Paper democracy and the justice system of the United Arab Emirates "seven places avove the USA"

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Nov 3, 2011 at 18:33

BB King wrote :

> Lebanon like Israel has a parallel court system i.e., civil courts and religious courts. There are a total of four main court systems in Lebanon: Judicial, Administrative, Military and Religious.<

Let me ask you again as I am not sure if you understand one basic fact. Do you believe that the government of Lebanon controls its own territory or not ? Do you believe that it is able to impose its laws on the country? You cling to the formal similarities with Israel as if forms could tell anything on contents . So imagine that Israel's legal system is much more than a decorous form as is the case in Lebanon that is not a state but a collection of territories out of control by the central government.They may recognize its laws or may equally effectively ignore them. If one day Israel disintegrates into a collection of confessional fiefs and spheres of influences of competing close and remote neighbors, then I will be the first to liken its institutions and principles to those of present-day Lebanon.

> So if a Lebanese citizen doesn't like the religious court system there are other options. I don't know why you believe that inter-faith couples upon returning to Lebanon they will be persecuted, seeing as that there are many apostates in Lebanon including atheists and agnostics who practically make up the bulk of the communist party hence, atheism is tolerated."

What part of the country are you talking about? West Beirut or South Lebanon which are Moslem-dominated and where it's dangerous for a non-Moslem, let alone an atheist , to pop up unarmed ? I don't doubt that there are parts of Lebanon where Moslems are in overwhelming minority and where some rudimentary tolerance can be found, but I thought we were talking about Lebanon a whole, weren't we?

> Even the Muslim apostate Ibn Warraq finds that Lebanon objected to the Islamic law of apostasy and accepted people fleeing persecution for changing their religions within its territory (http://www.iheu.org/node/1541).

Read around the 11^th paragraph for info on Lebanon. The Lebanese Constitution guarantees the freedom of religion and Lebanon does not recognize Sharia or Islam as the state law or state religion...

But since you love statistics here is one that will surprise you. Lebanon ranked first in the Middle East in guaranteeing civil rights to its citizens. (http://www.thenational.ae/thenational/news/uae-news/courts/uae-justice-system-ranked-above-us-in-annual-index). The report on Lebanon starts on paragraph 9 the preceding paragraphs are about UAE."

This constitution is a fiction as there is no force behind it that can enforce its provisions on the country.

And quoting a UAE newspaper as a source on "civil rights" is ridiculous. Especially when you consider when they admitted anything wrong about themselves at all and that they really brag that " the UAE's justice system has been ranked first in the Middle East and North Africa and 13th in the world ...seven places above the US, which ranked 20th" ! ;)

And to show you Lebanon's dismal realities and not Moslem self-serving fairy tales let me quote something too :

"... as of last week, the mighty Hezbollah, armed to the teeth with 30,000 rockets and missiles and aligning thousands of self described "Divine soldiers" has been marching across the capital, terrorizing its population, shutting down media, taking its politicians and the Prime Minister as hostages, and looting at will. The hordes of Lebanon's "Khomeinist Janjaweeds" have conquered already half of the Middle East's cultural capital, Beirut. As I have reported before, Hezbollah has occupied West Beirut and has since sent its storm troops in multiple directions to resume the blitz."

If one day Hezbolla or Hamas or Fatah or any other Palestinian militias armed to the teeth with US or any other weapons will be marching across Jerusalem or Tel Aviv terrorizing their inhabitants, storming TV stations, demolishing news agencies, looting and taking politicians and prime ministers of ex-Israel as hostages and at the same time some commentators will be writing about "democracy" in Israel and refer as a confirmation to the new Israeli constitution and quote a newspaper from the United Arab Emirates, again ranked first among the 66 countries studied by the UN civil rights committee, then I will agree that such Israel has indeed the same form of 'democracy' as Lebanon. Yet before it happens I will insist that Israel is a democracy and Lebanon just as the UAE isn't and can't in principle be.

> In regards to your query regarding the number of inter-faith marriage statistics you are asking me to do the impossible. Lebanon has not had an official census since 1934 so the statistics only exist in govt. records, which I have no access to. What I can provide you is this. In 2009 523 inter-faith Lebanese couples were married in Cyprus as were 1,533 inter-faith Israeli couples (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-10-18-cyprus-weddings_N.htm)<

Small wonder there has been no population census since 1934 on a territory that is no state strictly speaking.

Your source hasn't learnt yet that the Paraguayan Consulate General is an easy next door option for non-religious Israelis. And the only example of a Moslem woman marrying a kafir given there is a Bahai which is hardly representative of Islam as what percentage of Lebanon's population do they make and what major Islamic sect recognizes them as Moslems in the first place ? And one more thing, you have no comment on the fatwa issued by the Moslem clergy I quoted ?

> You also implied that I love sharia law. That's not true! I am an atheist and a secularist. If I loved sharia I would've moved to a sharia-law abiding nation.<

What I implied is that you don't seem to realize what sharia means in practice. Otehrwise , you don't have to move to a Moslem-majority nation to live under sharia. There are places in the US where sharia is already in force , e.g. Dearborn in Michigan.

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".