Friday, 15 October 2010

ISLAMIC SHARIA BRITAIN - TODAY

A MUSLIM cleric sparked outrage yesterday – saying there is no such thing as rape within marriage.

Sheikh Maulana Abu Sayeed, who runs the largest network of sharia courts in Britain, claimed husbands who rape their wives should not be prosecuted because “sex is part of marriage”.

When asked if he believed non-consensual marital sex could be rape he said ­defiantly: “No.


“Clearly there cannot be any rape within the marriage. Maybe aggression, maybe indecent activity.”

He said the “aggression” of reporting the man to police was greater than the “minor aggression” of forcing a woman to have sexual intercourse against her will.

He claimed many married women who alleged rape were lying.

“In most of the cases, they have been advised by solicitors that one of the four ­reasons for which a wife can get a divorce is rape.

“Why it is happening in this society is because they have got this idea of so-called equality, equal rights.”

Sheikh Sayeed said the concept of rape within ­marriage was “not Islamic”.

He said: “It is not an assault, it is not some kind of jumping on somebody’s individual right.

“When they got married, the understanding was that sexual intercourse was part of the marriage, so there ­cannot be anything against sex in marriage.

“Of course, if it happened without her desire, that is no good, that is not desirable.”

He said husbands can be dealt with under sharia law, but there is no need for the police to be called in.

Asked how husbands accused of rape should be dealt with, he said: “He may be disciplined, and he may be made to ask forgiveness. That should be enough.”

As campaigners, police and women’s groups reacted angrily to his remarks ­yesterday Sheikh Sayeed stood by his claims adding: “In Islamic sharia, rape is adultery by force.

“So long as the woman is his wife, it cannot be termed as rape. It is reprehensible, but we do not call it rape.”

Sheikh Sayeed moved here from Bangladesh in 1977.

He is now president of the Islamic Sharia Council which operates 16 courts in Britain, including in Birmingham, Bradford and London.

Dave Whatton, Chief Constable of Cheshire and spokesman on rape for the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the sheikh’s opinion “fundamentally undermines everything we are ­trying to do”.

He said: “We know that the majority of rapes do not take place through strangers attacking women late at night but between acquaintances and within marriages and partnerships.

“Sharia law should not replace the laws of the UK.”

Muslim tribunals exploit a legal loophole which allows sharia courts to be classified as arbitration courts, with their rulings binding in law.

Douglas Murray of the Centre for Social Cohesion, said: “Under sharia women are second-class citizens at best; chattel at worst. Sharia courts are incompatible with British democracy. There’s no such thing as moderate sharia. It’s a backward, bigoted, discriminatory body.”

SOURCE

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess that's fine though, http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23470426-women-more-troubled-by-bag-theft-than-rape-bnp-candidate-claims.do