SYARIAH COURTS TURN WOMEN INTO PROSTITUTES

Islam seeks justice, not punishment. So this is what the Syariah courts are supposed to do, offer you justice. But then millions are collected in zakat every year while abandoned wives and single mothers need to sell their bodies to feed their children just because a Syariah court judge wears his turban too tight it restricts the flow of blood to the brain.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

There has been so much chatter the last few months regarding PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang’s private member’s bill that many, Muslims included, seem to miss the trees for the forest. What do you know regarding this Syariah Amendment Bill? Maybe more accurately I should ask: what do you know of the Syariah courts?

If you ask me I would personally want to do away with the Syariah courts. It is because of these Syariah courts that Islam gets a bad name and Syariah courts make a mockery of the word justice. Let me put it this way: it is because of the Syariah courts that many Malay girls and women become prostitutes.

My Tok Guru was not joking when he said that the first people who are going to enter hell are judges. And Syariah court judges will be leading the queue that is waiting to enter hell because they hide behind Islam to perpetuate injustice. I would not be a Syariah court judge even if they paid me RM100,000 a month.

I actually went to the ground to meet Malay girls and women in Kota Bharu who were working in the bars as part-time prostitutes (now, now, now…stop all those dirty thoughts). In fact, I wrote about this, which was published in the Harakah (the official party organ for PAS) about 20 years or so ago.

In most of these cases, these girls got married before they were 20. By the time they were in the mid-20s and had a child or children, their husbands just abandoned them and disappeared. These single mothers then tried to seek help though the system but received no help, neither from the Syariah court nor from the state religious department.

In fact, I have a very close family friend who went to the Syariah court to file for a divorce but each time the hearing came up the husband did not turn up in court. So the court kept postponing the case and for years she could not get a divorce, could not re-marry, and received no financial aid.

Anyway, my wife, Marina, did some business with her so she at least earned a modest income and did not have to do what many others have to do: sell their bodies to support themselves and their children. We have been so angry with the Syariah courts since a long time ago and have never had a nice thing to say about them.

So, yes, the Syariah courts need some serious reforms. But the reforms should not just be in the form of more powers to Syariah judges to increase punishments, as what Hadi’s Syariah amendment bill wants to seek. We also need reforms such as if the husband refuses to turn up in court for the divorce proceedings, and refuses to pay support (or child support) to his wife, or alimony to his ex-wife, then the court can get him arrested and sent to jail.

And if a Muslim woman is caught sleeping with another man (whether for money or otherwise) and if it is because her husband has abandoned her and she cannot get a divorce (and remarry) and he refuses to give support (or is divorced and her husband refuses to pay alimony, as what the court has ordered) then instead of arresting the woman the court should order the husband arrested.

I mean if you steal to pay the medical needs of your dying father or to feed your hungry children who have not eaten for two days, according to Islam, they cannot cut off your hand. Instead, they need to give you zakat. So technically, under such situations, you are rewarded and not punished under Hudud laws.

Islam seeks justice, not punishment. So this is what the Syariah courts are supposed to do, offer you justice. But then millions are collected in zakat every year while abandoned wives and single mothers need to sell their bodies to feed their children just because a Syariah court judge wears his turban too tight it restricts the flow of blood to the brain.

So either reform the Syariah courts or else just close them down. Maybe Muslim women would receive justice and a better deal in a Secular court. As what one ulama’ said: if you want to see an Islamic State then do not go to an Islamic country, go to a kafir western country. Yes, England is more Islamic than Malaysia by far. Why do you think Muslims from all over the world prefer to migrate to England and not to Saudi Arabia?