Pakistani religious cleric go regressive on Women's right and abuse Sharia.

First of all, congratulations to the Government of Punjab, Pakistan for passing the laws protecting women from abuses of the men, this is a good step in the right direction and it complies with the teachings of Quran and the Prophet.  

Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was the first influential man in the universe to declare that women have the same rights as men, which were;  to initiate or divorce a marriage, own her own properties, own her own business, and she can walk out of the relationship if her husband pushes her to do things against her faith/will, such was the freedom restored to women by the prophet.  These freedoms were usurped by men all around the world including the United States until 200 years ago where women were considered Chattels. 

Do all Muslims follow this guidance? Hell no. Are all men Misogynistic? Hell no. Are all Christians or others Misogynistic? Hell no.  A majority of people get their faith right and are good honorable individuals, a few don't. We need to avoid painting all for the acts of a few who don't get their religion right. 

Add to that, the powerful accountability factor. The prophet said, on the Day of Judgment, no one is responsible for other's actions, you are responsible for own your deeds, the good and bad you do with fellow beings. That puts women and men on par and individually responsible. No man is responsible for his wife's action or vice versa. 

Of course, men are men; they did not obey the religion, while most of the men did the right thing in following the teachings, a few remained misogynists, which is a men thing and not a religious thing. As you'll find those misogynist brutes are in  every religion and are from every ethnic and racial backgrounds. 

Secondly, this scholar "Muhammad Khan Sherani" says the laws passed by the Punjab Government are wrong and he cites from the Koran and calls the new ruling "un-Islamic". Is he out of his mind?

This takes me back to my old song, that is, shamefully, Muslims have never questioned the books written by "scholars of the past" many of whom were bigots and misogynists, it is not just Islam, scholars in all societies were the same.

We have erred severely by subconsciously giving the same value to their books as Quran. The scholars such as Taymiyyah, Kathir, Maududi, Banna and even Hadiths and Sharia were all compiled by "Men". Even though a whole lot of their material is full of wisdom, they were human and have made serious errors, even though they are a few. It takes one drop of poison to ruin the large body of clean water. We hate admitting that those mighty scholars can err, yes they have and we are paying a price for it by having Two Islams. 

When the body of the Sharia Laws was created by humans to serve justice, their intent was good, they wanted a just society, but being human, they made the mistakes and such mistakes need fixing. No one dares fix it, however, the process of questioning has begun now. 

What does it take? Good men and women to speak up, more of them to speak up to created discussion and dialogue and do the right thing.

Mike Ghouse
www.MuslimSpeaker.com 

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Pakistani Council Declares Law Protecting Women �Un-Islamic�
Courtesy - The Daily Caller News 

A top Pakistani religious council responsible for advising the government to ensure that laws conform with Islam has ruled a new law criminalizing violence against women �un-Islamic.�

Punjab, the largest province in Pakistan, passed the Women�s Protection Act last week. The law is the first of its kind and is intended to protect women from domestic, psychological and sexual abuse. The legislation will also create women�s shelters and a hotline for women to call in order to report crimes. That is, of course, if of course if the law gets by the Council of Islamic Ideology.

�The whole law is wrong,� said Muhammad Khan Sherani, head of the council, during a news conference. Sherani cited verses from the Koran to back up his claim that the law is �un-Islamic.�

According to its website, �the Council of Islamic Ideology is a constitutional body that advises the legislature whether or not a certain law is repugnant to Islam, namely to the Koran and Sunna.� The Sunna is the verbal record of the practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

 

The council has a history of highly controversial decisions. It defended child marriages in 2014, claiming that girls as young as nine years-old are eligible for marriage. Sherani claimed that any laws in Pakistan defining the age when a girl should be allowed to marry should be repealed. The council also rejected the use of DNA testing in 2013 as a primary source of evidence in cases of rape.

Life for women in Pakistan can often be harsh and even deadly. It has been reported that as many as nine women are killed in the country each day in what are referred to as �honor crimes.� Cases of rape often go unreported due to the difficulty involved in securing successful prosecution of an offender.

In one particularly brutal case, a woman from a village in Punjab was sexually assaulted by as many as 14 men in 2002. Though she survived, her attempts to seek justice and prosecute her attackers took nine years. All but one were acquitted. The case drew international attention, however, she was not allowed to leave Pakistan out of concerns she would flee to the west and attempt to profit from her assault.

�Every year some 2,900 women are raped in Pakistan, almost eight a day,� said Ayesha Hassan, a journalist who covers the issue, to Deutsche Welle.

References: 

1. Council of Islamic Ideology Government of Pakistan http://cii.gov.pk/ 
2. Profile of Maulana Muhammad Sheerani - http://cii.gov.pk/aboutcii/Chairmansprofile.aspx
3. The Sunnah - http://islam.uga.edu/shariah.html#Sunnah

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