barnabasaid The magazine of Barnabas Fund HOPE AND AID FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
• North Korea: hope behind the veil
JULY/AUGUST 2007
• Shari`a in the West: how it’s developing and why no one needs it • The Other Nine: what you can do to help the One in Ten
From the director Where are The Other Nine?
barnabasaid JULY/AUGUST 2007
Contents
To guard the safety of Christians in hostile environments names have often been changed or omitted. Thank you for your understanding.
3 Project News
Self-sufficiency for converts around the world
6 Country Profile: North Korea Secrecy, suffering, courage and Christian faith
Information pull-out
Shari`a and Muslims in the West
11 Newsroom
“We are not here to protect Iraqi Christians,” say coalition forces
14 Harvest Ideas
A Harvest Supper with a difference
15 The Other Nine
Being there for the One in Ten
16 Barnabas Reps
Do you have 15 minutes a month to help the persecuted Church?
17 Stepping into the Shadows
A new expanded edition of this popular book
18 In Touch
Your letters, your comments
20 Campaign Update
Presenting the petition in the UK
Cover: A North Korean child. Turn to pages 6-10 to read about the brutal persecution of North Korean Christians, and how Barnabas Fund is helping them. Photo: WFP/ Michael Huggins
On May 14th I was at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London to present Barnabas Fund’s petition on “The Right to Justice” to Susan Hyland, head of the Human Rights, Democracy and Governance Group. I shared with Ms Hyland some of the examples of anti-Christian violence from the past month. On April 13th an Indian Christian from a Muslim background was abducted on his way to a prayer meeting. His severed head was later found in a plastic bag near a mosque. On April 15th a bomb exploded at the Bible Society bookshop in Gaza. On April 18th, three Christian workers had their throats slit at a Christian publishing house in Turkey. On April 23rd a suicide car bomb exploded in a Christian village in northern Iraq. At this time in parts of Baghdad Christians were being given an ultimatum: convert to Islam, pay jizya tax, flee or be killed. On May 7th Christians in two Pakistani towns received letters telling them to close their churches and convert to Islam within ten days or face violent consequences. On May 11th rioting to protest about a church building project in an Egyptian village resulted in Christians injured and their homes and businesses set on fire. Ms Hyland listened sympathetically, indicated the British government’s concern and said that the government will make appropriate representations as necessary. I pray that these representations will make a difference, and would like to express my thanks to all of you who signed this petition. According to statistics from Operation World and the World Evangelical Alliance, as many as 200 million Christians live in areas where they are a minority and there is frequent persecution, discrimination or oppression because of their faith, often leading to poverty and deprivation. This is around 10% of the estimated world Christian population of two billion. So one in ten Christians alive today is living under pressure because of his or her faith in the Lord Jesus. If one in ten Christians lives with discrimination and persecution, what about the other nine? Most of those reading this magazine will be among the other nine, those who live in contexts of religious liberty and material sufficiency, where the worst
we can usually expect is teasing and the distress of seeing our Lord mocked and belittled by those who do not love Him. True, things are getting more difficult in some Western countries, and there are incidents of repression and discrimination of those who are faithful to Christ, which would never have occurred 10 or 20 years ago. But by and large we, the other nine, enjoy equality and freedoms which are way beyond the experience of the one in ten. Furthermore Western Christians live in relative affluence compared with the one in ten. We at Barnabas Fund have been receiving frequent requests from Western Christians, moved by the plight of Christian minorities, pleading, “What can we do in response to the growing persecution, marginalisation and deprivation of our Christian brothers and sisters?” In response to these requests, Barnabas Fund has launched a new campaign to enable the other nine to use their freedom to help the one in ten. You can read more about it on page 15. The Other Nine campaign asks Christians to get their whole church or fellowship fully involved in praying for and supporting the persecuted Church, the one in ten. We provide resources, information and suggestions to help you share with your church your compassion and concern for persecuted Christians. The Apostle Paul, who well knew what it was to be persecuted, wrote: “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down but not destroyed.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9) He also knew that in the face of these difficulties he could never give up. “Since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.” (v. 1) He saw that he was involved in a conflict between Christ and Satan (v. 4-6) and in this conflict Christ the Lord was, is and will be victorious. Paul’s testimony was of God’s power at work to bring His people through their times of trial, and to reveal Jesus in their lives (v.10). His words can help guide our intercessions as we pray for the one in ten, just as much as they can help sustain the other nine in their own difficulties and pressures of life. Dr Patrick Sookhdeo International Director
Barnaba s this Chris Fund has helped tian bak ery build to fund ing
North Korea hope behind the veil
A North Korean Christian was suspended upside down and ordered to deny his beliefs. When he refused the warder began to stab him and pushed him to the ground. Still the Christian would not deny Christ. Finally the warder ordered 6,000 other prisoners to walk over him, trampling him to death. Very little is known of the totalitarian state of North Korea, which has been veiled in secrecy for over half a century, but reports of the tremendous courage of its Christians emerge from time to time. One of the few countries to remain under communist rule, what little is known about North Korean society is often learnt from those who have escaped the oppressive regime to seek freedom in South Korea or China. What has become clear is that life for North Koreans is made up of misery, hunger and oppression by the State, and Christians are singled out for particular persecution. Despite such hardships, the Christian faith is growing as courageous believers endure hideous suffering and even martyrdom for the Lord they love.
Land of conflict and of Christianity
For centuries the Korean Peninsula was fought over by its larger neighbours, China, Russia and Japan. Korea was absorbed into the growing Japanese empire in 1910 and remained under Japanese control until Japan surrendered at the end of World War II in 1945. Korea was immediately seized by competing occupying powers. The USSR took control of the north, while south of the 38th parallel was 6 Barnabas AID JULY/ AUG 2007
administered by the US. Though this division was intended to be temporary, it resulted in the two separate countries of North Korea and South Korea which we find today. Until the division into North and South, Korea had enjoyed a diverse religious background, which included Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism. The Christian faith was first introduced by missionaries in the late 18th century. Though the Korean government banned the spreading of Christianity,
continued missionary activity over the next century meant that by 1863 there were an estimated 23,000 Christians in the country. Korean government policy ordered harsh persecution of Christians. Yet by the late 19th century Korea had become one of the most “Christianised� nations in Asia. Pyongyang (which later became the capital of North Korea) was an important Christian centre, with Christians comprising one sixth of its population. After a great revival in 1907 Pyongyang became
North Korea: hope behind the veil known as “the Jerusalem of the East”. North Korea under Soviet rule soon began to adopt communist policies, bringing it into direct opposition with the US-administered South Korea. In 1948 North Korea established the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) headed by Premier Kim Il-Sung. A deep distrust developed between North and South Korea, which soon erupted into warfare. The Korean War lasted from 1950-1953, when an armistice agreement was signed. There is still no comprehensive peace agreement between the two countries.
Christians... were labelled as “counter-revolutionary elements”
Kim ll-Sung and the purging of religion
Kim Il-Sung had been recruited by Stalin to establish a communist North Korean state. On taking the premiership of North Korea in 1948 he sought to develop a Marxist-Leninist political model which centred on the principle of autonomy and self-reliance, called Juche (pronounced “joo-cheh”). Part of the process was a brutal suppression of all religious activity and rival systems of thought and belief. Christians, Buddhists and followers of other religions were labelled as “counter-revolutionary elements”.
Juche and “Kimilsungism” Over time Juche has developed into a quasireligious personality cult centred on Kim Il-Sung, who was venerated almost like a god. When he died in 1994 Kim Il-Sung, “The Great Leader”, was assigned the post of president for “eternity”. His son Kim Jong-Il is the current head of state, and has been absorbed into the personality cult as “The Dear Leader”. The Kim dynasty is portrayed as the ultimate source of power, virtue, spiritual wisdom and truth. Facts concerning their lives have been altered to back up the image of divinity. For example, Kim Jong-Il was born in a Soviet army camp in Siberia; however the “official” history teaches that he was born on North Korea’s holy Mount Paekdu, and that at his birth a star shone, lightning flashed and a double rainbow appeared. A North Korean scholar says that the two Kims are like God and Jesus Christ.² People are encouraged to sing their praises and pray to them. Any dissent is ruthlessly repressed.
of privilege and status. People were categorised according to their family background and also their perceived loyalty to the state. Christians and followers of other faiths were classified into the lowest levels, viewed as “irredeemables”. People in these low categories suffered in education and employment. Some were forcibly relocated to remote and desolate areas, where they were deliberately left to starve.
Religious intolerance
The DPRK claims that there is freedom of religion within North Korea. Its constitution even includes articles which defend religious liberty. But this is not the reality of life in North Korea. While in the late 20th century the government sanctioned the opening of three churches in the capital Pyongyang, it is believed that these are merely “show churches” for international visitors. The Christian presence in North Korea is sustained through many hundreds of underground churches. The punishments for being a Christian and taking part in religious activity outside of the government-sanctioned churches range from fines to imprisonment and even execution. Just being related to Christians can also bring persecution. Imprisonment in North Korea’s Continued overleaf
“We purged the key leaders above the rank of deacons in Protestant or Catholic churches and the wicked among the rest were put on trial. The general religious people were… put into prison camps [and given a chance to reform]…We learned later that those of religion can do away with their old habits only after they have been killed.” Kim Il-Sung¹ The Juche belief system led to the construction of a very rigid social class system, with 51 layers
A delivery of equipment for the new Christian bakery funded by Barnabas Fund
JULY/ AUG 2007 Barnabas AID 7
North Korea: hope behind the veil Growth in the shadow of persecution
Human rights abuses in prison camps Prison camps in North Korea are notorious for their brutality. Prisoners are subjected to forced labour, or used as test subjects for chemical and biological experiments. Most are kept in starvation conditions, glad even to eat the raw flesh of rats they catch. Sometimes they are confined for days in punishment cells which are 24 inches wide and 44 inches high. Unable to stand upright, sit or lie down, when finally released they are usually permanently crippled. Some die soon afterwards. But the worst tortures are kept for Christians. A former North Korean prison guard reported that Christian prisoners are singled out for extra harsh treatment, and are regarded by the authorities as insane. For example: •
A group of elderly Christians were ordered to renounce their faith and accept Juche instead. When they refused the security officers ordered molten iron to be poured over them one by one.
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A woman was repeatedly kicked and her injuries left unattended for days, because a prison guard had overheard her praying for a child who had been beaten.
North Korean steamed bread. This bread is distributed free to the hungry
notorious prison camps will usually mean brutal treatment and torture, frequently to the point of death. Only legally documented foreigners are allowed to own Bibles, and they must take them out of the country again when the leave. Any North Korean citizen found to own a Bible is imprisoned, and sometimes executed. A closed door policy, first adopted by Korea in the 19th century, has led to a lack of accurate figures, but it is believed that one in five Christians in North Korea is in a prison camp, and that as many as 400 Christians are executed in a year.
With the introduction of Juche and the purging of all religious activity from North Korea, the number of Christians initially declined. Many Christians were executed or worked to death in labour camps, while others escaped the country to live as refugees in China or South Korea. Many of the Christians who stayed in North Korea were too frightened to pass on their faith even to their own children. Yet a Christian presence has remained, and from the small amount of information which does leak out from behind the veil of secrecy it appears that the Church is growing. In 1989 there were an estimated 11,000 Christians in North Korea. By 2004 this had risen to as many as 100,000, and by 2006 the estimate was somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 Christians. One of the reasons for this church growth, humanly speaking, may be the discontent with the current regime which keeps North Koreans in desperate poverty. Poor economic policies and a lack of agricultural equipment and fertilizers have led to chronic food shortages. In addition North Korea spends a disproportionately high share of its GDP on the military. (North Korea has the fourth largest army in the world but its population is only 23 million.) Despite international food aid, much of the population continues to live with malnutrition and is close to starvation.
Order your copy of the DVD today A short DVD presentation on North Korea is available from Barnabas Fund entitled: “North Korea: Hope Behind the Veil” Contact the UK office or your national office for a free copy. 8 Barnabas AID JULY/ AUG 2007
North Korea: hope behind the veil dilapidated and the demeanour of the people appears to be oppressed.”
Taking the Gospel back to their homeland
Bread making in the Christian bakery
Even apart from the effects of poverty, life in North Korea is extremely harsh, with every area strictly controlled by the state. A recent visitor said: “Most people dress in black or grey. Only the red flag of the party and the occasional coloured child’s coat breaks the monotony of dullness. There is little music to be heard… The houses are
A former police official who escaped North Korea claimed that his fellow officials are particularly anxious to catch Christian believers because they fear that “Christianity will defeat Juche”.
Large numbers of North Koreans have fled to China or South Korea where many find shelter with churches and other Christian humanitarian organisations. The love and care which they are shown is seeing many come to faith in Christ, despite years of indoctrination against Christianity. Amazingly after the risk they have taken to leave North Korea, some of these refugee converts are choosing to return to North Korea to take the Gospel back to their homeland. To return to North Korea is dangerous. Returning refugees picked up by the authorities are questioned about the extent of their contacts with South Korean missionaries, whether they have read the Bible and whether they attended church. To admit to any of these activities would lead to imprisonment or execution. Despite knowing the dangers these courageous Christians still choose to return.
As well as returning North Korean converts, many South Korean Christians are also crossing the border to bring humanitarian relief to the suffering North Koreans and share their faith. Continued overleaf
Five Principles of Faith Many North Korean Christians daily recite the Lord’s Prayer and five principles of faith. The expectations of suffering within their faith life are evident in these principles: 1. Our persecution and suffering are our joy and honour. 2. We want to accept ridicule, scorn and disadvantages with joy in Jesus’ name. 3. As Christians, we want to wipe others’ tears away and comfort the suffering. 4. We want to be ready to risk our life because of our love for our neighbour, so that they also become Christians. 5. We want to live our lives according to the standards set in God’s Word.
A 21-year-old woman who converted to Christianity while in China returned to North Korea in 2000. She was soon arrested for evangelising. While in prison she was not cowed by the harsh treatment but instead sought to share the love of Jesus Christ with her jailers. She defended her actions by saying that she prayed for North Korea because she loved her country and the Korean people, which should not be considered a crime. Unexpectedly she was told “You have committed a crime related to religion, but the general forgives you.” She was released.
Supported by Barnabas Fund, this bakery provides jobs for North Korean Christians
JULY/ AUG 2007 Barnabas AID 9
North Korea: hope behind the veil The faith that will not be repressed
It appears that while all religious activity is subjected to repression by the Kim Jong-Il government, Christianity is particularly feared. A former police official who escaped North Korea claimed that his fellow officials are particularly anxious to catch Christian believers because they fear that “Christianity will defeat Juche”. Christians in North Korea have persevered through more than 50 years of persecution, poverty and severe hunger. They continue to pray that the Church will be restored within North Korea. A North Korean Christian, speaking of their hopes for the future, said “We well know where all the churches destroyed in the past were. We will build every one of them up with the consent of God.” Despite every effort of the Korean regime, what tremendous faith, courage and hope are shining out from behind the veil. 1. Goh Tae Woo, Bukhanui jonggyo jeongchaek (North Korea’s Policies on Religion), reported in Thank you Father Kim Il-Sung: Eyewitness accounts of severe violations of freedom of thought, conscience and religion in North Korea, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, (November 2005), p.2. 2. Kongdan Oh, quoted in Peter Carlson, “Sins of the Son”, Washington Post, 11 May 2003, www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/ wp-dyn/A40505-2003May10?language=printer, viewed 9 May 2007.
Jobs for North Korean Christians through Barnabas Fund’s aid Barnabas Fund is working to help Christians in North Korea. Two Chinese Christian women manage a bakery in the north of the country which employs mainly Christians. The bread they produce is distributed free to the poor and hungry in the region, often to children. Barnabas Fund gave grants to help towards the building costs of a second bakery. The vision is to see a network of these bakeries across the country, bringing both employment for impoverished Christians and practical love and care in the name of Jesus Christ to the many starving North Koreans. Barnabas Fund hopes to be able to continue partnering in this pioneering work. It costs approximately £98 per day to run the bakery, producing 2,500 steamed bread rolls a day and giving employment to approximately 30 staff.
Project ref: 86-642
Quick Facts •
In the 19th century Korea was an important centre of Christianity. It was the second most Christianised country in Asia after the Philippines.
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The Korean Peninsula was separated into North and South Korea at the end of WWII. North Korea was dominated by the USSR, the South by the USA.
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In 1948 Kim Il-Sung became president. He introduced the Juche regime of selfreliance, and outlawed all religions.
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Juche, or “Kimilsungism” has developed into a personality cult, in which the Kim dynasty is revered. Belief in Juche is mandatory.
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All religious activity is suppressed, but Christians come under particular persecution as the Christian faith is seen as a threat to the Juche ideology.
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The Juche tenet of self-reliance, poor economic policies and a famine in the 1990s have left much of the country facing starvation.
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Barnabas Fund is funding a project employing Christians in a bakery which gives away its bread to the poor.
10 Barnabas AID JULY/ AUG 2007
Many children receive free bread from the Christian bakery
Church leader in Uzbekistan given four-year sentence
Shari`a and Muslims in the West Dmitri (David) Shestakov,
Aspects of shari`a (Islamic law) are increasingly being implemented in Western countries. This is particularly marked in the UK, where the government has yielded to a number of demands from sections of the Muslim community. Why is this happening and what are the implications? Is it really required by Islam? Obeying shari`a is seen by Muslims as part of living in accordance to God’s will, and in Muslim-majority countries the state is seen as the protector of Islam. The state enforces shari‘a (to varying degrees) and is also closely involved in religious affairs, often controlling mosques, clerics and Muslim charities. With this worldview, Muslims in the West often face a dilemma about whether to obey shari`a or the law of the land in which they live. This can arise over issues such as food, marriage, divorce, politics and banking. Many Muslims in the West would therefore like to see parts of shari`a incorporated into the civil laws of Western states. Others demand state recognition of separate self-governing Muslim communities in the West. A poll of British Muslims in 2004 found that 61% would prefer shari`a courts to the secular court system. A survey in February 2006 showed that 40% of British Muslims would support the introduction of shari`a in predominantly Muslim areas of Britain. Another poll six months later found that 28% hoped that Britain would one day become a fundamentalist Islamic state under shari`a.
Examples
Canada: In 2003 some Canadian Muslims called for Ontario’s secular legal system to enforce shari`a decisions made by Muslim voluntary arbitration councils. While voluntary arbitration in civil disputes is legal in Canada, as in most Western countries, settlements arrived at by these bodies had no legal standing in Canadian law. In 2004 Ontario’s attorney general recommended the use of Islamic law to settle issues such as divorce and child custody. Finally, in 2005, following protests by Muslim women and others, Ontario’s Premier Dalton McGuinty quashed the move, arguing that there should be only one law for all Ontarians. Germany: In March 2007 a judge in Frankfurt’s family court ruled against a Muslim woman’s petition for a divorce from her Muslim husband on grounds
Pull-out supplement
This series of pull-out supplements is intended to provide background information for Christians seeking to understand the nature of Islam and its contemporary expression. One aspect of this relates to understanding the reason for the oppression and persecution of Christians in various Islamic parts of the world, and another to the growing challenge which Islam poses to Western society, culture and Church.
of violence and threats to her life. The judge argued that the woman should have expected her Muslim husband to exercise the Islamic right to use corporal punishment. The judge even quoted from the Qur’an to prove that Islam established the husband’s superiority over the wife and his right to use corporal punishment. This judgment caused a storm of protests by those who feared it was opening the way for an Islamic parallel society in Germany. Sweden: In April 2006 the Swedish Muslim Association wrote to all of Sweden’s political parties suggesting some reforms to the legal system that would have meant making exceptions for Muslims. Among the requested changes was one asking that imams approve all divorces among Muslims. Sweden’s Integration and Equality Minister responded that there would not be separate laws for specific groups in Sweden. UK: At the 5th Annual Conference of the Association of Muslim Social Scientists held in London in 2004, Ahmad Thompson, an Islamist barrister and author who served as advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair, argued that the British government must safeguard Muslim human rights by incorporating Islamic personal law into British law. This, he said, should include the legal recognition of Muslim marriages, divorces and inheritance. This would mean setting up shari`a courts whose verdicts would be recognised and enforced by the UK civil courts.
Shari`a options to help Muslims in the West Traditional Islam assumes that it is impossible for a Muslim to live in a society governed by non-Islamic law. The world is considered to be divided into two parts: (1) the “House of Islam” (Dar al-Islam) where Muslims have political control and shari`a is enforced, (2) the “House of War” (Dar al-Harb) where Muslims must fight against non-Muslims to establish Islamic political power. Muslim scholars of old often advised that Muslims living in Dar al-Harb should migrate
Our subject in this issue follows on from the pull-out supplement entitled What is Shari`a? which appeared in Barnabas Aid January-February 2007. This included details of five main areas in which shari`a is incompatible with human rights. One example is the discrimination against women in matters of divorce, inheritance, compensation, legal testimony and other areas. This should be borne in mind when reading the article in this issue, and considering issues such as Muslim calls for the implementation of shari`a family law in the West. i
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back to Dar al-Islam i.e. to Muslim states. Radical Salafi scholars still recommend this option to Muslim minorities today. Other Muslim scholars, such as the influential Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, argue that Western governments must make their laws more in line with shari‘a. This pressure is bearing fruit. In Britain, for instance, the government employs shari`a advisors in various departments. It has used fatwas to gain Muslim support for organ donations. Schools have introduced halal food (sometimes for all pupils irrespective of faith), segregated sports and Muslim dress and head covering. Muslim chaplains, Muslim prayer rooms, halal food and Muslim headcovering have also been accepted in a variety of public services such as the police and the prison service. Local councils are now considering shari`a principles in their decisions on housing, education, health and other matters. In June 2006 the Home Office withdrew proposed legislation banning forced marriages, apparently for fear of antagonising the Muslim community. However, there are many Muslim leaders who tell Muslims in the West to obey the law of the land so long as it does not contradict shari`a. There are also scholars who argue that Muslims are free to disobey certain parts of shari`a if they are living in a situation in the West where it is not possible for them to comply with all the shari`a rules. Some Muslim scholars are now trying to develop a doctrinal shari`a basis for Muslim minorities. These are some of their ideas:
3. A new shari‘a jurisprudence for Muslim minorities The European Council for Fatwa and Research, linked to the Muslim Brotherhood and headed by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, is the most important body dealing with the formal adaptation of shari`a legal theory for Muslim minorities in the West. This organisation has called on all Muslims in the West to abide by the laws of their respective countries. Yet at the same time it recommended that Muslims in the West should form Islamic institutions to enable them to organise their personal and family lives in accordance with shari`a. It also recommended that they try to get the country they live in to recognise Islam as a religion and Muslims as a community (by implication the first step towards autonomy under shari`a). These contradictory statements reveal the real agenda of the Council, which is to apply pressure on Western governments for ever more shari`a application in their legal systems. An extensive alternative system of shari`a courts has developed in the UK, which many Muslims prefer to use rather than the British court system. This means that there is a situation of “legal pluralism” in the UK with unofficial Muslim law operating in the Muslim community, mainly dealing with family matters (divorce, inheritance, etc.). This places huge pressure on vulnerable members of the Muslim community, such as women and children, to abide by the verdicts of such courts even when these are harmful to their
Case study: Vaccination and shari‘a
1. Necessity The shari`a principle of necessity (darura) states that when emergency circumstances threaten the life and welfare of Muslims, the unlawful may become lawful (“necessity lifts prohibition”). This principle allows Muslims in a non-Muslim state to ignore shari`a rules that conflict with the law of the land. Darura is used by many Muslim scholars to justify Muslim minorities adapting to life in Western states, obeying Western legal systems, and being loyal to Western governments. Sheikh al-Tantawi of the prestigious al-Azhar University, Cairo used this argument to justify Muslim women in France obeying the French government’s ban on the Islamic headscarf in public institutions. However, once a shari`a alternative becomes legally available, it becomes obligatory for Muslims to obey that particular aspect of shari`a.
2. The public good The shari`a principle of public good (maslaha) states that certain shari`a rules may be modified, as long as the benefit for Muslims is greater than the harm considered to be incurred by deviating from shari`a norms. On this basis some modern scholars argue that socially beneficial rules appropriate to Western contexts may be adopted even if they are not explicitly authorised by the original sources of shari`a; the Qur’an and hadith. Such scholars say that they are implementing the spirit rather than the letter of Islamic law. Democracy and human rights – which are contradictory to traditional shari`a – are often defended in Islamic terms by using maslaha.
ii
Some Muslim doctors and scholars oppose the Western practice of mass vaccination of children. In Britain Dr Abdul Majid Katme, head of the Islamic Medical Association, has warned Muslims that most vaccines include materials forbidden (haram) by shari`a for human consumption. These include pig products (pork-origin gelatine) and other materials derived from animal and human tissues as well as alcohol. According to Katme, it is forbidden in shari`a to have any of these substances introduced into the human body. In addition, he says that vaccines are totally unnecessary as God has given humans their immune system to defend them against diseases. Other hardline Islamic leaders around the world add further reasons for Muslims to reject Western vaccination programmes. These leaders claim the vaccination programmes are part of a Western Christian conspiracy to harm Muslims by adding infertility agents, AIDS viruses, poisons and other harmful substances to the vaccines. However some moderate Muslim leaders have voiced their opposition to these allegations, and state that in the absence of effective alternatives to prevent infection it is permissible by shari‘a to accept the vaccines. In several Muslim-majority regions such as northern Nigeria and north-west Pakistan there has been a worrying rise in polio cases as many Muslims have refused to let their children be vaccinated. World Health Organisation experts fear this could be the prelude to a new polio epidemic, just when there were hopes of achieving its worldwide eradication.
4. Redefining the status of the West Some Muslim scholars have tried to redefine Western states as part of the “House of Islam” but this has been strongly opposed by most Muslims. Other terms have been created to describe the West and thus justify Muslims living there and complying with non-shari`a norms. These include the “House of Security” (Dar al-Aman) or the “House of Covenant” (Dar al-‘Ahd). The implication of these terms is that, by allowing Muslim migrants in and ensuring their safety, Western states have in effect made a covenant with the Muslim community, a covenant that means Muslims must live peacefully and obey the law of the land. The popular European Islamist scholar Tariq Ramadan has invented another term for the West, Dar al-Shahada (House of Witness), implying it is no longer a House of War, but a space where Muslims can live without guilt as long as they are free to witness to their faith.
Shari`a - compliant economic system
The European Council for Fatwa and Research has recommended that Muslims in the West should press for financial institutions that conform with shari`a economic rules. Islamic economics is defined by a strict and literal interpretation of the Islamic source texts on matters of trade and financial transactions. Although traditionally there was no all-encompassing Islamic body of economic thought, modern Islamists have transformed the various scattered shari`a commands on the subject into a comprehensive and detailed economic system. However, not all Muslims agree on the basic principles. The main point of difference is the interpretation of the Qur’anic ban on riba. The word riba is understood by some Muslims as “interest” and by others as “usury” (excessive interest amounting to extortion and exploitation). Those who interpret riba as “usury” explain that the Qur’an bans preIslamic Arabian riba, not modern interest. They say that the ancient riba was so high that people who could not pay ended up as slaves. They therefore tend to allow limited moderate interest. On the other hand those who interpret riba as “interest” prohibit any kind of interest as anti-Islamic and anti-shari`a. The radical interpretation that sees all interest as prohibited seems to have won the day, and is assumed by most of the non-Muslim media in the West to be the only Islamic viewpoint. It is only this
radical interpretation which requires the creation of a separate Islamic economic system. Having a separate economic system tends to insulate the Muslim minority from the non-Muslim majority, and could become a model for the Islamising of other Western systems and institutions. In the last two decades there has been a spectacular growth in Islamic finance and banking around the world including the West. Western institutions and governments have introduced Islamic finance and banking into the Western system, thus unknowingly encouraging the Islamist upsurge. The American Dow Jones company has produced a special Islamic Market Index (DJIM). As oil profits and other Muslim wealth sources are put into Islamic investment products, the Islamic financial market claims an ever-increasing share of the global market. It is possible that Western institutions may choose to gradually Islamise their own systems, in an attempt to retain their share in this lucrative market. If so, it could eventually mean that non-Muslims have little choice but to use Islamic financial products and systems. In Britain the media have accepted claims by Islamists that shari`a absolutely prohibits the taking of any interest. Banks have joined the call for Islamic finance. In 2003 the British Treasury Board argued that having an Islamic financial market in London would give the UK an economic advantage. The Bank of England set up a working group to study the issue and in 2003 changed the rules on stamp duty to make Islamic mortgages more accessible. Treasury officials also indicated that there were no longer any objections in principle to the introduction of shari`acompliant financial products into the UK market. In April 2007 the Treasury announced the setting up of a feasibility study to look at the costs and potential benefits of the government itself issuing Islamic financial products. Following these official changes in government policy, the Islamic Bank of Britain was set up in 2004 and mainstream banks hurried to provide suitable services. These include HSBC, West Bromwich, Barclays and Yorkshire Building Society. All want a share of the huge market offered by Britain’s approximately 3 million Muslims (including 5,000 millionaires). Most of these banks have set up internal shari`a supervisory councils to make sure their products comply with a strict interpretation of shari`a and they publish the names of the scholars involved so as to reassure the Muslim community. The efforts of the Treasury and of the Bank of England have succeeded in creating a friendly atmosphere for Islamic finance in the UK, thus attracting much investment. In a 2005 survey, Islamic companies indicated that the UK had the most shari`a-friendly
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interests and they would get fairer treatment in the normal British courts. Sometimes the Islamic courts deal with other kinds of issues. For example, a stabbing case was decided by an unofficial Islamic court in Woolwich, London. A group of Somali youths were arrested on suspicion of stabbing another Somali teenager. The victim’s family told the police it would be settled out of court and the suspects were released on bail. A council of Muslims was convened and the assailants were ordered to compensate their victim and apologise for their wrongdoing. Faizul Aqtab Siddiqi, a barrister and principal of Hijaz College Islamic University near Nuneaton, predicted in November 2006 that there would be a formal network of Muslim courts in Britain within a decade.
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