Islamic Law and its Hearings and Trials - Assignment Example

Islamic LawJudges play numerous roles including interpreting of the Islamic law, assessing the evidence presented, controlling how hearings and trials take place according to the Sharia Law. A judge trained to handle both the civil and criminal disputes listens to the litigants and their witnesses then reviews any evidence presented, carries out investigation and pronounces a verdict. Judges generally provides the resolution of disputes between two parties through the use of comprise between litigants or through a coercive judgment and may further enforce claim made by plaintiffs once they proven (Janin and André 30-35).

Judges need to be impartial decision makers in pursuit of justice and they should ensure that they remain above the fray while providing an independent and impartial assessment of the facts and how Islamic law applies to them.Basic principles of Sharia are to see the will of God done on earth and the will is meant to bring about compassion, kindness, generosity, justice, fair play, tolerance and care in general. The basic principles of Sharia Law include the right to the protection of life, the right to the protection of family, the right to the protection of education and the right to the protection of religion.

Moreover, the principles include the right to the protection of property and the right to the protection of human dignity (Janin and André 30-41: 77).Sacred law operates slightly different from the secular law because the sacred law only applies to members of a particular religion for instance Islamic religion. However, secular law is superior to the sacred law and is applicable on a wider geographical region and on different people regardless of their religion. Moreover, sacred law is only enforceable by the people belonging to a particular religion who may handle both civil and criminal cases of a particular religion.

Most of the laws are created based on specific religious principles. Sharia Law for example is created as per Prophet Mohammed’s teachings and the Quran. Sacred law must always be consistent with the superior secular law. Secular law is made by the judges or created by the legislators and are found in every country worldwide. The judges or makers of the secular law only requires formal education and must not always belong to a certain group of religion.Because the society changes, laws also change to reflect the values of the people it governs.

It is apparent that people’s’ values and ways of life change and the law is required to accommodate such kind of changes. The attitudes and values of should be democratically reflected in the law. However, some laws do not change because they always remain relevant to the society’s way of life and values.Women in the Middle East have had challenges with their law that seem to deny them their rights at home, workplace and in the political arena. These women still suffer from the dismal deficit in human rights because of the societal norms that greatly relegate women to subordinate status.

Changing the law in the Middle East has not been easy because the governments in the region remain resistant to addressing inequalities. These governments often pursue policies of repression thus making women rights suffer from a broad deficit in freedom and human rights (Freedom House Web). There are no democratic institutions and independent judiciary that may handle the issues of women. However there are some women who have gained after long struggle as much as the gain still remains insubstantial.

Women can now participate in elections in Kuwait. On the other hand, women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive and Women from Jordan struggled to end gender based violence.Works CitedFreedom House. Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa - Libya, 14 Oct. 2005. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. http://www.refworld.org/docid/47387b6dc.html Janin, Hunt, and André Kahlmeyer. Islamic Law: The Sharia from Muhammads Time to the Present. Jefferson, NC [u.a.: McFarland, 2007. Print.