Their reliance on fringe elements amongst the Muslims, esp. the radical left.

I have added a little response to her post. But really MSM’s reliance on these fringe elements is not only annoying, but extremely dishonest! Its like picking an ultra-feminist-ultra-liberal-pro-choice to represent mainstream Catholic views.

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/2008/02/the_archbishop_of_canterbury_h/all.html

So far, the only Muslim who has responded is Pamela Taylor, whose response, as one might guess, is, umm, “progressive.”

I think the comments of Ms. Khan are really important. To the extent that there are serious issues of domestic violence, forced marriage and other abuses of women in the UK Muslim community (I don’t claim to know exactly how widespread the problems are) I can see why anyone would rightly be concerned about the ways in which Shariah, just like any other kind of legal system, can be abused by unscrupulous individuals or imperfect human judges, etc. The solution to these concerns is to bring Shariah into the mainstream and discuss it and apply it openly with room for scholars to advise each other, not to force those Muslims who should always look to the law of Allaah to have to seek it as if they are seeking something shameful.

I agree that it is important that people who claim to represent the community are clear in where they stand on such issues, so the community knows the true intents and interests of those that claim to represent it.

I join you in hoping that the “traditionalists” will weigh in soon with their voices on this issue.

I note that Michael Mumisa has been quoted prominently as an opponent of these courts and that he is also someone who speaks frequently of reinvigorating ijtihad and also someone who uses the name of Al-Shatibi (rA) to justify some of his opinions. So I think this is further reason why all those in the Muslim scholarly community who toss out slogans like “fiqh of minorities” and “maqasid-ash-shari’ah” frequently to be clear on exactly how an issue such as this is properly viewed through such lenses.

Finally, I would like to note that even among public supporters of Mr. William’s comments, there has been an emphasis on the limited nature of such application of Shariah and the fact that the Muslim community is not calling for or working towards any wider applications in UK society. Such comments are undoubtedly true and important to note in understanding the reality of the issues involved, but I must say that this discussion oft times leaves me a bit cold.

While people should attempt to do the best they can in whatever circumstance they are in, I think that the application of Shariah to only certain narrow areas of life often can lead to discrimination, harm to the weak and a number of other perverse results. Just as it can be disastrous for some so-called Muslim regimes to only implement a distorted version of hudood and claiming to be implementing Shariah, it is troubling to me that the long term goal be a Muslim community where some personal status laws are applied on a completely selective basis and that this becomes over the longer run what the community grows to think of as “the implementation of Shariah.”

Allaah knows best.

Dr. Williams’ speech reminds me that Allah (SWT) said the closest to the believes shall be those who say “we are Christians.”

Wallahi Alim.