Stricter Islamic law in Gulf

Press, 7 March 1984, Page 12

Stricter Islamic law in Gulf

By

HAMZA HENDAWI,

Saudi Arabia and its oil-rich Gulf allies have agreed to implement strict Islamic “Sharia” law, which should include such tenets

in Bahrain, for Reuter

as interest-free bank loans and stoning to death of adulterers, within five years. The six conservative Gulf States,

their Moslem traditions increasingly under the influence of Western ways, decided at a recent meeting in Riyadh to safeguard those traditions by embracing more closely the teachings of God

and the Moslem prophet, Muhammed. The meeting of the Justice Ministers of Saudi Arabia and the other five members of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) — agreed on a five-year plan under which they will move towards implementation of Islamic laws. Saudi Arabia, home of the puritanical Wahhabist movement, has largely applied the Sharia laws since the rise to power of the al-Sa family more than half a century ago. But most of its banks follow capitalist principles while the other Gulf States’ legal systems are largely European-style. Sharia laws, whose application has varied greatly from Islam’s early days in the seventh century, are based on the Moslems’ holy book, the Koran, and Muhammad’s teachings. The laws regulate the social, economic, and political affairs of society and are supposed to ensure the welfare of every Moslem. The word “Islam” means “submission” or “surrender” to God; but to Moslems, Islam is more than a religion, it is a culture with religion as the dominating factor determining the character of a Moslem State.

The Riyadh meeting decided to set up a committee of three noted ulemas (religious scholars) to study how to adapt existing laws to the Sharia. Their recommendations will go to a committee of six ulemas, one from each of the six council countries.

“After that,” according to one official, “the Justice Ministers will meet to ratify the recommendations of the ulemas and leave the matter up to their Heads of State. “Our world has become so complicated, and to adjust the Sharia to present day life is also so complicated that it could take more than five years, or perhaps less,” he said.

Although some aspects of the Sharia are applied in Saudi Arabia — such as amputation of thieves’ hands — and to a lesser extent in other Gulf States, it is the remaining tenets of Islamic laws which are likely to prove most difficult to implement, the officials said. The western-style banking system, for example, is still predominant in the Gulf while the Sharia forbids the concept of making interest.

Kuwait and the U.A.E., however, both have a handful of Islamic banks which do not charge interest rates on loans. Commissions are charged instead.

Saudi Arabia, home of the two holiest Moslem shrines of Mecca and Medina, has no Islamic banks operating officially although some private Islamic financial organisations have been allowed to operate as the personal property of princes, according to informed sources in the kingdom. One problem was that if Islamic banks were set up, this might pose a dilemma by implying that the existing Saudi banking system was un-Islamic, the sources said. Other aspects of the Sharia are widely observed in the kingdom, such as complete separation of the sexes in public and a halt in all business activities during prayer periods five times a day. Saudi Arabia, whose ruling family, like those in the other conservative Gulf Arab states, is Sunni Moslem, makes a point of carrying out punishments in public, mostly after Friday prayer gatherings. Alcohol is strictly banned in Saudi Arabia but Interior Ministry statistics reveal that 30 per cent of the more than 14,000 legal cases in 1982 dealt with alcohol abuses. Bahrain, a flourishing island nation with a large western community, uses parts of the Sharia on civil matters such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance. But it allows its people considerable liberties compared with other parts of the Gulf.

Bahrain is the only Arab Gulf State to allow its nationals access to alcohol, and women in Bahrain enjoy almost equal footing with men.

In Kuwait, a small Gulf State enjoying copious wealth, the Sharia is also confined to matrimonial matters, despite repeated calls for full implementation. Kuwait has already moved closer to Islamic traditions. Last year, a liquor ban, in force since the late 19605, was stretched to include the country’s diplomatic community.

In the U.A.E., a wealthy federation of seven emirates, Moslems are officially banned from drinking alcohol but Emirates citizens are often seen drinking in hotels. The Islamic verdict of stoning adulterers to death exists in the U.A.E. but previous rulings to that effect have been blocked by the Head of State.

In Qatar, floggings are not carried out in public and officials say they are inflicted “with consideration for the health of the offenders.” Adulterers, instead of being stoned to death, are flogged; while the punishment for thieves is prison rather than amputation.