Darwish criticizes Islamic law

Darwish said in her talk, titled “Human, Minority, and Women’s Rights Under Islamic Law,” that Shariah law, which was first derived in the seventh century as an interpretation of the Quran, is “tyrannical” and “abuses a specific person, a specific group of people.”

Darwish criticized the legal process under Shariah, as well as its rulings. The testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man, while a Muslim who kills a non-Muslim does not face the death penalty and rarely faces imprisonment, she said. She also argued that Shariah encourages jihadist policies by heads of state. Darwish cited the book “Reliance of the Traveller: The Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law Umdat Al-Salik,” by Ahmad Ibn Lulu Ibn Al-Naqib and Noah Ha Mim Keller, throughout her talk.

“The majority of the Muslim people I know are good and loving people, but it’s the [religious] law,” she said. “If 10–15 percent of Muslims follow the law, we’re in trouble.”

In 1990, 45 Muslim countries signed the Cairo Human Rights Declaration, which states that Shariah has supremacy over the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Darwish said.

Following the lecture, five students were permitted to ask questions during a heated question-and-answer session that was punctuated by multiple interruptions — one student in the crowd said, “Cool off, yo,” as the last question was asked.

After the lecture, students continued to criticize Darwish’s talk in interviews with The Daily Princetonian.

“I found many examples of inaccuracy,” said Saud Al-Thani ’12, president of the Muslim Students Association. “She talked about the book of law as something that is fixed, when political leaders in the Muslim world do not follow exactly the same laws as their predecessors. Law is flexible.”

“The Muslim head of state cannot reject or change Shariah law,” Darwish said during the speech. “And I hope you understand the importance of this point.”

Al-Thani also challenged Darwish’s assertion that children face widespread indoctrination to hate Jews from an early age. Darwish showed several recent video clips from public television networks in the Middle East, one of which called Jews “most-accursed creatures.”

Al-Thani, who lived in Qatar for nine years, said that he hadn’t seen the videos Darwish featured, explaining that “most children there watch the same things that children do here.” The population of Qatar is 77.5 percent Muslim, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Ahsan Barkatullah ’12, who has lived in Bangladesh for four years, also questioned the accuracy of Darwish’s claim.

“Does an isolated quote mean anything?” Barkatullah said. “Why doesn’t she give us statistics on what percentage of children in Arab countries have seen those type of clips? I never saw any of that.” Bangladesh is 83 percent Muslim according to the CIA World Factbook.

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The students were not alone in their criticisms.

“Those statements about Jews made me very angry, and very upset, and very saddened,” Muslim Life Coordinator Sohaib Sultan said. He added that Islamic nations have historically given refuge to Jews from Christian persecution, citing Morocco during the Spanish Inquisition as an example.

Barkatullah also questioned the basis for Darwish’s claims.

“Ms. Darwish does not have a Ph.D ... When she makes comments, she has no authority,” he said. “I’m not saying you need a Ph.D., but a person like me has personal experience as well ... Does that mean that I am an authority?”

But Rafael Grinberg ’12, a former vice president of Tigers for Israel who was involved in planning the event, said, “She doesn’t try to come off as an academic or scholar. I think a lot of what she said was just presenting facts and ideas.”

Sultan, however, asserted that “pretty much her whole talk was full of inaccuracies, distortions and fundamental flaws.”

“There’s too many flaws to grab which one to give you,” he said. “Rather, what I would like to focus on is her approach, which is fundamentally flawed. Her approach assumes that Islamic law is a stagnant body of text ... In reality, Islamic law is a constantly evolving code of life.”

“Religion is like literature,” Barkatullah said. “You can interpret it in a hundred different ways.”

Aaron Smargon ’11, publisher of The Princeton Tory, said he was “not surprised” by the questions that were asked, adding that some of the questions were “rants.”

Dan May ’11, president of the Whig-Clio Senate and a planner of the event, voiced a similar sentiment. “I was not really surprised by the questions,” he said. “We are an open and honest academic community where people and their authority should be challenged.”

Darwish emphasized that she was not targeting Muslim people in her talk.

“I’m not trying to spread hate of Muslims,” she added. “There are aspects of Islam that are wonderful, but we must speak about these tyrannical laws that are still on the books, that are still practiced today in the 21st century.”

The lecture was sponsored by the Whig-Clio Society, the Tory and the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, an outside organization not affiliated with the University. Darwish’s previously scheduled lecture in November was cancelled following protests from members of the University community.