Lesson video

Hi, my name is Miss Speakman, we're on Lesson 5 of 14 of the Crime and Punishment unit and we'll be looking today at Lawbreakers and types of crime within Islam.

So in our lesson today we'll be looking at Islamic attitudes on those who break the law and we're going to be considering specific Islamic teachings on murder, theft and hate crimes.

If you looked at Lesson 4 of 14, which was our last lesson, hopefully you will have looked at Lawbreakers and types of crime within Christianity, we're going to be talking about very similar things today but of course an Islamic view.

Let's make sure that we've got everything needed for our lesson today, so that's our pen or our pencil, a piece of paper, and a different coloured pen for corrections, that we've also got a nice, clear working space, so a nice, quiet place to work, we've got TV and music off and phone to one side if we're not using it for the lesson, that means that we won't get distracted easily, and then also making sure of course that we've got a nice clear space to work in.

If you need to get any of those things can you please pause the video now and then unpause when you're ready to move on and start learning.

Okay, let's get started.

Now we'll start off with a recap from lesson 4, so even if you have not seen my lesson 4, you've still got this idea of how does the law deal with criminals in general, and if you did watch lesson 4 then you've got a nice recap of that material anyway- it's always good to recap.

Now, in the UK law, everyone is innocent until proven guilty when they are suspected of committing a crime.

So, we would treat criminals with this idea of innocent until proven guilty in a court.

When people go to court and they have a trial, evidence will be given to essentially decide whether or not this person is guilty from the prosecution and the defence.

If there is any reasonable doubt as to thinking, "Well, this person might not have committed this crime," then they are released without charge and are innocent, free to go about their normal lives.

So if there is any doubt whatsoever that person could have committed that crime, then they would go free.

So for example, let's say someone stole something, they've gone to court, there is evidence, CCTV footage of that person, or said to be that person, committing the theft, but when you look at the face it's really not clear, and like the image is grainy, you can't really quite make out the person, and then also a friend said, "No, they were with me last night, and I can show evidence of that, like, here's a text of me saying, Oh, thank you for coming last night," and then therefore you might have then doubt in your head that that person really did commit that crime, then they'd be allowed to go free.

So reasonable doubt is where there's perhaps something that suggests that person might be innocent.

So in the UK any criminal is treated as innocent until proven guilty, and if there's any reasonable doubt that they may not have committed that crime, then they would be allowed to go free without punishment.

So I'm just going to test you on that just to make sure we are really, really clear on how the UK law deals with criminals, then we'll start looking at specific Islamic views on those people who commit crimes.

So, I'm going to disappear for this.

What I'd like you to do please is to complete the following questions, spend about four minutes on this.

How does the law treat suspected offenders, and what is reasonable doubt? Can you please pause the video now, write your answer down, and then unpause when you are ready to move on.

Okay, if you can see the slide I'm assuming then you are ready for corrections.

Please make sure you've got your different coloured pen out ready for your corrections, if you're not quite ready then rewind the video and then unpause, have another go at the questions, then come back when you are ready for the answers, because we'll go through corrections now.

So, how does the law deal with criminals, how does the law treat suspected offenders? All suspected offenders are presumed to be innocent until proven guilty.

And what is reasonable doubt? This is where the courts exist to decide if there is any doubt whether someone is guilty.

If there is reasonable doubt, then they are found innocent.

If you need to make any corrections, can you please do so now by pausing the video and then unpause when you're ready to move on.

Okay, so I'm just going to pop up on the screen again.

Oh, that's taking a while, there we go, okay! So we're going to look at Islamic attitudes to those who break the law first of all, so just a general view within Islam about those people who break the law.

Now, we have to make a really clear distinction here that there are some countries in our world that follow Shari'ah law, Islamic law.

If you've watched my video, Lesson 3 covered Shari'ah law within Islam, so some countries- Saudi Arabia, Iran, for example- are based on Islamic law, Shari'ah law.

Muslims would say that Shari'ah law comes directly from Allah, it's divinely revealed, and therefore, because Allah cannot make mistakes, because Allah is perfect, he's just, Shari'ah law can never be unjust and must always be obeyed.

So in those countries that have Shari'ah law, Muslims say it must be obeyed, and even within countries that don't have Shari'ah law as their legal system, Muslims would still say, it's still from Allah, Shari'ah law must be obeyed, they still would not commit certain crimes.

So for example, drinking alcohol is forbidden, haram, under Shari'ah law, a Muslim living in the UK, of course, wouldn't get in trouble for breaking the- wouldn't get in trouble for drinking alcohol because it's not against the law in the UK, but of course they still believe it's against Shari'ah, and therefore the laws of God, and therefore not want to break that rule.

But a Muslim living in a different country would generally be against people breaking laws in non-Shari'ah countries, so they would still be mindful of people breaking the law in non-Shari'ah countries, it's not only Shari'ah law that they would follow.

Many Muslims would say, "Look, it's really important that you follow the laws of the country you're living in, because the law's there to protect people, to order society, et cetera." There may be some laws that Muslims might morally disagree with, or would say that they're unjust, but those that they morally disagree with, it still wouldn't make it okay for them to break the law of that country, but of course for laws that perhaps maybe might be seen as unjust, then some Muslims may say it would be acceptable to break the law in that case, if a situation was unjust.

So just to recap that then, Shari'ah law has to be obeyed because it's from Allah, there are many Muslim countries that base their laws on Shari'ah law, a Muslim must still follow Shari'ah law, in terms of following what is forbidden, allowed, et cetera, even in a non-Muslim country, because they believe it's from Allah, therefore should be obeyed, but in the UK you cannot carry out the punishments of Shari'ah law, which we'll talk about in a bit more detail later.

But they will of course be generally against people breaking laws in non-Shari'ah countries, believing that the law is there to protect and look after people, and to have order in society, but many Muslims might morally disagree with some laws in other countries, it doesn't mean they would be allowed to go against them, but may break laws if something is seen as unjust.

So, what we're going to move onto in a moment are some multiple choice, quick fire questions.

Now, what I think is really really good about these multiple choice, quick fire questions, I do them quite a lot in my videos, it's just a really good way to recap things without getting you to necessarily commit to an answer written down on paper, I know at first people struggle to do that when you're learning new material.

Essentially what I will do is I will give you a question, there will be two options, I will count down from three, I will then get you to point at your screen or say out loud which one you think is the correct answer, I will tell you the correct answer, I'll clarify anything if it needs to be clarified, and then you can say, "Yes, I got them all correct!", or you say, "Oh, I got a couple of them incorrect," and if you do, then you can say, "Okay, I'll go back to that, that'll be something I need to review later on." So, are you ready? Let's get started.

Many Muslims believe that Shari'ah law does not have to be obeyed.

True or false? Three, two, one.

Good, it's false.

Many Muslims would say actually it's important that they do obey Shari'ah law as it can never be unjust as it's from Allah.

Muslims are generally against people breaking the laws.

True or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

They would say generally you should not be breaking the law unless there is a just cause for you breaking that law.

There may be some laws Muslims morally disagree with, is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true.

They may morally disagree with them, but that does not mean that they would therefore be allowed to essentially commit that crime or to go against that law.

They may morally disagree with them, but that does not give them the right to commit a crime.

So, what we're now going to move onto is another question, just to sort of ramp up the challenge a little bit, just to test our understanding.

So, just going to pop up on the screen again.

Oh, there we go.

So, what I want us to do now is to spend about two minutes on this question.

I really want us to get into our heads really clearly why Shari'ah law is so important for a Muslim, so it's a little bit of a recap from Lesson 3 but also to do directly with what we're talking about today.

So, why might a Muslim say Shari'ah law must be obeyed? I want us to really think about that reason, why does a Muslim say Shari'ah law has to be obeyed? So what I'd like you to do is to pause the video, write down your thoughts, unpause when you're ready to discuss the answer.

Okay, so hopefully we've got something along the lines of the fact that Shari'ah law is divinely inspired, divinely revealed, this idea that it comes directly from Allah, Allah cannot make mistakes, he is always just, and therefore Shari'ah law can never be unjust and therefore, as it's from Allah, it must be obeyed.

So Muslims say this is law revealed in the Quran, in the hadiths, in the sunnah, from God, and therefore must be obeyed.

What we're going to do now is I'm just going to get you to fill out a paragraph which now really clearly lays out for us what Muslims believe about people who break the law.

So I'm going to get you in a moment to pause the video, I'm going to give you instructions on what I'd like you to do, and then by the end of this bit you'll have a really nice paragraph outlining: This is what Muslims believe about people who break the law.

Then we'll look at specifics of what types of crimes Muslims would therefore be against, and perhaps maybe their views on hate crime, theft and murder.

Okay, let's go.

So, as I said, I want you to pause the video on the next slide to complete your task, I'm going to give you instructions, I'd like you to complete that task, then we'll go through answers.

So, I've got a paragraph here for you, there are some bits missing, the missing words are at the bottom in pink, what I'd like you to do is to copy out the paragraph and complete it, so fill in the gaps with the missing words.

So I want you to pause the video now for me, please, complete that paragraph, and then unpause when you're ready to move on and look at corrections.

Okay, if you can see this slide I'm assuming then you are ready for corrections, please have another coloured pen out ready for your corrections, we'll go through the answers together.

If you're not quite finished, then rewind and then go back to it, and then come back to us when you're ready for corrections.

So your paragraph should say, Islam teaches that crime is wrong and laws shouldn't be broken.

Muslims living in countries which use Shari'ah law believe that this law is ultimately from Allah so must be obeyed.

However, how wrong it is to break a law may depend on the reason why the criminal committed their crime.

And sometimes Muslims will accept that breaking an unjust law is acceptable.

If you need to make any corrections please do so now, by pausing the video and then unpausing when you're ready to move on.

So we're going to consider Islamic attitudes to those who break the law in specifics, like how would they respond to people who break the law and what do they think of people who break the law.

So some Muslims would believe that the punishment should be as severe as the crime committed, and this is reflected often in Shari'ah law punishments.

Now for forgivable and unforgivable crimes within Islam, within Shari'ah law, the Quran sets out specific punishments, and these are seen to be as severe as the crime committed, so for example, stoning could be a method of punishment, lashes, whipping, amputation of the hand for theft, things like this are all sort of seen as ways of both deterring someone from committing that crime but also are seen as retribution, as payback for what that person has done.

And many Muslims would say that this is essentially the best way of punishing a criminal, which is essentially as severe as the crime committed.

In the UK however, because Shari'ah law councils can only deal with civil disputes, these punishments will not be carried out in the UK.

So Shari'ah law cannot deal with criminal matters, only civil matters.

And so these sorts of punishments, which are as severe as the crime committed, will be used in Islamic countries.

However, as we'll look in a bit more detail later on, they do need a high level of proof to actually be carried out, for someone to be convicted of those crimes that require that sort of punishment.

Some Muslims would say it's important to help the criminal not to offend again.

Now a huge part of Islam is this idea of submission, submitting to Allah properly, and Muslims would acknowledge that those people who break the law are not submitting to Allah properly, and need to be helped to learn how to submit to Allah properly.

So some Muslims would say reform is important and helping that person to learn how to submit to Allah's will and to follow his teachings correctly.

So what we're going to do is do some multiple choice, quick fire questions again, and then after that we're going to look specifically at hate crime, theft and murder, the ideas of whether that's okay or not within Islam.

So, multiple choice, quick-fire questions, let's go.

Punishments under Shari'ah law can be used in the UK.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

False.

So those punishments such as amputating the hand of someone who's stolen, stoning, et cetera, cannot be carried out in the UK.

Many Muslims believe a criminal should be helped not to offend again.

Is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true, many Muslims do believe a criminal should be helped to reform so that they can learn to submit to Allah properly.

Many Muslims believe an action that breaks Shari'ah law is an action against Allah, is that true or false? Three, two, one.

Good, that is true, of course Shari'ah law is something set in stone by Allah, Muslims believe, and therefore anything that goes against Shari'ah law is a crime against Allah.

Well done if you got all of those correct, we're now going to move on to Islamic beliefs about hate crimes, theft and murder.

We'll consider now Islamic views on hate crime, theft and murder, starting off with hate crime.

Hate crime is a crime, it's usually violent and it's often based on prejudice, so race, religion, gender, sexuality, essentially a crime against someone because of this prejudice.

So, Islam specifically speaks out against hate crime and Muslims would also look to the example of the Prophet Muhammad, who treated people equally.

Now it says in the Quran, "Indeed, Allah orders justice and good conduct and giving to relatives and forbids immorality and bad conduct and oppression." And if we look at this interpretation of this idea of justice, good conduct, against bad conduct and against oppression, we can clearly say within Islam that it's not just to treat people differently based on who they are, it is good conduct to treat people equally, bad conduct of course would be being hateful towards someone or being violent towards someone just because of who they are, and it is oppressive to treat someone differently based on their race, religion, gender, sexuality, et cetera.

If you're harming someone because of that, that is oppressive, that is stopping them from being who they really are, and also just isn't fair, that isn't just.

So Islamic views on hate crimes: hate crimes should not be carried out, they are wrong, they are going against what Allah teaches in the Quran and goes against the example of the Prophet Muhammad, who treated people equally.

Islamic views on theft then, well theft is the action or crime of stealing, taking something which doesn't belong to you, specifically in the Quran theft is seen as an unforgivable crime, this means that the only person that can forgive this crime is Allah.

There is a specific punishment given out in the Quran according to Shari'ah law, which is to have a hand amputated, so it says in the Quran, "As for the thief, the male and the female, amputate their hands in recompense for what they committed as a deterrent a punishment - from Allah.

Essentially saying, as a punishment for what they have done, they should have a hand amputated, and that would also be a deterrent from them doing it again, but also for other people.

Now it's worth saying that within Shari'ah law many of these unforgivable crimes and forgivable crimes that carry penalties such as amputating a hand, stoning, whipping, lashes, et cetera, require a very high level of proof, and they also require a lot of different things to be taken into account when someone is convicted.

So many people aren't actually convicted for this because of this, so for example, you have to take into account for theft how old that person is, if they're a young person they will not have this done to them as a punishment, to think about whether or not they understand the law, is there any mental illness that gets in the way from them understanding that what they've done is wrong, the value of the item stolen, whether it's been stolen from somebody else, or whether it's just been taken, whether it's been done stealthily, there's all sorts of things that have to be taken into account, alongside this idea of has it been kept safely in the first place, was it just left out, and even then you would need two credible male witnesses, according to Shari'ah law, in order to have someone convicted of theft and therefore have their hand amputated.

So just to go through that again very quickly, theft is very clearly an unforgivable crime in Islam, which carries the punishment of having a hand amputated, however it needs a high level of proof to be convicted, which includes two male witnesses, and also includes taking into account the person's intention, whether it's been done stealthily, whether someone's got a mental illness, whether the item was kept safely, the value of the item, et cetera, so what this shows us clearly is theft is wrong, but this punishment had to have a high level of evidence for conviction.

And then lastly Islamic views on murder.

Murder is the unlawful or deliberate killing of another human being and in Islam this is a forgivable crime, this means that if a victim, or the victim's family shows mercy, or that person has been punished according to Shari'ah law, they are not then punished for it in the afterlife as well.

In the Quran it says, "whoever kills a soul, it is as if he had slain mankind entirely." This is referring to this idea that if you had murdered someone, if you'd killed someone, you were then taking away any possibility of that person having children and therefore ancestors, and therefore you have essentially wiped out a part of mankind, you have stopped that process of reproduction taking place, you have stopped that person from having a life, raising children, raising more people in the faith.

Many people might also interpret this idea as saying, well if you kill a soul it's just as bad as if you'd killed multiple people, that every person is special to Allah.

So murder is a forgivable crime within Shari'ah law, it is punishable up to the death penalty, so with forgivable crimes there are set punishments in the Quran, and you can punish someone up to 'X' amount, so if someone murders somebody, then they can be punished up to the death penalty, but the family of the victim can show mercy, so for example the family could say, instead of the death penalty we'd like you to have life in prison, or instead of the death penalty we're actually going to forgive you completely, and you're allowed to go free.

Once that punishment has been served on earth that person does no longer get a punishment in the afterlife.

So in Islam murder is wrong, because it stops people again from having ancestors, from having children, from raising children in the faith, that every life is valuable to Allah, so it's wrong, everyone's life is valuable, and as it's a forgivable crime, you can receive up to the death penalty, as a punishment for murder, but the family of the victim can show mercy if they would like to.

What we're going to do then is now do some questions to sort of bring all of this together, to make sure we fully understand Islamic views on hate crime, theft and murder.

So I'm going to disappear, give you some instructions, we'll get started on those questions, and then hopefully we get them all correct! So, as I said, we're going to pause the video on the next slide, please, to complete your task, I'm going to give you some questions, you're going to answer them, we'll go through the answers, hopefully you've got them right.

So you've got five questions here please, I'd like you to pause the video and answer the questions, write out in full sentences your answers, and then unpause when you're ready to go through corrections.

So pause now, have a go at these questions.

Okay, if you can see this slide then you must be ready for corrections, if you're not then rewind the video, continue with your questions, unpause when you're ready for us to go through the answers together.

So, your answers.

What do Muslims believe about hate crimes and why? They are wrong.

Muslims believe Allah created all humans with equal value.

Hate crimes are unjust.

What is the punishment for theft under Shari'ah law? Well it's amputation of the hand.

What is the purpose of this punishment? It's to deter people from committing theft.

What category of crime does murder come under in Shari'ah law? Well it's forgivable crimes.

And what can the victim's family do in countries with Shari'ah law if a family member is murdered? So they can choose to show mercy or receiving compensation, so the murderer can have their life taken in return.

If you need to make any corrections can you please pause the video now and make those corrections, then unpause when you have written in your corrections.

Well done if you got those correct.

So, just waiting for my video to appear.

Where is it? Where am I? There we go.

Okay, so I want to say a huge thank you for working so hard on that lesson today, we have covered quite a lot, haven't we? Views in general on people who break the law, views within Islam, specifically looking at hate crime, theft and murder, we've considered quite a lot of things in the complexity of Shari'ah law and what it covers and what sorts of punishments, so really really well done for working so so hard today, I'm really looking forward to seeing you again soon, hopefully, I hope you've enjoyed the lesson, and I hope to see you again soon.

See you later.