Meaning and applications
Sharia means "the clear, well-trodden path to water" in Arabic. While it is the religious law of Islam, there are only a handful of countries - such as Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Iran - where all aspects of sharia, including "hudud" punishments such as the cutting of hands and stoning people to death, for criminal offences, are applied.
"The majority of Muslim countries do not implement sharia criminal law at all. The interpretations and applications of sharia vary a lot between different countries," Jamila Hussain, senior lecturer in Islamic Law at the University of Technology, Sydney, said.
"You get a few countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan that purport to apply the whole of sharia in their legal system. Then you have a lot that apply it partially, usually in post-colonial countries. In Malaysia, for Muslims there is a sharia system for family law and for minor criminal punishments. You can't really say every aspect of sharia is applicable in every part of the world, because it is not."
The interpretation of sharia also differs from country to country and scholar to scholar, although most scholars agree broadly on many aspects of the verses that the laws are derived from, Halim Rane, senior lecturer at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at Griffith University, said.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/what-is-sharia-20110719-1hmpv.html#ixzz1SYiBDNCB
No comments:
Post a Comment