Moustapha.
|
Other
scholars dismissed Ramadan’s call as an “unfounded innovation”
rearing its ugly head on the Muslim world.
“It
came after the woman-led prayer in the United States and the opening
of a women-only mosque in Holland and now we have the Hudud moratorium
call from Switzerland,” Ahmed Al-Rawi, chairman of the Islamic
Organizations in Europe, told IOL.
Rawi
agreed that Ramadan’s “impotent” call did much fuss about
nothing.
“Where
on earth such Hudud are applicable? Rawi wondered, answering:
“They are not implemented in all Muslim countries and there are some
reservations on the application of these Hudud in Saudi
Arabia.”
Alwani
added that he did not believe that there is a country on earth
applying Shari`ah the way it should be applied.
“There
are some aspirations that have not been yet translated into concrete
steps,” he told IOL.
Rawi
feared that Ramadan’s call could trigger “needless religious
sedition”, noting that he should have consulted leading Muslim
bodies before jumping to his conclusion.
“There
is something called the International Association of Muslim Scholars
and the European Council for Fatwa and Research and, to my way of
thinking, they are the one and only bodies that can address such
questions.”
“Better
Application”
 |
|
“He
wants Muslims to lay Shari`ah and penal references in the Noble
Qur’an and Sunnah to rest until further notice,” said Bishri.
|
Siddiqi
said Ramadan should have called for a “better application” of Hudud
instead of halting them all at once.
“Dr.
Ramadan should have called for better and comprehensive application of
the Shari’ah. He should have criticized more openly and
clearly the misapplications of the Hudud in some Muslim
countries,” he said.
He
said the Islamic penal code is very vast, and its purpose is to
establish justice and to protect the rights of individuals, family and
society.
“The
corporal punishments on certain crimes and violations are only one
aspect of the Shari`ah. Their purposes are to discipline the
violators, to deter other offenders and to keep the society safe for
all people.”
Sultan
sees eye to eye with Ramadan on the unfair application of Hudud.
“But
we can’t take the misconduct of rulers as a justification to call
publicly for a moratorium on the application of Hudud,” he
told IOL.
No
Excuse
Rawi
added that the vile campaigns targeting Islam in the West cannot also
justify Ramadan’s stance.
“We
have been living in the West for so many years and the attack on Islam
will never come to a stop by such calls, but rather they could open a
new front against the Muslim faith.”
Tariq
El-Bishri, former head of Egypt’s State Council and prominent
Islamic thinker, said Ramadan’s call is “juristically baseless.”
“It
is based on reality in the West and the challenges faced by Ramadan
over there,” Bishri told IOL.
“He
wants Muslims to lay Shari`ah and penal references in the Noble
Qur’an and Sunnah to rest until further notice. But Muslims are not in
position to take such a decision.”
