There’s an appalling case documented in The Guardian:
A Muslim woman forcibly separated from her Hindu husband by Malaysia’s Islamic authorities after 21 years of happy marriage wept inconsolably yesterday after a judge endorsed her decision to hand custody of six of her seven children to her former spouse.
In an unprecedented move for Malaysia – where Islamic religious laws are strictly enforced – the children, aged four to 14, will be raised as Hindus despite being born to a Muslim mother. Last month Selangor state’s Islamic authorities took Raimah Bibi Noordin, 39, and her children away for “rehabilitation” and religious counselling after belatedly declaring that her marriage was illegal.
In a recent comment, Conskeptical pointed out “you can’t effectively, or informedly, change something you’re not part of”. And he’s right, of course. But there are several things we can do:
As Conskeptical also said, “When in Rome, behave as the Romans do.” When people arrive in the US or Western Europe, we have to emphasize that we’re not going to compromise our legal and cultural principles to accommodate what they may have been used to. There will be no sharia law in Bradford or Oslo, and spousal abuse will not be condoned. We should make sure that this is never repeated:
[T]he woman, as a Muslim, should have “expected” it, the judge explained. She read out passages from the Koran to show that Muslim husbands have the “right to use corporal punishment”. Look at Sura 4, verse 34, she said to Nishal, where the Koran says he can hammer you.
This was in Germany, not in Malaysia or Saudi Arabia.
We also need to be vigilant about the way in which religious bigotry can creep into our Western political and legal fabric. Andrew Sullivan has a good summary of the way in which the right is fighting to prevent homosexuals being added to the groups that are covered by hate crime legislation. Anyone who believes that this isn’t about pandering to religious fundamentalism need to get out more. Just like the C of E bishops in England, the message is same: we want our bigotry to be exempt from legal sanction. That slippery slope leads to forcing women to the back of the bus, busting up families based on their choice of mythology, and worse. Just say no….