ASSOCIATION OF MUSLIM LAWYERS – UK: »Shariah Law – Dispelling the Myths »

Professor Ramadan will give a 45mn-talk followed by 30mn Q and A for the Association of Muslim Lawyers – UK as an opening to their : « Season on Shariah »

Venue: Arab British Chamber of Commerce
غرفة التجارة العربية البريطانية
43 Upper Grosvenor Street
London, W1K 2NJ

Link to the address is http://www.abcc.org.uk/

Date and time: Wednesday, 30th January at 06:00pm

Registration from 06:00pm-06:30pm
Event from 06:30pm

« Season on Shariah Law

In the New Year we will be embarking on a series of seminars under the banner of Season on Shariah Law. In the current climate, not only is the Islamic faith and its believers constantly questioned and asked to justify every aspect of their faith, but due to the lack of knowledge on our own part, our fear to engage in an intelligible way on issues that matter to us, we as lawyers are critically concerned that our faith and the tenets upon which it rests are being made unpalatable for us by many.
I meet many Muslims who fear using Islamic terminology for the general perception is that it no longer has the meaning once understood whether it is because it has been hi-jacked by a media machinery that shows no tolerance for the Islamic faith, by others who see any form of religion as a means of violence with individuals/organisations/institutions pushing their own agenda or Muslims themselves who have simply not bothered to educate themselves on this.
I speak here not only of those perpetrating violence in their own countries or others’ countries but also of those who misinterpret their faith in their own lives and those of their family. When delivering a talk on Islam and Women to probation officers recently, I was posed with the question by a young man, clearly passionate about his work, who could not understand why Islam and Shariah Law allowed his Muslim clients to use violence against members of his family when they did not obey him. A misinterpretation, a misunderstanding or just literal/ selective interpretation of the sacred text to suit one’s lifestyle? This is not the first time, and nor I imagine sadly will it be the last time, we are faced with such questions unless we practice our faith in its true essence. In the Quran Allah swt tells us “Truly Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves” (Surah 13, Ayat 11) and hence we cannot begin to change people’s perceptions of Islam or Muslims unless and until we take a good hard look at ourselves.
We as a people who proclaim to follow the Islamic faith, need to be clear and certain of what we are talking about when we talk about our faith and when we talk about Shariah, then and only then, when we are clear for ourselves, will others understand what it really means. Professor Tariq Ramadan said earlier this year in his talk in the USA, that Muslims themselves are saying to talk about Shariah is to draw attention to ourselves or is a sign of an extreme ideology but if one truly understands what Shariah is and what it advocates one will have their eyes opened to the fact that in fact Shariah requires us to be good human beings, to seek for others what we seek for ourselves, to strive for justice, to be kind, to be forgiving and by explaining all of this we will explain to those who genuinely want to know what Shariah stands for – what we stand for!
We are therefore launching the programme on 30 January 2013 with Professor Ramadan speaking on Shariah Law- Dispelling the Myths as that has to be the starting point – let’s deal with the white elephant sitting in the room and address the questions that by putting this programme on are we really trying to get Shariah Law in the UK by the back door, is living our lives in accordance with the Shariah principles really compatible and possible in the West, does Islam suppress women and women’s’ rights, is Islam a barbaric religion with no place in the west? Professor Ramadan will deal firstly with these misnomer and setting the ground for real and constructive debate. »