From 2008 but still relevant today:
About 10 years on Finnish state TV, a question was posed to a Muslim representative concerning the status of sharia in the UK. The question as to whether it was something that Muslims in Finland should be demanding recognition of by the state, was dismissed due to the relatively low number of Muslims in the country. I said at the time that it won’t be long before voices start calling for the sharia to be recognized by the Finnish judicial system.
This following article detailing talking points as to why it should be legitimized is as disingenuous as it could possibly be. We’re basically being told that we’re not supposed to believe are lying eyes. We’re not supposed to be concerned that by default, they’re trying to legitimize the systematic devaluing of women/females in Finland by a severely patriarchal system of jurisprudence.
What these miscreant “researchers ” are trying to do is institutionalize oppression and discrimination, by mainstreaming Islam’s 7th-century judicial system in Finland. The Sharia is not the same as Roman Catholic or Jewish law. Conflating it with these two is highly disingenuous, and dangerous.
We are constantly being told by apologists that Islam only needs to be reformed, that we need to patient. That Islam could ever be reformed is a discussion for another time (I don’t believe that it can ever be reformed) However this story underlines the danger Islam and their apologists pose for our modern, liberal societies, we (the non-Muslim) are the only ones undergoing any kind of change, we are becoming more and more sharia-compliant due to a consistent misreading of Islam and its history.
These researchers are doing us all a huge disfavor, and ultimately, damage, with their peddling of Muslim Brotherhood goals. They’re demanding that we accept/approve of something at the risk of being labeled illiberal. They are using our own mores against us in order to push society into mainstreaming a highly immoral and alien system. Listen to Jihad Watch’s Robert Spencer elucidate on the subject.
Researchers defend: Muslim population is growing, Sharia is a human right
Sharia law is misunderstood, say Sanna Mustasaari and Mulki al-Sharmani.
– Repeating stereotypes and misunderstandings of Muslims and Islam in public discourse is detrimental to society as a whole. Not only does it create confrontation between ‘us’ and ‘others’, it also reproduces misconceptions about the complex relationship between justice and religion in a democratic rule of law.
This is how Sanna Mustasaari , Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Social Sciences and the Faculty of Law at the University of Helsinki, and Mulki al-Sharmani, Academy Research Fellow at the University of Helsinki , wrote in their guest post in the Helsingin Sanomat.
– It has been repeatedly stated in public debate that the so-called Shari’a law poses a threat to the values of Finnish society and, in particular, to the human rights of immigrant women. Recently, for example, the Minister of Justice, Antti Häkkänen (Coalition Party), Mustasaari and al-Sharmani say.
According to researchers, the confrontation between religious norms and Finnish law is based on simplification and does not help to understand either.
– Religious phenomena should not be approached to extremes, either by exaggerating the importance of religion in people’s lives or by refusing to acknowledge the ways in which religion influences everyday practices.
According to Sanna Mustasaari and Mulki al-Sharman, the question of the importance of Sharia law in everyday life and its relationship with the Finnish legal system has become topical as the number of Muslims living in Finland increases.
– From a fundamental and human rights point of view, the state may, in various contexts, have a legal obligation to recognize religious legal institutions such as marriages and divorces. The state cannot ban the use of religious norms, the researchers say.
– A ban on offering or seeking religious guidance or conflict mediation, for example in the event of a divorce, would simply be contrary to fundamental and human rights, they continue.
According to Sanna Mustasaari and Mulki al-Sharman, raising fear of Sharia law does not promote anyone’s human rights and does not lead to a debate on a diverse Finnish society and civic perception that could include religious minorities.
