A US House of Representatives judiciary subcommittee hearing has been told that Sharia law courts exist within the United States that not only exercise jurisdiction over Muslim people, but issue religious orders to kill “apostates” and blasphemers.
Evidence was given at the hearing by a woman identified as “Ms Meckleberg”, described as a researcher and former member of a Muslim community who had spent more than a decade documenting how Sharia-based tribunals operate inside American cities..
Ms Mecklenburg’s testimony reportedly brought the committee room to a standstill.
Under questioning from Representative Harriet Hageman of Wyoming — a constitutional lawyer with twenty-five years of federal litigation experience — Mecklenburg outlined how Sharia-based tribunals operating across at least a dozen American cities are systematically denying women and children their constitutional protections.
She named two organizations at the center of this parallel legal structure: the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America and the Fiqh Council of North America.
Mecklenburg made an on-the-record claim that fatwas issued by these bodies include rulings on what should be done to apostates and blasphemers on American soil.
“The constitutional questions at stake — touching the First, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Fourteenth Amendments — go far beyond any single hearing room,” says video presenter Freya aka Freya Explains Politics.
“The organizations named have not responded. The tribunal website Hageman quoted has since removed its founding language. And the Democratic congressman recognized immediately after this testimony spoke about something else entirely.”
Coincidentally, Australia also has a Fiqh body, the Fiqhi Council of Australia (FCA), which describes itself as “an inclusive scholarly body that was established to regulate the religious affairs of Muslims in Australia. It endeavours to address the challenges faced by the Muslim community in adhering to Islamic Fiqh (jurisprudence) within the Australian legal and social context.”
“We recognise a lack of centralisation, methodology and record-keeping in the management of the family matters of Australian Muslims according to Islamic Fiqh.
“This has left the rights of many individuals neglected, and disputes between and within families unresolved. It has also prompted aggrieved parties to resort to the Australian judicial system for resolutions, which are sometimes not consistent with Islamic Fiqh.
“We also recognise a lack of authoritative and thoroughly researched fatwas (legal verdicts) that are tailored to the needs of Australian Muslims. This has led to an unhealthy dependence on fatwas available on the Internet which are often superficial in nature and fail to account for the nuances of our unique social, political and economic context,” the council states.
So, the Australian Moslems appear to be well aware of the clash between their religious courts and “the Australian legal and social context” and that resolutions under Australian law “are sometimes not consistent with Islamic Fiqh”.
Welcome to our reality Imams. We also know that rulings of our courts can frequently be at odds with our own Constitution and certainly with Christian values and what we might call “the traditional Australian ethos”.
Cairns News would advise Australian Muslims to look at the broader principles of freedom as referenced in our Constitution and as contained in English common and constitutional law going back to the English Bill of Rights 1688, the Petition of Right 1628 and Magna Carta 1215.
Australian Muslims should also understand that Christianity has played a profound role in the formation of our English system of law and government, and this tradition of law is what allows Muslims to freely practice their religion in this country, within lawful bounds.
Unlike many of the Moslem countries they come from, we have freedom of religion written into our Constitution (Section 116), which is something Moslem immigrants should appreciate and respect.
Our Section 116 copies the Americans’ First Amendment of the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”, and for immigrants to supplant or subvert such fundamental rights through their own system of religious law is a serious matter indeed.
Americans are shocked by the prospect that young Moslems born in the US may grow into adulthood without knowing what their constitutional rights are, because her community will never tell them.
We would be alarmed to see the same thing happening here, as there is already a dearth of knowledge among the native populace of our traditional rights and freedoms.
Operators of any Sharia court system in Australia should be aware that what happens in regard to Sharia law in the US will act as a legal precedent to what happens here, should a future Australian government or court act on this matter.
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