From hisba to eternity...

I was reading the WSJ this morning and back in the International Section is this article: Islamists Lose Ground in Pakistani Elections. I would link it but I can't get my new WSJ password to work. (Story of my technical life) The good news is that the more secular political parties running for office in two border provinces have gained ground on the pro-Taliban Islamic fundamentalists.

Towards the end of the article, hisba is referenced. Curious, and wanting to increase my knowledge. I went on a search and found out that the North West Frontier provincial government in Pakistan passed a so called HISBA or accountability law, last month.

hisba = accountability
Read this Taipei Times article to get the full flavor of the legislature, but here's a tidbit to entice you. This will tell you what Hisba is:

Since coming to power in state elections nearly three years ago, a coalition of radical Islamist parties here in North-West Frontier province has faced a few stumbling blocks on the road to creating a model Islamic state.

First, they made it illegal to play music on city buses, but that law seemed to fall flat on its face. Caravans of luridly painted buses still cruise the streets of Peshawar, tinny pop music pouring out of their windows.

Then they banned mannequins in shop windows, but shopkeepers shrugged it off. The mannequins quickly returned to the bazaar, displaying stiff smiles.

The Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, as the coalition of religious radicals is called in Urdu, did succeed in closing the two pubs that served alcohol (though only to non-Pakistani foreigners). Some of their foot soldiers went on a free-for-all, vandalizing advertising billboards that displayed pictures of women. And the coalition banned musical performances at a government-owned concert hall.

I'm telling you, this hisba sounds like a real kick in the pants.
How does hisba work? Here's a little background from the Central Asia - Caucausus Institute

Under the new law, the North West Frontier Province government would appoint ombudsmen (mohtasibs) – those who hold others accountable – at provincial, district and village levels to ensure that people respect the call to prayers, pray on time, and do not engage in commerce during the Friday prayers besides stopping unrelated men and women from appearing in public places together, and discourage singing and dancing. With a religious police under his command as an enforcement arm, the army of newly-appointed mohtasibs would also monitor the media to ensure ‘useful for the promotion of Islamic values’

What about the North West Frontier Province?

The Frontier province, is the only one amongst Pakistan’s four federating units to be ruled solely by the Islamists while the same alliance is a coalition partner with the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League in Balochistan province which also borders Afghanistan.

For the first time in the country’s history, the religious parties grouped together ahead of the 2002 electoral alliance in reaction to the invasion of Afghanistan by United States and its allies. The religious-political alliance managed to gain an unexpected number of seats, predominantly in the NWFP and Balochistan provinces. Besides playing on the anti-US and anti-Musharraf sentiments, the MMA leadership promised replacing all secular laws and practices with the Islamic ones once they were voted to power.

It sounds like some folks have calmer heads:

Although the law and order situation in the MMA-led province has by far been the best over the past three years, there has been little change in the standard of living of the common man in the Afghan refugee-infested province. While the alliance’s leadership mulls creating an Islamic society, their chosen chief minister and some of his cabinet members are being alleged to have involved in corruption and nepotism. “To cover up their failings and weakness, once again the mullahs are hiding behind Islam,” said Asma Jehangir, former chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.

Although, I can't believe this:

Except cricket hero and philanthropist Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf party, every political circle in the country is questioning the timing of the move.

No wonder that little hottie Jemima Khan kicked him to the curb for Hugh Grant. (Now, I'm a sucker for a Brit everytime myself and I know getting out from under Imran's muslim thumb has to be invigorating, but having sex with Hugh Grant in front of the neighbors?) Oh god, a dhimmi can only dream...
But, back to our topic at hand, hisba is an open abrogation of the Pakistani constitution adopted in 1973.
Possible sign that the Pakistani constitution is working?

Although the passage of Hisba bill has temporarily united the anti-Musharraf forces, the same circles continue to blame the country’s military elite for creating an enabling environment for the MMA’s advances in the 2002 general election.

Instead of the Blame America crowd, we got the Blame Pakistan crowd...
and we got the, 'Anybody but Musharraf' crowd, too.

Many analysts blame the Musharraf regime for deliberately failing to engage the MMA government in talks but instead to opt to confront a democratically elected provincial government. “The insecure general needed something fresh to remind the west how volatile the situation in the frontline state is and how indispensable he remains as war on terror goes on without an end in sight,” says Tariq Mahmood, former judge and president of Supreme Court Bar Association.

This goes onto highlight the importance of Musharraf's recent election gains:

Politically speaking, the implications are serious for the camps, pro-Musharraf and the Islamists with local bodies’ elections just around the corner in August

The author goes on to opine:

The MMA’s move to enact the Hisba Bill has more political undertones than theocratic; yet civil society activists are harping to create a paranoia amongst their ‘valued audience’ in the western capitals.

This valued audience is not paranoid. Hisba is evil and women everwhere should be speaking out against it.
They should speak out against it in:Nigeria

Hisba is the name used to refer collectively to gangs of Islamic fundamentalist vigilantes in Northern Nigeria, who take it upon themselves to oversee the implementation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in the region.

Punishable offenses include drinking or selling alcohol, having premarital sex (most often revealed when the women gets pregnant), or soliciting a prostitute. Hisba members also ensure that the buses in Northern Nigeria are segregated by gender. Although the methods of the Hisba are often violent and arbitrary, the military and official police turn a blind eye towards their activities. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo has declined to interfere in either the Sharia controversy, or the Hisba issues, because of the intense emotions on both sides.

They should speak out against it in Egypt:

They should speak out against it in Canada where they sell a book that about hisba.

Al-Hisba is a moral as well as a socio-economic institution in Islam through which public life is regulated in such a way that a high degree of public morality is attained and the society is protected from bad workmanship, fraud, extortion and exploitation.

Yeah, let's hold off on the bad workmanship, shall we?

They should speak out against it in Saudi Arabia, too (God bless you, MEMRI):

But this I really found interesting. Evidently, hisba has crept back into Iraq

A year ago Haditha was just another sleepy town in western Anbar province, deep in the Sunni triangle and suspicious of the Shia-led government in Baghdad but no insurgent hotbed.

Then, say residents, arrived mostly Shia police with heavyhanded behaviour. "That's how it began," said one man. Attacks against the police escalated until they fled, creating a vacuum filled by insurgents.

Alcohol and music deemed unIslamic were banned, women were told to wear headscarves and relations between the sexes were closely monitored. The mobile phone network was shut down but insurgents retained their walkie-talkies and satellite phones. Right-hand lanes are reserved for their vehicles.

This will make you sick:
The court caters solely for divorces and marriages. Alleged criminals are punished in the market. The Guardian witnessed a headmaster accused of adultery whipped 190 times with cables. Children laughed as he sobbed and his robe turned crimson.

Two men who robbed a foreign exchange shop were splayed on the ground. Masked men stood on their hands while others broke their arms with rocks. The shopkeeper offered the insurgents a reward but they declined.

DVDs of beheadings on the bridge are distributed free in the souk. Children prefer them to cartoons. "They should not watch such things," said one grandfather, but parents appeared not to object.

One DVD features a young, blond muscular man who had been disembowelled. He was said to have been a member of a six-strong US sniper team ambushed and killed on August 1. Residents said he had been paraded in town before being executed.

U.S. authorities deny this occurred.

Muslims Weekly, has another opinion all together and publishes this editorial. Hang onto your wighat, Lucille. This is a doozy:

Think for a moment that the U.S. Congress or the U.K. Parliament passes a law that protects females, minorities and children, discourages lavish spending on weddings, and discourages corruption among the government officials, and passes a law to protect the entire society from evil and injustices. There should be a positive reaction locally, nationally, and globally to such an act of U.S. Congress or the U.K. Parliament. The reason for such reaction is obvious -- The law protects the oppressed and discourages social ills.

Who will oppose or react negatively to the passage of this type of law? Exploiters of females, minorities and children, corrupt government officials and lavish spenders of public money. On which side should the ruling elite of the U.S. or U.K. be? It should be on the side of the legislature.

But this does not happen when something happens in the Muslim World. If a Muslim nation wants to protect females, minorities and children, discourage lavish spending, discourage corruption among the government official, perverted secular (self-acclaimed enlightened) heads of the states all over the world, perverted secular segments of societies all over the world, perverted secular global media all over the world starts yelling from the tops of the roofs. They cry that ‘personal freedom' is at the chopping block; ‘freedom' of women is in danger and "civil liberties" are under "assault."

Currently, this is happening in one part of the Muslim World. In one province of Pakistan, North West Frontier Province (NWFP), the elected members of the legislature dared to pass a bill. They did not upset anything which is positive. They did not want to hurt any law abiding residents of their province. They just wanted to clean the society from social ills. They only wanted that the residents of the province live with the values that are the basis of their religion. They only wanted that females, minorities and children not be exploited by anyone - from family members to the government agencies. According to the bill, if a husband divorces his wife, unlawfully and unjustly, he will be punished and sent to jail. The bill also discourages lavish spending on weddings.

Oh really? I wonder if this couple had a lavish wedding?

This doesn't sound like a lavish wedding: Woman Sentenced to 500 Lashes for Immoral Conduct

JEDDAH, 18 November 2003 - A Jizan court has sentenced a young woman to 500 lashes for allegedly spending time alone with a young man and marrying him hours after divorcing her former husband, Al-Madinah reported on Sunday.

According to the court ruling, the groom will also get 500 lashes while the mazoun who married them will get 30 lashes for violating Shariah rules.

The woman was on bad terms with her former husband and entered into a romantic relationship with the young man. But under Shariah, she was required to wait for three months before marrying another man, the paper said