The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 23

COMMENTARY DES MOINES SUNDAY REGISTER MAY 20, 1979 3C Law of Islam blends tra mercy and stern justice adaptability, dition, By RAY VICKER 1 ImmM W0M- I fm mil Vm Reprinted by permission from The fii IYADH, SAUDI ARABIA The defendant and the plaintiff sit side by side on a kbench in a plain, plaster- walled courtroom here. The only decoration is an Arabic inscription on the wall behind the white-robed qodi, or judge. It says, "Justice should be applied equally among all people." The qodi, sitting at a table about 10 feet before the defendant and the plaintiff, is a bearded man of gentle manner who looks more like a holy man than a judge. That isn't surprising. Most of his early life was spent in religious schools, and all qadis here need degrees from religious universities.

Now, he is deciding a young Yemeni man's fate under Sharia law. Sharia, (pronounced shah-REE-ah) means "path to follow." It is a code introduced by the Prophet Mohammed 1,400 years ago. It sets the religious duties for nearly 800 million Moslems, telling them when and how to pray, to fast, to make a pilgrimage to Mecca and to pay religious taxes. Sharia also provides a legal system that some Islamic nations Saudi Arabia, for example follow strictly. It condemns thievery, protects private property, lays down Tempering justice with mercy is an important part of Sharia.

Whipping may sound brutal to Westerners, but one Saudi notes that 'the aim is not to draw blood but to humiliate the criminal' in public. inheritance procedures and generally defines the rights and obligations of individuals. Islam's revival is moving more and more Moslem nations away from Western-type legal systems and closer to Sharia. Disillusionment with Western systems is strong in Iran, Pakistan, Libya and Abu Dhabi Sudan, Kuwait and Nigeria are considering changing their stututes to conform to Sharia Sharia's spread means more Westerners may come into contact with a legal system that most don't understand. Westerners generally know only that Sharia can prescribe gory punishments for certain crimes.

Indeed, lashing is a standard sentence, and the 1975 beheading of the Saudi prince who killed King Faisal got world wide attention. But such punishments as beheading for murderers, stoning for adulterers and cutting off a thief's hand aren't invoked lightly in Saudi Arabia. In fact, Moslems deeply resent the Western image of Sharia as little more than legal cruelty. Recently, one Saudi Arabian newspaper complained that the Western press was unjustly linking Iran's firing-squad executions to Sharia. Even some of Iran's most dedicated revolutionaries are uneasy about the trials.

Shahriar Rouhani, son-in-law Wall Street Journal. of Iranian Foreign Minister Ibrahim Yazdi and recently interim spokesman for the Iranian government here, told NBC television interviewers: "It is undoubtedly the case that the form of the trials isn't exactly in accordance with Islamic law. But it must be understood that this is a revolutionary process." In Saudi Arabia, Sharia is fundamental to Saudis of every social station. The country's petroleum minister, Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, is a Sharia scholar who has lectured on the subject to international audiences. He says: "Sharia has often been depicted as an antiquated religious system that has long outlived its usefulness.

Any unbiased study will show that in all matters that do not affect the basic faith of devotional rituals, it is a flexible legal system." Indeed, Islam always has found ingenious solutions to adapt teachings to change. When the telephone was first introduced to Saudi Arabia, some contended it was an instrument of the devil. But others pointed out that, according to Moslem doctrine, the devil is incapable of reciting the Koran. When several verses of the Koran were recited and heard over the phone, skeptics were convinced that the instrument wasn't evil. Sharia is flexible because it draws its precepts from several sources.

Chief among them are the Koran, which Moslems regard as God's word given to Mohammed, and the Sunna, or pattern of life of the Prophet. Many books describe how Mohammed lived, what he considered to be right and wrong, and how be judged various cases presented to him. Another Sharia source is ijma, the consensus of the majority. Mohammed said, "My follower will never agree on what is wrong." So when holy men agree on a certain matter it can become part of the law. Analogy also applies.

Mohammed didn't envision highway speed limits, but the Koran preaches moderation in all things, so it is easy to see by analogy that traffic laws conform to the Koran. Then there is the law of necessity. It teaches that if something is necessary for the survival of the community, it is worthwhile. And when all else fails, hiyal can enter. Hiyal is the name for legal devices used to circumvent Sharia.

For example, Sharia prohibits the collecting of interest on loans. Banks in Moslem lands get around the problem by assessing a "service charge." The Yemeni youth's case being decided here in Riyadh, though, is fairly simple. He Is accused of stealing a shirt from a bazaar shop. Under Sharia, theft can cost a criminal his right hand. But that punishment is only for hardened criminals, and then only when poverty can't be used as an excuse.

Today, few hands are amputated, says Ibrahim bin Mohammed al-Askeikh, Saudi Arabia's minister of justice. The youth on trial has never been in court before. He has a job, though, so can't plead poverty, and he appears frightened and dejected. Under Sharia, he is innocent till proven guilty. The shopkeeper makes his complaint, and a policeman explains the details of the arrest.

The crime conform to Sharia law, and in cases of conflict, Sharia takes precedence. For Western businessmen, this can sometimes present a problem. In the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen) capital of Sanaa, for example, foreign banks, including Citibank, have been competing hard for business. Only after they had pushed out substantial loan volume did they begin to realize that the country's Sharia law system, with its non-recognition of interest, didn't provide any protection for the banks against slow payers. Banks assess "service charges" instead of interest.

But if the loan is in default, the banks can only ask the Sharia court for repayment of principal, not interest. Labor law is handled by the ministry of labor, with special labor courts deciding industrial disputes. A court known as the Grievance Board decides cases In which the government is a direct party to the dispute. Also, separate traffic courts exist, although many traffic cases spill over into the Sharia courts. Saudis credit Sharia and its sometimes-harsh penalties for their nation's low crime rate.

In Saudi Arabia, one can walk the streets at night without worry. Mugging is almost unknown. Parked cars seldom are bothered, even when unlocked with valuables inside. "The deterring punishments of the Sharia of Allah are the sole, decisive remedies for eliminating crimes and for ensuring security for the society," says the justice minister. The idea of placing the society before the individual has deep historical roots.

In Mohammed's time, survival in this harsh land was difficult enough without crime. Any threat to the community was viewed as something to be quickly eliminated. Still, tempering justice with mercy is an important part of Sharia. Whipping might sound brutal to Westerners, but one Saudi notes that "the aim is not to draw blood but to humiliate the criminal" in public. At least four witnesses are required for an adultery conviction, so the crime must be very public indeed.

Even then, the qadi has wide leeway to show mercy. To be convicted of murder, a person must be found guilty of committing a premeditated act. A panel of at least three qadis hears the case. Convicted murderers must pay blood money, currently a fee of about 113,500, to the victim's relatives, and they might also serve prison sentences. The death penalty is imposed only when relatives of the victim demand it.

The original idea, Saudis explain, was to prevent long-running blood feuds between families because a killer went unpunished. Appeals courts automatically consider all Sharia cases involving serious punishments. Further appeals can go to the Supreme Council of Justice, which is the highest judicial authority in the kingdom. Confessions are accepted to achieve convictions in Sharia courts, but there is an unusual twist. A convict who has confessed to his crime has the right to retract his confession even after the sentence is passed and before the punishment is meted out.

In such instances, the case is reconsidered. Dow Jonti Co. he wanted to buy the shirt, and meant to return later to pay for it. But he ran at the sight of a policeman. So, after a two-hour trial, the verdict is guilty.

He is sentenced to be deported to North Yemen, after paying for the shirt. The sentence, however, is advisory, because deportation is the Immigration Department's responsibility. The youth is told he has 15 days to appeal. Most Westerners who run into Sharia law in Saudi Arabia are accused of violating the nation's ban against alcoholic beverages. If convicted, they usually are deported.

Sharia courts don't handle all litigation in Saudi Arabia; administrative tribunals are established in several fields. The Committee for the Settlement of Commercial Disputes is a court that handles many business matters. Of course, business law must evidence in this case. Scientific evidence, such as ballistics data and fingerprints, is allowed in Sharia trials if it is needed, but it requires backing by witnesses to carry weight. Indeed, two witnesses usually are necessary to prove any point in Sharia courts (a woman counts as half a man on the witness stands A witness with any interest or grudge in a case is automatically dismissed.

Oath-taking is a serious business. If a plaintiff or defendant refuses to take an oath on the Koran to back a key point, he can damage his case. Sometimes a defendant can free himself simply by swearing his innocence. Compensation for the victim of the crime is a part of many sentences. Bail is accepted in most cases, but the guarantor can go to jail if the accused jumps bail.

The youth in this case insists that Washington lawyers: 24V2 pages of 'em The desperate hope that more lawsuits will make us all good By MELVIN MADDOCKS 1979 Christian Science Monitor News Service occurred, according to the evidence, when the owner had left his shop untended for afternoon prayers at a neighborhood mosque. The qudi is judge and jury, and his job is to establish the facts. Under Sharia law, the defense and the prosecution aren't adversaries. The accused can have a lawyer if he wants, but the qodi takes the lead in clarifying the defendant's case. It is he who asks questions and cross-examines witnesses.

"In our law, we seek the truth, not some lawyers' embellishment of the truth," explains one legal expert here. He takes a dim view of Western legal systems, which he says produce emotional judgments by juries swayed by silver-tongued lawyers. "That could never happen here," he says. The stolen shirt is part of the system so perfect nobody will have to be good. The Greeks had the opposite idea.

In "Laws" and elsewhere, Plato defined the law as an educational act and what the citizen would learn primarily were his obligations, not his rights. If A has rights, has obligations this was the lesson of the law to the Greek philosophers. Today we are more likely to think of the law, in terms of our lawsuits, as a sort of all-coverage insurance policy, designed to pay off if life 1 By RICHARD L. WORSNOP Editorial Research Reports THERE are a lot of lawyers in Manhattan: enough to fill 20 Yellow Pages in the telephone directory. There are even more in Washington, a city with only half the population of Manhattan.

Lawyers occupy 2iVt of the District of Columbia's Yellow Pages. Washington's lawyering tradition extends to the very pinnacle of the capital's complex power structure. Of the nation's 39 presidents, 23 were lawyers, the incumbent being a notable exception. Attorneys have long formed the dominant profession group in Congress, as might be expected of a body whose function is to write legislation. And, of course, legions of lawyers work in the executive departments and regulatory agencies as well as in the court systems.

But the attorneys who work for Washington's many private law firms may be, collectively, the most influential group of all. These firms act as middlemen between business and other special-interest groups and the labyrinthine federal bureaucracy. The best of them offer not only expertise on the ever-expanding thicket of federal regulation but also personal access to top-level decisionmakers. Large law firms in other cities, especially New York, used to handle their Washington legal business by sending one or more of their attorneys to the capital on short trips. REGISTER DRAWING BV RON LINN causes us grievance; or, in terms of our legislation, as "social engineering" to prevent our suffering in the first place.

And so, the more law the better until, perhaps, a law exists for the unique profit, protection and edification of everybody. Could anything be more democratic? We will understand won't we? -if for every law in that Utopia there is a paired and matching Catch-22. For that, finally, must be the fate of the perfectly codified world. Today, though, the problems of dealing with the federal government have grown to such an extent that many major out-of-town firms have established Washington branches. Capitalizing on connections is the entire point of the Washington lawyer game, and those who do it well are richly rewarded.

For instance, Joseph A. Califano Jr. took in $505,490 from the law firm of Connolly St Califano in 1976, the last full year before he became secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. The generally high salaries received by Washington's lawyers doubtless have contributed to the dizzying rise in the cost of housing. The two-lawyer family is not uncommon locally.

A prominent example is Abe and Carolyn Agger Fortas. Abe Fortas, the former Supreme Court justice, now has his own firm, while Agger she uses her maiden name professionally still works for his former firm, Arnold St Porter. Persons of a cynical bent might even suspect that Washington's subway system was laid out with lawyers in mind. Both the Blue and Red lines have stations at Farragut Square, heart of the city's law-firm district. During working hours, lawyers may be observed traveling on the subway between Farragut Square and Capitol Hill, the court complex at Judiciary Square, or various government agencies.

They're everywhere. a judgment. II Shortly." So cries one of Dickens's marvelous JyLoptimists in "Bleak House." And so, it seems, does half the population of the United States What a litigious people we have become! The courts of California are about to be clogged with more than a thousand "roommate" suits as a consequence of the Marvin vs. Marvin case. It is not enough, evidently, that the judicial system be asked to preside over the disintegration of American marriages.

Now it must settle love affairs, too. In Boulder, Tom Hansen, 25, brought a "malpractice" suit against his parents, asking $350,000 in damages for "emotional distress" caused by lack of "psychological support." Almost a year after the suit was filed, a judge dismissed it on the ground that "a perfect home does not exist" and, presumably, every child would be entitled to a day in court if imperfect parenting became a crime. But who doubts that a precedent has been set? In Sweden, a law has been passed giving a spanked child legal recourse to have his parents arrested for causing "mental distress" by their "insulting behavior." (We are net talking of "child abuse" there were already ample laws covering that.) In the legislative wings, a law pends that would go even further, requiring Swedish parents to treat their children "with love," or else. We appear to be imposing unprecedented public as well as private expectations upon the law. We turn to the courts to adjudicate the smallest nuances, the most delicate subtleties of our personal relationships.

We also count upon the law, at the other end of the scale, to solve our cosmic problems. Behind the proliferating lawsuits, behind the proliferating laws, there lies a desperate faith: that we can with maybe just one more law, or even one more lawsuit shape a.