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Similar to Sharia Law Foreign Countries Debate
Similar to Sharia Law Foreign Countries Debate (20)
Sharia Law Foreign Countries Debate
- 2. Sharia Law in Foreign Countries
- 3. Real Life Situation Texas Senate passed a bill preventing international laws from being used in Texas civil courts. Law passed on May 21st, 2015 This includes the First Sharia Court established in the US this Year
- 4. Knowledge Question To what extent should religion determine the legal system?
- 5. Areas of Knowledge Religion Ethics
- 6. Ways of Knowing Faith Emotion Language Reason
- 7. Religion The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods
- 9. Sub Knowledge Question one What is the role of faith in religion and how important is it?
- 10. Faith Belief in a religion rejecting empirical evidence. Faith is an indispensable way of knowing when it comes to Religion. Any religious/transcendental knowledge can only be created through faith. “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)
- 11. Muslim Faith “There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become clear from the wrong. So whoever disbelieves in taghut and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing.” (2:256) Allah is the answer
- 12. Knowledge Claim
- 13. Emotion A strong feeling deriving from one's circumstances, mood, or relationships with others Subjective way of knowing Affects individual decisions.
- 14. Emotion Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity. It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned. "Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred. Our Lord, and lay not upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, and burden us not with that which we have no ability to bear. And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy upon us. You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people.” (2:286)
- 15. Language The phraseology and vocabulary of a particular profession, domain, or group.
- 16. Language Indeed, it is a noble Quran In a Register well-protected; None touch it except the purified [i.e., the angels]. [It is] a revelation from the Lord of the worlds. (56:77-80)
- 17. Reason A cause, explanation, or justification for an action or event.
- 18. Reason “There shall be no compulsion in [acceptance of] the religion. The right course has become clear from the wrong. So whoever disbelieves in Taghut and believes in Allah has grasped the most trustworthy handhold with no break in it. And Allah is Hearing and Knowing”. (2:256) And kill them wherever you overtake them and expel them from wherever they have expelled you, and fitnah is worse than killing. And do not fight them at al-Masjid al-Haram until they fight you there. But if they fight you, then kill them. Such is the recompense of the disbelievers. (2:191)
- 19. Link it back to RLS Muslims believe that Allah is everything Only trust in his words and follow his commands Part of the Quran is about making “unbelievers” believe “And fight them until there is no fitnah and [until] the religion [i.e., worship], all of it, is for Allah And if they cease – then indeed, Allah is Seeing of what they do.” (8:39) Women are lesser beings “And those who accuse chaste women and then do not produce four witnesses – lash them with eighty lashes and do not accept from them testimony ever after. And those are the defiantly disobedient,” (24:4)
- 20. Ethics Moral principles that govern a person's behavior or the conducting of an activity Divine Command Theory Utilitarianism Kantian Ethics
- 21. Sub Knowledge Question 2 Is the Divine Command Theory an appropriate justification for the legal system?
- 22. Divine Command Theory An action's status as morally good is equivalent to whether it is commanded by God. Their justification is from god which can only be made through faith.
- 23. Examples from Sharia Law “And your Lord has decreed that you not worship except Him, and to parents, good treatment. Whether one or both of them reach old age [while] with you, say not to them [so much as], "uff,” and do not repel them but speak to them a noble word.” (17:23) “And obey Allah and obey the Messenger and beware. And if you turn away – then know that upon Our Messenger is only[the responsibility for] clear notification.” (5:92)
- 24. Knowledge Claim
- 25. Kantian Ethics Deontological Ethics/Duty Ethics Categorical Imperative It is wrong to kill innocent people It is wrong to steal It is wrong to tell lies It is right to keep promises
- 26. Counter-Claim Categorical Imperative If the whole world followed the Sharia Law will the world function? There will be no anarchy, no chaos, no political protests, no suicide bombing.
- 27. Kantian Ethics and Sharia Law (Continued) Categorical Imperative The price of peace is freedom. However this will be a dystopia There will be no room for freedom and individual rights.
- 28. Utilitarianism Maximum happiness = morally good It’s the cornerstone of democracy We need to compare societies under the Sharia Law with the societies that do not follow it.
- 29. Anachronism The Sharia Law is not the only legal code that is controversial when it comes to ethics. Different laws from different faiths have similar elements
- 30. The Old Testament Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB) All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT) If a man commits adultery with another man's wife, both the man and the woman must be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10 NLT)
- 31. To what extent should religion determine legal system? No perfect legal system. Impose a threat on individuals. Religious Laws cannot cause harm to individuals.
- 32. Implications We should not condemn a person for their religion. We should not condemn the Muslim people because of their religion. We have to be flexible to change. This will always be an ongoing debate.
- 33. John Gray – Modus Vivendi Let’s agree to disagree
- 34. Thank you
- 35. Real Time with Bill Maher
Editor's Notes
- On Thursday night, May 21 2015, the Texas State Senate passed a bill that would prevent any international law from being used in Texas civil courts in deciding disputes. Many detractors described the bill as an “anti-sharia” bill, but state Senator Donna Campbell said that her bill doesn’t mention sharia law at all, just that it guarantees that no law from “foreign courts” would be used to override American law in settling civil matters. ----- Meeting Notes (15/6/15 23:30) ----- Coincidental that the first Sharia Tribunal was setup in Texas this year.
- The knowledge question that I extracted from this real life situation is to what extent should religion determine the legal system. This RLS is controversial as the bill was passed following the Islamic Tribunal set up earlier this year. Many critics dub this the ‘anti-sharia’ bill. Sharia Law mainly follows the Quran to govern the livelihoods of Muslims and hands out brutal punishments such as stoning or cutting off hands to those that violate any of the verses in the Quran. Legal systems should be fair to all while maintaining peace, security and making sure justice is served accordingly.
- The Areas of Knowledge that I will use is Religion and Ethics.
- I will be exploring Sharia Law using these four ways of knowing. Faith Emotion Language and Reason
- Religion is believing in one entity that rules above all human beings.
- Note that there are 1.5 billion followers of Islam. According to the South China Morning Post, 250,000 are located here in Hong Kong with Indonesian Muslims being the most prominent, a total of 148,000.
- strong belief in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual conviction rather than proof. Faith is the most important WOK in Religion. Faith creates spiritual knowledge that may not make logical or theoretical sense.
- Not forced to believe. Clear that Muslim faith is right. Taghut: to rebel. Allah knows everything. Such as the origins of the universe.
- Faith is the basis of all religion because religious knowledge does not require ways of knowing that need empirical evidence. Empirical Evidence: Practical Evidence or Observable Evidence.
- Emotion is a feeling one receives and may come from various external stimuli. Although all of us have emotions, we all respond differently to the same situation. This is because emotion is one of the most subjective ways of knowing. Emotions are created in our brains and can be triggered differently for different individuals. Emotion plays a huge role in religion.
- 1 a strong feeling, such as joy or anger. 2 instinctive feeling as distinguished from reasoning or knowledge. “And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy upon us” (emotive language) – this is an act of emotional plea. We can see how the Muslim followers of the Sharia Law hold an emotional connection with their god. The relationship between the creator and the creation is an emotional one. These people base their laws on the emotional link they have with Allah. Only the people who can congenially relate to these emotions will be able to understand and accept the Sharia Law. Yet, emotion (as mentioned earlier) is a subjective way of knowing which implies that everyone has different feelings for the same issue. Therefore it is impossible to create an emotional general consensus when it comes to issues of religious faith. Therefore emotion is not a valid way of knowing to determine the legal system such as the Sharia Law. ----- Meeting Notes (15/6/15 23:49) ----- Congenial: Similar qualities
- Language is heavily related to emotion. Emotive language can be used to create a certain sentiment. Therefore constructing a certain language in a certain way can create a response that is originally desired.
- The tone is pleasant in describing the language used in the Quran as holy. Allah reveals the secrets of the world and the universe in the Quran. The language used contains bias towards the Quran and Allah and sentient.
- good or obvious cause to do something
- Muslims believe that the Islamic religion is the way to go. Fitnah: Trial al-Masjid al-Haram: The sacred or grand mosque in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Logical for Muslims to serve Allah to no extent. We see them as being irrational.
- Fitnah: no more rebelling Believe in the one and only god “Allah”. This removes freedom from others. Those who say that the women have been raped needs four witnesses. Else they will be flogged eighty times. This proves how hard it is to charge the rapist. The accuser will not be allowed to give his testimony ever again. Emotion is not a good way to determine knowledge when it comes to legal matters, that is why religious laws should not be used for legal purposes. Such as Sharia Law.
- Right and wrong in a particular society.
- Too inflexible Uncompromising Does not take into consideration the cultural diversity of our world
- For people who follow the divine command theory, they decide what is right and wrong through faith in their god. Therefore faith is an extremely sensitive and an extremely controversial issue when dealing with religion and its relationship with different cultures
- Command Terms
- Is the Divine Command Theory an appropriate justification for the legal system? Divine command theory is not appropriate for it as it is a form of moral absolutism and the diverse opinions necessitate moral relativism as there are so many different divine commands.
- Deontological (duty-based) ethics are concerned with what people do, not with the consequences of their actions. Categorical Imperative: an action can be deemed ethical if it can be universally applicable. If the whole world committed this act, will the world function harmoniously? Do the right thing. Do it because it's the right thing to do. Don't do wrong things. Avoid them because they are wrong. So, for example, the philosopher Kant thought that it would be wrong to tell a lie in order to save a friend from a murderer.
- Therefore according to the categorical imperative, it seems to justify the Sharia Law. That if the whole world can accept it, then the world will still function Yes it would. There will be no democracy, no diversity, no freedom for certain individuals YET, the world will still function. There will be more peace, security and justice. There will be less suicide bombings because there will be no other countries to convert. This will lead to less conflict. The ‘Muslim Paradise’ would exist on earth.
- However this will be a dystopia which countless number of writers in the past have warned the people about and our identities will be removed If you want peace, then give up your freedom. If freedom exists then there will be always be conflicts. Also, the rules imposed by Sharia law cause great harm to parties such as women. They are not allowed to testify in court.
- For the many. 266,666,220 Christians in America 3.87% of the world’s population 77.4% of the Population. Happiness Index 37.3 Algeria 35470000 97.9% percent of the population 34725130 happiness index 52.2 Afghanistan 31410000 99.7% 36.8 Happiness Different countries have different norms. However, when there is no freedom, people will be less happy. So will not be the correct thing to do in the utilitarianism perspective. This proves how controversial religious laws are.
- a thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists Misplaced E.g. The Old Testament However we don’t follow these laws any more because the world has moved on and retaining these laws will be anachronistic.
- These rules might have been applicable a couple hundred years ago. But in today’s conventional society. Killing a teenager for swearing? Outdated.s
- There is no perfect legal system. When certain ideas and principles of a legal system start to impose threat on individuals then we should question the legal system. Therefore religious laws should determine the legal system to the extent it does not cause harm to individuals.
- We should not condemn a person for their religion. This is not what this presentation is about. After all, freedom to believe in any religion is one of the main freedoms that every man and woman should have. However, we should always be alert and be ready to question certain ideas and principles (regardless of whether they are religious or secular) if they start imposing threats to people. This is a debate that is still continuing and as long as there are different faith systems it will be difficult to come to a compromise
- Agree to disagree: tolerate but do not accept the opposing decisions. For freedom to persist, societies must compromise and come up with an agreement even though the opinions differentiate between parties. In this case, Muslims have to accept the fact that they cannot operate their own legal system in other countries as some of the violations are threatening the livelihoods of people as well as ridding the freedom for women. The United States need to continue to preserve the morals of their legal system and continue to make amendments.
- Many of you wondering what he is going on about.