Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 240
240 islam’s response to contemporary issues perform his acts of worship without the need of a specific law being passed by the state to permit him to do so. This question can also be examined from another interesting angle. If Islam agrees with the question of a Muslim government in countries where Muslims are in the majority, then by the same token of absolute justice, Islam must concede the right to other governments to govern the countries according to the dictates of the religion of the majority. Therefore, in the next-door neighbour, India, Pakistan will have to concede Hindu law for all Indian citizens. That being so, it will indeed be a very tragic day for more than one hundred million Indian Muslims who would lose all their rights to honourable survival in India. Again, if India is to be ruled by Manusmarti , why should the state of Israel be denied the right to rule the Jews as well as the Gentiles by the law of Talmud? If this happens, life would become extremely miserable not only for the people of Israel but also a large number of Jews themselves. But this concept of different religious states in different countries can only have a valid place in Islam if it propounds that in countries with a Muslim majority, Islamic shariah must prevail by force of law. This will again create a universally paradoxic situation because on the one hand, in the name of absolute justice, all states will be provided with the right to impose upon its people the law of the majority religion. On the other hand, each act of the religious minority in the countries of the world would be brought under the severe rule of a religion in which they do not believe. This will be an affront to the very concept of absolute justice. This dilemma has neither been addressed nor attempted to be resolved by the proponents of Islamic law in the so-called Muslim states. According to my understanding of Islamic teachings, all states