The advent of modern colonisation, starting with the British East India Company EIC and the Dutch entering India and Indonesia in the late 16th and 17th Centuries, would eventually lead to some pretty drastic changes in how Sharia was practised and understood. With the arrival of the colonisers in predominantly Islamic communities came the concept of the nation-state — and with it, codifying translating and writing down laws.
The colonisers viewed Islam as a threat to the system and civilisation they understood, and began thoroughly remodelling Islamic legal systems. Started by the Governor of Bengal Warren Hastings in the s and followed by the Dutch in the s, western powers began separate projects to translate, write down and convert the Sharia — as they understood it — into written law. Islamic law became unable to do what it needed to do to function. Sharia and Islamic law had bestowed women with rights and privileges that were advanced and equalising; when the laws were translated into colonising languages, those nuances were removed and the patriarchal colonising culture prevailed, writing the rights women had enjoyed under Sharia out of the system entirely.
These are essentially the countries of eastern Islam, away from the Arab heart of ummah. Ironically, with the exception of Pakistan, these are today reasonably liberal Islamic polities, which kind of defeats her argument. Deobandi, the most conservative and hard-line school or popular movement of Islam in South Asia, was actually a reaction against the British colonialism, seen as corrupting the pure Islam.
Deobandis can be seen as the Wahhabis of the sub-continent — these are the people whose madrassas gave us the Taliban and the whole host of other Islamist extremist groups throughout the region. And what about everywhere else? Turkey was never colonised by anyone; neither was Saudi Arabia except by Turkey. Indeed, what is the European legal contribution to the Wahhabism, which poisons Islam throughout the region and, thanks to the Saudi petro-money, the rest of the world?
The Prophet is our leader. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of God is our highest hope. God is greater! Which, secondly, brings me to a wider argument. Ms Abdel-Magied presumably has read Koran; so have I. It is the foundation of the Islamic law, supplemented by the sayings of the Prophet and subsequent legal interpretations of various schools of Islam.
Sure, in few specific areas like the property ownership by women, sharia was ahead of Western legal systems. Using Hebrew words to make an accusation against Islam is pretty offensive to Muslims. When I lived in Lebanon, I had to be very careful not to use Hebrew or Yiddish loan words, even though they are very common in American English.
The chorus is no better. The third verse mocks Islamic prayer rituals and posits that most Muslims would rather be at a Clash concert than listening to the Adhan. This is probably not true, and this accusation could potentially be the most offensive one to many Muslims. This is a rather painful jab at both the Ayatollah and Sharia. Thankfully, the jet fighters tell the Ayatollah to fuck off and turn the radio to the rock station. This, despite a politically correct movement to condemn cartoonists who draw Muhammad.
We love one medium used for the sole purpose of offending someone, while condemning another medium used for the purposes of free speech or political statement. That was a pretty block-headed move. Without it, how could we Rock the Casbah? I would have to be paying exceptional attention to notice that it might be offensive to anyone or might have been intended as such 33 years ago. Thanks for the reply.
The article you wrote is actually bookmarked on my computer. Ah yes, it took 5 years for someone to catch this slip of the pen. Thanks for that! Either way, thanks for the correction! You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email.
Notify me of new posts via email. The Atheist Papers. Skip to content. Posted on June 1, by Rayan Zehn. Lyrical Content Despite knowing the cultural differences between languages, it appears Strummer went out of his way to confuse them, as if he was lumping all Middle and South Eastern people together, adopting Hindu words, Turkish words, Arabic words, and even Hebrew words.
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