Sweden: The best Muslim state
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"The best Islamic state is Sweden!" says local politician and imam Adly Abu Hajal (Moderate Party). All the important, basic principles are here.
As an imam he can write a letter to concerned parents who don't want their child to sleep with somebody before marriage.
"I call it to be boyfriend and girlfriend in the Muslim way," he says.
They promise to marry each other and the parents can breath freely. If the couple changes their mind, there's nothing more to it. They simply end it.
The moderate politician from Palestine lives in a little brick house in Fosie. He adopts Sharia - laws to solve relations disputes. Adly Abu Hajal is convinced that Western liberalism is the best basis for free religious expression. Therefor he adopts his role as an imam when people's religious interpretations clash with reality.
Personally he thinks that Islam should be interpreted in a modern way and in accordance with the laws in force where one is.
Sharia laws have a bad reputation in Scandinavia. They are often associated with fundamentalist Islamist, who by enforcing Sharia laws want to create a strictly religious society.
But everything depends on how they're interpreted, according to Adly Abu Hajal. He sees no problem with combining Swedish laws and regulations with Islam.
"Shariah has three levels. Personal, familial and general. The general law must apply to everybody, therefore Swedish law is Shariah in Sweden. If one doesn't agree with them, then go ahead - fight! Everybody has a right to try to push through legal changes."
- You say that the best country for Islam is Sweden, but as a moderate how do you see a country so characterized by social democracy?
"I'm a liberal conservative. Not completely conservative and not completely liberal. Moreover, I put a lot of emphasis on social issues, so one can say that I'm in the middle."
Adly Abu Hajal's work as an imam focused first and foremost on divorce issues. Few imams decide to the woman's advantage, so they come to him. When a couple who married in a Muslim way later divorces in Sweden, the court rules that the divorce is a fact. The court doesn't care whether the Muslim couple drew up a contract when they got married.
The contract includes an agreement about a sum of money or a gift which would be paid out to the woman if the couple divorces. Therefore the man isn't always particularly interested in divorcing in the Muslim way, despite the court's decision being final.
As long as there's no certificate from an imam about the divorce, no money needs to be paid out, but the woman can't get married and there's a number of other problems in the contact with the homeland and within one's own network in Sweden.
Adly Abu Hajal shows a large collection of binders in his bookcase from twenty year's work with similar cases. These are documents from hundreds of disputes archived together with letters from the police, social service and private people from all over Sweden who contacted him for help. The problem is, in other words, well known.
Björn Serrander, a judge at the Malmö district court, thinks it's well known that Muslim divorces need to go through a double process, but he doesn't see a problem with it.
Should the court review this? As far as he knows, there's no discussion on this issue.
Source: SkD (Swedish), h/t Muslimska Friskolan
See also:
* Sweden: Don't give Islamic laws a place in Sweden
* Sweden: The problems of civil divorce
* Sweden: Against Muslim only laws
* Sweden: Immigrants more likely to divorce
-------
"The best Islamic state is Sweden!" says local politician and imam Adly Abu Hajal (Moderate Party). All the important, basic principles are here.
As an imam he can write a letter to concerned parents who don't want their child to sleep with somebody before marriage.
"I call it to be boyfriend and girlfriend in the Muslim way," he says.
They promise to marry each other and the parents can breath freely. If the couple changes their mind, there's nothing more to it. They simply end it.
The moderate politician from Palestine lives in a little brick house in Fosie. He adopts Sharia - laws to solve relations disputes. Adly Abu Hajal is convinced that Western liberalism is the best basis for free religious expression. Therefor he adopts his role as an imam when people's religious interpretations clash with reality.
Personally he thinks that Islam should be interpreted in a modern way and in accordance with the laws in force where one is.
Sharia laws have a bad reputation in Scandinavia. They are often associated with fundamentalist Islamist, who by enforcing Sharia laws want to create a strictly religious society.
But everything depends on how they're interpreted, according to Adly Abu Hajal. He sees no problem with combining Swedish laws and regulations with Islam.
"Shariah has three levels. Personal, familial and general. The general law must apply to everybody, therefore Swedish law is Shariah in Sweden. If one doesn't agree with them, then go ahead - fight! Everybody has a right to try to push through legal changes."
- You say that the best country for Islam is Sweden, but as a moderate how do you see a country so characterized by social democracy?
"I'm a liberal conservative. Not completely conservative and not completely liberal. Moreover, I put a lot of emphasis on social issues, so one can say that I'm in the middle."
Adly Abu Hajal's work as an imam focused first and foremost on divorce issues. Few imams decide to the woman's advantage, so they come to him. When a couple who married in a Muslim way later divorces in Sweden, the court rules that the divorce is a fact. The court doesn't care whether the Muslim couple drew up a contract when they got married.
The contract includes an agreement about a sum of money or a gift which would be paid out to the woman if the couple divorces. Therefore the man isn't always particularly interested in divorcing in the Muslim way, despite the court's decision being final.
As long as there's no certificate from an imam about the divorce, no money needs to be paid out, but the woman can't get married and there's a number of other problems in the contact with the homeland and within one's own network in Sweden.
Adly Abu Hajal shows a large collection of binders in his bookcase from twenty year's work with similar cases. These are documents from hundreds of disputes archived together with letters from the police, social service and private people from all over Sweden who contacted him for help. The problem is, in other words, well known.
Björn Serrander, a judge at the Malmö district court, thinks it's well known that Muslim divorces need to go through a double process, but he doesn't see a problem with it.
Should the court review this? As far as he knows, there's no discussion on this issue.
Source: SkD (Swedish), h/t Muslimska Friskolan
See also:
* Sweden: Don't give Islamic laws a place in Sweden
* Sweden: The problems of civil divorce
* Sweden: Against Muslim only laws
* Sweden: Immigrants more likely to divorce
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