Islamization of Morality Laws - But I want to choose... God told me I could!

In my beloved country, and I guess in other muslim majority countries which like to call themselves 'Islamic countries', we always read the hue and cry of non-Muslims complaining about 'creeping' Islamization. This is especially true in respect of Islamic morality legislation. After all, for the non-Muslims, what is permissable according to their morale code is not permissable according to Islam (like drinking alcohol for instance), and what is morally and legally accepted by Muslims (polygamy, to name one hyper hot topic), may be abhorrent to some non-Muslims (and some Muslims too, truth be told).

But people rarely write about the Muslims themselves being worried about the codification and legislation of 'Islamic Moral' laws (the open and closed inverted commas are intentionally used here). Well, as a Muslim I am worried about the Islamization of my country's morality code of law. I think that we ought to be very careful how far we wish to legislate morality, especially when the prohibited activities (like going to karoake lounges and pubs) are only indirectly related to criminally prohibited activities like vice and drug-use.   

I do not know where to draw the line. Happily, it is not my job... and neither am I bound to appear politicially correct nor do I need to pander to the more 'conservative' elements of my brethren. But just to share with you - these are some basic ideas that have been swimming in the heads of sinners like me -

1. Religion (or as some people like to call it nowadays, 'spirituality') is not about stopping people from commiting bad things. It is about persuading people to see that doing bad things just isn't sensible, especially in the long term.

2. Folksy old sayings (much beloved by the chattering tabloids) like 'if a boy and a girl is sitting together alone, the third invisible person with them is the Devil' just tells half the truth. I have seen Devils impersonating man in mosques, whether in the congregation or preaching from the mimbar (pulpit) spewing hate and hubris like a giant evil armadillo.

3. As a human being. With brains (a little) and some sense of right and wrong (a little too) - I would like to keep the right to choose that God Almighty Himself has given me. I resent having to do anything for any reason other than my love and awe for Him - our Lord and Creator. And I certainly resent having to obey some misguided social dogma dressed in theological terms.

There is no beauty to the Law of Islam, if you divorce it from the Path of Islam. They are complimentary to each other, but are essentially different. Bad moral legislation is often because people have separated the Law from the Human Soul, which is the sole province and writ of the Path of Faith, the Path of Love, Truth and Incomparable Mercy. This is the complete reality of Islam, and any abdridged-hubris-centric version of the faith is an abberation. 

I hope things will get better. But tonight I am going to get a really good night's sleep - Who knows if tomorrow they will try to ban sleeping too...

Have a thoughtful day, sunshine. God bless you!

Pax Taufiqa.