Islam and Elections

2004 Report (Continued)


Notes

1. Qur’an, Surat Al-Imran, 3:159.

2. Qur’an, Surat Ash-Shura, 42:38. It should also be noted that the naming of the Sura, i.e., The Consultation, itself points to the importance of the concept of mutual consultation in Islam.

3. This is mostly in the case of Sunni Muslims, who comprise the majority of the entire Muslim population. Shi’a Islam, on the other hand, has a clearly structured system of governance based on Ja‘fari fiqh, or jurisprudence.

4. In the general elections of March 21, 2004, the Malaysian Islamic Party, Party Islam se-Malaysia (PAS), lost control of the state legislature in Terengganu but narrowly maintained control in the neighboring state of Kelantan. The party suffered losses at the national level as well, winning only seven parliamentary seats (out of 219), compared to twenty-seven in the 1999 election. As of press time, however, PAS has contested election results, charging that electoral irregularities favored the ruling coalition.

5. Hassan al-Banna (1905-1949) was an Egyptian Azhar scholar who founded the Muslim Brotherhood (jami‘at al-ikhwan al-muslimin) in 1928. The organization, which began as a small anticolonial youth movement, became an ideological political group from 1939 on, concentrating principally on active social, moral, and political reform based upon Islam. The Brotherhood movement has since not only been instrumental in Egyptian politics, but has spread to many other Muslim countries, playing an important role in global Islamist politics.

6. Muslim Brotherhood, Shura and Pluralism in Muslim Societies, Cairo: 1994 (in Arabic).

7. Lawal’s conviction was overturned in September 2003 by the Shari‘a Court of Appeal in Katsina State, northern Nigeria, which cited procedural errors in the original judgment as grounds for her acquittal. The judges ruled that Lawal’s adultery had not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt and that she had not been given sufficient opportunity to defend herself.

8. Sunna means “the way” or “the path” and is the way of life prescribed for Muslims on the basis of the teachings and practices of the Prophet Muhammad.

9. The concept of maqasid al-shari‘a has been used by Muslim reformers in the past and present and is a central aspect of usul al-fiqh, or Islamic jurisprudence. It requires those formulating Islamic rules by application of individual judgement (ijtihad) to remain true to the overall spirit and purpose of the Qur’an and the central principles of the religion. These principles include inter alia the overarching notions of justice, mercy, and liberty as well as concrete rights such as the protection of life, property, and lineage.

10. See Qur’an 2:256, “There shall be no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clearly distinct from the wrong way. Whoever therefore rejects the forces of evil and believes in God, he has taken hold of a support most unfailing, which shall never give way, for God is All Hearing and Knowing.” Similarly, verses 88:21, 88:22 and 24:54 state, “And so, (O Prophet!) exhort them your task is only to exhort; you cannot compel them to believe.”

11. According to Islamic law, a dhimmi is defined as a non-Muslim subject who is a resident of the Islamic state and who is party to a specific contractual relationship with the caliph or ruler. Despite some varying opinions on the position of dhimmis among the classical schools of law, all agree that by accepting the status of dhimmi, the non-Muslim agrees to keep order, respect and obey Islamic law (except in areas of personal status and matters of worship), pay special taxes (namely, the jizya, although women, children, the elderly, priests, and the disabled are excluded from this requirement), refrain from what harms or humiliates Islam or Muslims, and avoid practice of public activities that are deemed morally reprehensible in Islam, such as drinking alcohol. In return, the Islamic ruler guarantees the dhimmis absolute protection of their lives, property, rights, and traditions. The special status of non-Muslims is recognized in many traditions of the Prophet. For example: “Whoever hurts a non-Muslim citizen of a Muslim state hurts me, and he who hurts me annoys God” (Bukhari); “He who hurts a Non-Muslim citizen of a Muslim state, I am his adversary, and I shall be his adversary on the Day of Judgement” (Bukhari); “Anyone who kills a non-Muslim who had become our ally will not smell the fragrance of Paradise” (Bukhari).

12. For example, Qur’an 49:13 states, “O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another.” Similarly, Surat al-Kafirun (109) recognizes that Muslims and non-Muslims have different beliefs and calls on Muslims to claim, “I worship not what you worship; Nor will you worship that which I worship. To you your religion, and to me my religion.” Although this last Sura has been widely interpreted as one that negatively segregates Muslims from non-Muslims, other Quranic verses, such as the one quoted previously, as well as the sayings of the Prophet quoted in note 6, all allude to an Islamic obligation to maintain harmonious relations between different religious groups.

13. Terminology used here follows the definition proposed by Syed Shahabuddin in a previous session: that a “Muslim state” or “Muslim country” refers to one in which the majority of the population identifies itself as Muslim. This designation does not necessarily indicate that the government in either Muslim-majority or minority countries inherently supports Islam.

14. The convention consists of a preamble and 30 articles. It defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda for national action to end such discrimination.

15. Qur’an, Surat al-Hujurat, 49:13 (see note 9).

16. For a definition of dhimma, see note 8.

17. Gailani did not discuss Islamic public law. However, many of the substantive rules relating to governance and public law in Islam actually derive from classical treatises of famous jurists, particularly al-Mawardi’s Al-Ahkam al-Sultaniyya. Although the laws and systems of government outlined in these manuals are to a large degree inspired by the Qur’an and the sunna, they have developed historically according to various social and political contexts under different Islamic governments.

18. Hudaibiya is a place on the outskirts of Mecca on the way to Jidda. At this place a peace treaty was concluded in 6 AH (628 AD) between the Prophet Muhammad and the Quraish, who controlled the routes to Mecca and had prevented him and his party from entering the holy city to perform the annual pilgrimage. Under the terms of the treaty, Quraish promised to empty the city of Mecca at the time of the pilgrimage the following year to allow the Prophet and all his companions to perform the holy ritual in return for the repatriation of members of the Quraish who had been captured by or had defected to the Muslims. The treaty also stipulated a ten-year truce and a promise to normalize relations between the two groups. Contemporary Muslim theorists take note of the fact that when the Quraish objected to Muhammad’s styling himself the Messenger of God in signing the agreement, Muhammad did not insist on this title. Some theorists take this to indicate that Muhammad was not averse to making an essentially secular agreement with non-Muslims.

19. There are numerous hadith, or sayings of the Prophet, on this topic; they are codified in the six approved books of hadith, collectively known as al-sihah al-sitta.

20. On March 8, 2004, Iraqi Governing Council members signed the “Law of Administration for the State of Iraq for the Transitional Period,” an interim constitution intended to provide a legal framework for the country’s transitional government until general elections are held and a permanent constitution adopted. A full-text version of the document is available on the Coalition Provisional Authority Web site at www.cpa-iraq.org/government/TAL.html.

21. The schools of Islamic thought are the four Sunni mthahib—Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i and Hanbali—as well as the Shi‘ite Ja’fari and Zaidi schools and the ‘Ibadi school derived from the Kharijite form of Islam.

22. See p. 21 for Abubaker’s remarks on how Nigeria’s constitution accommodates the country’s great diversity.

23. East Timor was governed by Portugal until 1976, when Portugal withdrew in the midst of a civil war between factions seeking independence and factions supporting integration into Indonesia. Following Indonesian military intervention that same year, East Timor was annexed by Indonesia and incorporated as the country’s twenty-seventh province. The United Nations never recognized East Timor as part of Indonesia and conducted a series of talks during the 1980s and 1990s between Portugal and Indonesia to resolve the disputed territory’s status. On May 5, 1999, the two parties reached a set of agreements, brokered by the U.N., providing for a “popular consultation” by which the East Timorese people would vote for either independence or a special autonomous status within Indonesia. Arranged and supervised by the U.N., the vote was held on August 30, 1999; the East Timorese overwhelmingly rejected autonomy within Indonesia in favor of independence. The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), created on October 25, 1999, acted as an interim administration, providing security and humanitarian assistance, maintaining order, and assisting the East Timorese as they established the necessary structures for self-government. East Timor achieved its independence on May 20, 2002.

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