Bangladesh tense ahead of verdict, Islamic World News, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic World News

Bangladesh tense ahead of verdict

By Mark Dummett

BBC News, Dhaka

At least 12,000 extra policemen have been deployed in Bangladesh ahead of a verdict in the trial of army officers accused of killing the first president.

Authorities say they are concerned that supporters of the five army men on trial may try to disrupt proceedings.

The trial began 10 years ago and the last stage has seen the final appeal of the alleged killers.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was killed in 1975, just four years after leading Bangladesh to freedom from Pakistan.

Five of the accused are in prison in the capital, Dhaka. Six others are on the run abroad.

The killers were a group of young army officers, who went on to murder not just the charismatic president, but also his wife, three sons, two daughters-in-law and about 20 other relatives and aides.

Mr Rahman's daughter Sheikh Hasina, who was re-elected prime minister in December, escaped the massacre only because she was out of the country at the time.

Warning

The thousands of extra policemen are guarding strategic buildings ahead of Thursday's final verdict in the trial, one of the country's longest-running and most controversial.

Extra men have been posted outside the Supreme Court building in the capital, Dhaka, where the verdict will be announced, as well as outside foreign embassies, at the state television and radio stations and other key buildings across Bangladesh.

http://newageislam.com/bangladesh-tense-ahead-of-verdict/islamic-world-news/d/2111

Justifying child abuse in the name of Shariah, Islamic Sharia Laws, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Sharia Laws

Justifying child abuse in the name of Shariah

By A. Faizur Rahman

A perusal of the Quran will reveal that marriage in Islam is a civil contract, meesaaq ( 4:21), and as such it can be finalized only between persons who are intellectually and physically mature enough to understand and fulfil the responsibilities of such a contract. This can be further understood from the verse; “And test the orphans until they reach the age of nikah (marriage), and if you find in them rushdh (maturity of intellect) release their property to them.”(4:6). The Quran makes intellectual maturity (which always falls beyond the age of puberty) the basis to arrive at the age of marriage. This is also in conformity with the Quranic description of marriage as emotional bonding between two mutually compatible persons through which they seek “to dwell in tranquillity” (see 7:189 and 30:21) in the companionship of each other which is not possible if either of the spouses is mentally undeveloped.

Unfortunately, Muslim jurists don’t seem to have understood these Quranic teachings. Recently the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, issued a fatwa legitimizing the marriage of girls as young as 10. Even in India Muslim institutions including the Deoband and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board have not outlawed child marriage. Yet they congregated not once but twice to condemn terrorism. It is astonishing that those who claim an Islamic basis for their Shariah disregard the primary source of Islamic law, the Quran, to the extent of overruling it through their exploitation of spurious traditions. For instance, child marriage in Islam is justified on the basis of a hadith in Bukhari which says that the Prophet married Hazrath Aisha when she was just six and consummated the marriage when she was nine.

http://newageislam.com/justifying-child-abuse-in-the-name-of-shariah-/islamic-sharia-laws/d/1390

DRUNKEN TALAQ: HOW SOME FATWAS DISTORT ISLAM AND OPPRESS WOMEN, Islamic Sharia Laws, NewAgeIslam.com

Islamic Sharia Laws

DRUNKEN TALAQ: HOW SOME FATWAS DISTORT ISLAM AND OPPRESS WOMEN

BY A. FAIZUR RAHMAN

This fatwa is not just bad in law but also bad in theology, as it is not based on the Quran, the locus classicus of Islam. The Deoband muftis have been honest enough to concede that their recent articulation is grounded in the Hanafi law. It is common knowledge among Muslims that the Hanafi fiqh contains many provisions that are repugnant to reason. For instance, according to Al-Marghinani’s Hedaya, one of the most celebrated treatises of Hanafi legal thought, the wife of a missing or absconding husband can remarry only after a minimum of 90 years have elapsed from the day of his birth.

Not surprisingly, on the issue of divorce by a drunken husband, the Hedaya and other Hanafi books, including the oft-cited Al Radd al Muhtar of Ibn Abideen, state that if the liquor consumed has reached the prohibited level of intoxication [which is again a subjective issue] then the talaq uttered in such a state shall be held valid. It may be pointed out here that Ibn Abbas and Caliph Usman were of the view that talaq under the influence of drink was not effective because of the incapacity of the drunken person to exercise reason [see Bukhari]. But Hanafi jurists of the medieval period, in a weak attempt to bypass this opinion, justified their ruling, claiming that it was only aimed at discouraging the use of liquor. The question is, should the dissuasion of alcoholism be at the cost of a marriage where in most cases the affected party is the hapless wife and her innocent children?

http://newageislam.com/drunken-talaq--how-some-fatwas-distort-islam-and-oppress-women-/islamic-sharia-laws/d/1181