AS the situation in Afghanistan becomes worse, the millions left behind will no doubt face the strict implementation of Sharia law.
In Britain, Khola Hasan of the Islamic Sharia Council wants to celebrate the return to power of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Would she swap places with any one of the Afghans there? I suspect not. So what is there to rejoice about?
Sharia laws are tribal rulings that have been handed down since the 9th century based on the hadith, a set of narrations attributed to Muhammad and compiled some 200 years after the Quran.
READ MORE: Paigham Mustafa: Why are many UK imams silent over the Taliban's takeover?
Sadly, in some Muslims’ minds, the Quran’s practical wisdom and universal values have been replaced with tribal laws such as Sharia, the legal framework within which the public and private aspects of life are regulated.
The expansion of these rulings is called “fiqh”, which are the principles of religious jurisprudence.
Sharia deals with many aspects of day-to-day life, including politics, economics, banking, business, contracts, family, sexuality, hygiene, and social issues.
According to the advocates of Sharia, it should be given recognition in the UK because as a multicultural society we should respect the customs and religious laws of a minority community.
The fact is that Sharia law already operates within British mosques and deals with cases of marriage and divorce and to settle disputes over family issues. However, there should only be one legal system within the United Kingdom.
If individual citizens agree to settle disputes informally at a religious tribunal, that’s fine – but it should not be legally binding.
In reality, Sharia is a harsh system in conflict with basic human values.
As well as prescribing extreme punishments such as stoning and public hanging, Sharia also rules that apostates should be killed. Women are treated by Sharia as inferior to men, with fewer rights in divorce cases. Sharia is an oppressive system and should not be allowed to operate in a modern state.
Many women in some countries are oppressed by belief systems and cultural expectations and are required by their dominant men-folk to accept Sharia. In this way they are effectively deprived of their rights, with the state sanctioning them as second-class citizens.
Western countries are secular states, which have helped them to develop and uphold concepts of universal human rights. Those rights are denied in many countries, where religion and politics are closely interwoven.
The Quran in fact decrees not to berate but to show friendship and tolerance to those with differing beliefs. We are all members of the same community whatever our beliefs, and we all need the same universal values to live in peace. This is what the Quran teaches.
Sharia law is a patchwork of different interpretations where, for example, young girls, women and “disobedient” wives can be accused of adultery, fornication and other sexual crimes. In some societies, the mandatory death penalty for these, like the killing of apostates, is often the result of vengeance accusations.
READ MORE: Why Taliban takeover in Afghanistan risks return of terror across the world
But this is wrong, very wrong. Those who support Sharia are out of touch with the modern world, and with Islam. There is no divine sanction for their laws.
The fact that Sharia is supported by many of the mosques in the UK and is already being practised behind closed doors should be a matter of great concern. Sharia will drag Afghanistan back into a barbaric age of ignorance.
We must not let Sharia laws do the same to us.
Paigham Mustafa is a Muslim scholar and director of the Oxford Institute for British Islam (OIBI), an independent Muslim public policy think tank
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