Verdict worth emulating…

This news has been read 16041 times!

RECENTLY, the supreme court in Austria issued a legal verdict to allow female Muslim students to wear headscarves in schools. This verdict overturns the previous law enacted by one of the Austrian right-wing governments years ago to ban headscarves in schools.

Undoubtedly, such a ruling should be immortally inscribed, given that it squashes the belief among some of us that the civilized Western countries are hostile to Muslims and their customs, traditions and appearances, and which prompted them to pray for woe and destruction of the West.

Whatever the case, the fact remains that, if they (the West) did not exist with their inventions and progress in all fields including in humanity aspects, those who pray for the destruction of the West would currently be living in the Stone Age, because they have not contributed anything, not even a needle, in the kind of life we are living in today, in terms of pride, comfort and progress.

This luminous ruling issued by that Austrian Supreme Court upholds the principles of freedom of belief. It reminded me of the legal texts that I consider as a shame on our legislative structure. Among the most flagrant of these texts is paragraph 5 of article 1 of the Administrative Court Law. It prohibits the courts from considering administrative decisions related to nationality, deportation, the role of newspapers, and places of worship.

This shameful article in our law has omitted the role of newspapers from it, so if anyone requests to establish a press house and is rejected, he cannot resort to the courts. This includes other issues for which only the government (non-rational) has the final word.

Our governments have issued decisions of the highest level to establish places of worship for non-Muslims and Muslims of various denominations and sects but had them withdrawn soon after because of an outcry made by one of their municipal and legislative councils.

I have heard stories about the establishment of houses of worship for non-Muslims. I personally tried to mediate in the establishment of a house of worship for Muslims. The decision was taken by a high-ranking and competent official but was retracted after a Municipal Council member and an MP stood against it. They are the same people who were recently seen violating the law of the state in terms of accumulation of wealth, but such cries fall on deaf ears.

We hope and dream that the MPs of December 5, 2020 will omit these shameful texts in our legislation, such as what I had cited in this article – Article 1 of Paragraph 5 of the Administrative Court Law, and the Article of the Nationality Law that forbade the naturalization of a non-Muslim.

We are instead naturalizing hundreds of thousands of people who are not entitled to receiving the Kuwaiti nationality, and those who are just backward, not to mention the dual-citizenship holders whose numbers reach hundreds of thousands as well.

Nonetheless, our rational governments, together with the backward members of our national assemblies, have been participants in this crime against Kuwait and its loyal people.

Sufficient is Allah on them … He is the best disposer of affairs.

Email: [email protected]

By Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli

Former Minister of Oil

This news has been read 16041 times!