Religion becoming greater than law 1

Religion Becoming Greater Than

Law

Proposed by:
Rifah Nanziba Binte Alam Aniza
ID: 1210046010
Prepared for:
Dr. Deena P Forkan
Faculty, North South University
ENG105, Section 20
10th August, 2015

Religion becoming greater than law 2

Acknowledgement
I would like to express my greatest gratitude to the people who have
helped and supported me throughout my research. I am thankful to Almighty
Allah for enabling me to finish this research paper properly and in good
health. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Deena P Forkan,
my

research

supervisor,

for

her

patient

guidance,

enthusiastic

encouragement and useful critiques of this research work. I also show my

gratitude to all the respondents and my friends who contributed in one way
or the other to complete my research. I am also thankful to the creators of
the online survey software- Google Forms, for enabling me to conduct my
survey online. Finally, I wish to thank my parents and grandmother for their
tremendous

contributions

and

continuous

support

financially towards the completion of this research.

both

morally

and

Religion becoming greater than law 3

Abstract
Religion becoming law is a major concern throughout the world.
Today most of the crimes committed are due to the conflict between religious
beliefs. Religion is supposed to bring peace, but in the recent years people
have turned it into a weapon. This research proposal will show a clear
distinction as to how much we are affected by the conflict between religion
and law and thus provide an insight as to how to correct this global issue.
Through my research, I intended to find that in this day and age,
whether Religion is becoming greater than law and thus we are
falling short on serving justice to all. My working hypothesis is that the
religious fanatics in our society are taking up law in their own hands thus
injustice and more crimes are being committed. Crimes are committed due
to a few reasons like need base crime, mental instability causing crime,
belief, etc. Religious conflict seems to be taking a greater crime rate these
days and causing wars between countries for many years now. Additionally, I
had to find out that at present, how is religion affecting the different aspects
of basic human rights apart from criminal activities. I also learnt that most
people are ignorant of this subject and thus they know little about it. In many
cases people tend to avoid the topic due to how highly controversial it can
be. In the end though my hypothesis has been proven to be true based of
the survey and researched findings. Thus, it can be said that religious
controversies are a huge part of crimes being committed.

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Table of Contents
Sections
Page no.

Introduction

5
Background

6
Research

8
Hypothesis

10
Methodology

11
Data

12
Summary
22
Reference list
Appendix

Questions

Analysis
of

Research

Findings

and

Conclusion

Religion becoming greater than law 5

Introduction
We believe in absolute truth, including the existence of God. Those who oppose
this idea also are to be treated equally and yet we fall short on serving equal rights
to all. Reports stealing and murders in todays society suggest a moral vacuity in
which many people have little sense of right and wrong. Prevalent rioting, looting,
rapes, murders, etc have caused many to wonder whether we are losing our basic
morals and ethics.
We live in a world where people of influence are teaching and acting out a belief
that they strongly want others to believe in as well. This leading to the fact that we
follow only those who we can relate to or find influential and not based on our own
instincts as to what is right and wrong. Many educational institutions forget to teach
our generations about morals and ethics and what it costs to follow a particular
group of diverse religion thus leading to negligence. Thus, we need to practice and
preach tolerance because only this will help us survive in a diverse world like ours.

Religion becoming greater than law 6

According to Oaks (2011), Tolerance is defined as a friendly and fair attitude
toward unfamiliar or different opinionsBut diversity in cultures and values also
challenges us to identify what can be embraced as consistent with our culture and
values and what cannot be. In this way, diversity increases the potential for conflict
and requires us to be more thoughtful about the nature of tolerance. Tolerance and
acceptance can bring us to a society of equality and peace. Thus, it is crucial for
people to be not biased and to believe in basic morals and ethics for a persistent
law system to prevail justice.

Background
Over the last decade, there has emerged both a pattern and predictability in
reports of disenfranchisement of religious minorities in Bangladesh. A steady stream
of news stories about land grabbing, violence (sexual and otherwise) and threats
seem like background "white noise" in the volatile human rights context of
Bangladesh. Only a few new issues or particularly dramatic incidents have provoked
sustained protest in the national media.
The murder case of Avijit Roy who was hacked to death in front of the public after
previous events leading to the attack on Professor Humayun Azad and blogger Rajib
Haider, it is deeply saddening that something like this would occur again. Instead of
enacting severe punishment and making people acknowledge the diversity the

Religion becoming greater than law 7

country is to face, we have lacked behind so much that the same crimes have been
relentlessly occurring. The main cause of murder behind these cases were religious
belief clashes. The bloggers writing drew the ire of religious fanatics and thus
leading to threats and eventual murder. One has the right to freedom of speech and
nobody has the right to take that away from someone by murdering them to their
benefit. There is no rule in any righteous scripture to kill anybody illegally. If anyone
committed sin it may be punished by existing law. No arbitrary act for such death
occurrence should be allowed. Everyone should condemn such criminals who
involves in such acts. If such killing is taken into point of religious justice, everyone
should consider one thing, killing a human is a great sin itself.
The recent rights fight for LGBT rights and the yearlong fight for womans right
and equality for all have yet not found a stable ground in all countries. Many
countries are still way behind on enacting equal rights for all due to the diversity of
the countries culture and religion. Many European and Asian countries have yet not
accepted equal rights for woman and for the LGBT community. Even though our
beliefs clash with the particular topics it isnt right to take away someone basic
human rights. We would never agree to taking away our human rights and yet when
we dont agree to something or its not in our norm we are reluctant to make it
negative and avoid the topic or go against it.
According to The Constitution of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, Further
pledging that it shall be a fundamental aim of the State to realize through the
democratic process a socialist society, free from exploitation a society in which the
rule of law, fundamental human rights and freedom, equality and justice, political
in freedom and may make our full contribution towards international peace and
cooperation in keeping with the progressive aspirations of mankind. Even though

Religion becoming greater than law 8

the constitution says to enact the above laws we still havent completely abided by
it causing negligence towards other diverse communities.

Research Questions
The main concerns of this topic can be easily answered with a few questions. The
research questions for the topic are as follows:
1. What are the negative effects of religious believe that conflict with basic
human rights?
- Due to the diversity of each country according to the highest rate of
religion per country and the culture followed many times the most
common laws are not in favor of minorities or other diverse religions

Religion becoming greater than law 9

people. Thus, we can conclude that there are negative effects of religious
beliefs that conflict in the law system.
2. What are the contradictory aspects of religion and law?
- Religion does not promote violence and yet we use violence in the name
of religion. The law system for example has two type, Islamic law and the
Constitutional law. Islamic law is very different from the constitutional law
and differ in the way judgements are passed and punishments are given.
This shows that due to not having one law system for all we can
sometimes get into disruptive situations when justifying a crime.
3. Does law support religion and ethics equally?
- According to The Constitution of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh,
The state religion of the Republic is Islam, but the State shall ensure
equal status and equal right in the practice of the Hindu, Buddhist,
Christian and other religions. The law system stands for basic human
rights and equality to be prevailed for all.
4. Example of some cases that show conflict between religion and law and if
justice has been served to the victims at the end?
- The public murder of Avijit Roy during the Boi Mela recently had made
headlines even internationally, and yet justice hasnt been served. His
writing drew the ire of religious fanatics and thus leading to his death. This
shows how religious belief caused a persons death and how justice hasnt
yet been served due to the high profanity of the case.
5. How does religious belief blind people from humanity and thus the
consequence of heinous crimes?
- Religious fanatics try to enforce what their religious beliefs are on others
or as we might think they try to impose on others what they believe in
even if its wrong to do so. We have seen many cases where many
murders have been committed in the name of religion and the main cause
being the disrespect of the religion by the victim.
6. What are the ways government provides equal rights to foreign and native
people with different religious belief?

The constitution says that equal rights should be enforced on all,

but we truly do not follow the law. The government does have

Religion becoming greater than law 10

special aid for foreign people as well as minorities and support them
with allocations, but not always can they use those preferences.

Hypothesis
The leading research question that I propose to pursue is: Religion is
becoming greater then law and thus we are falling short on serving justice to all.
My working hypothesis is that the religious fanatics in our society are taking up law
in their own hands thus injustice and more crimes are being committed. Crimes are
committed due to a few reasons like need base crime, mental instability causing
crime, belief, etc. Religious conflict seems to be taking a greater crime rate these
days and causing wars between countries for many years now.

Religion becoming greater than law 11

Methodology
For my primary research, I have conducted a survey of a
representative sampling of a few people in studying or working in the field
of law and interviewed them to find out what they think about the topic.
To conclude that, I have designed a questionnaire with 11 different types
of questions in order to get a series of useful data which has helped me
find the answers to my research questions.
For my secondary research, I used the resources of the library and
also consulted a few books. However, I have mostly browsed the internet
and used the standard search engines like Google, Bing, etc. Using the

Religion becoming greater than law 12

search engines, I have taken information regarding my research from

various web pages and blogs.

PRIMARY RESEARCH:
SUMMARY
105 responses

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE RESPONSES

Religion becoming greater than law 13

Legend:

Shows the answers

percentage accordingly in
the pie charts for the
survey question

Religion becoming greater than law 14

Chart showing whether the hypothesis is true or not according to responses:

Religion becoming law

30
25
20
15
10
5
0

For

Against
Man

SURVEY QUESTIONS:

Woman

Not sure about it

Religion becoming greater than law 15

Religion becoming greater than law 16

Religion becoming greater than law 17

Chart showing responses for each question:

Survey Questionnaire Responses Data

11
10
9
8
7
Question no.

6
5
4
3
2
1
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Percentage of responses
option D

option C

option B

option A

1. Are you against or for the hypothesis of the research paper?

- The responses for the hypothesis was 44 responses whereas 21 were against
it and 33 werent sure about it. This proves that majority agrees with the
hypothesis and mainly many people are ignorant or havent given any
thought to the topic.
2. Equal human rights should be applied under any circumstances including the
fact that it might collide with religious beliefs?

90

Religion becoming greater than law 18

-

65 people agreed to the question because they believe in equal rights for
everyone. This proves that since many people agree in equal rights then
lesser number of people will disagree on constitutions which might lead to
lesser violence and non-hindrance to providing equal rights for all.

Do you believe in equal rights for all without the barrier of religious beliefs?
7; 7%
11; 11%
Agree
Disagree
Not sure about it
Others

18; 18%
65; 64%

3. What are your thoughts on forcing people into following a certain religion?
- 86 people agreed to the fact that they believe in preaching, but not forcing. It
proves that many people disagree to the fact that many fanatics use violence
and force people to change religion and the lesser number of people disagree
to forcing it the more number of people wont resort to violence.
4. Should humanity and basic morals and ethics come first and apply to any
-

person even with or without a religion?

74 people agreed to the fact that humanity and basic moral come first and
should apply to all equally. This gives an insight as to how diverse people
dont agree on religion becoming any sort of hindrance for anyone to deserve

to be treated equally.
5. What are your thoughts on the recent equality rights fight primarily including
LGBT rights to marriage?

Religion becoming greater than law 19

-

The agree and disagree percentage for the topic was very close, 47 people
agreed to the fact that LGBT people have a right to marriage as long as both
sides give consent and it doesnt harm anyone. 36 people disagreed due to
the fact that they believe it goes against their religious beliefs. This shows
that many people still dont believe in equal rights for all and judge by what
their religious beliefs are.

Respondents thoughts on LGBT marriage rights

5047
45
4036
35
30
25
2015
15
104
51
0
equal rights should be applied to all

should not be legalized

not sure about it

others

6. Are the changing womans right laws including education, job facility, etc,
-

colliding with religious beliefs?

70 people agreed to the fact that the changes for the womans right are
necessary. Even though this proves that many agree to equal justice for all
the percentage of respondents were higher number of woman thus maybe
the judgement is biased as because when referring to question number 5
many disagreed to the topic and yet in question number 4 many people
agreed to unbiased equal rights.

Religion becoming greater than law 20

Woman's rights colliding w ith religious beliefs?

s o me la ws ne e d to cha nge due to cla s h to re ligio us be lie fs

e qua l rights fo r bo th men a nd wo me n
no t s ure abo ut it
o the rs

7. Religious norms should be incorporated into the law system?

- A higher percentage of people agreed to the fact that religious norms
shouldnt be incorporated into the law system due to the diversity of each
religion which might cause clashes. The facts prove that religious believes
cant be incorporated into the law system because each of the religions are
different and thus when serving justice we wont be able to equally justify
them.
8. Laws of different countries differ due to the diversity of each countries
-

religion?
The highest percentage of people agreed to the question asked because they
feel that due to the diversity of religions in each country the religion with the

highest rate has the most impact on what kind of laws that country has.
9. In your opinion which religions followers show the most violence?
- Even though a higher percentage of the respondents were Muslims, many
agreed to the fact that Muslims show violence and the higher percentage was
for other religions.
10.Referring to above question are people wrongly using the name of their
-

religion to impose their own decisions?

74 people agreed to the fact that people wrongly use the name of their
religion to cover up their crimes showing an insight to the fact that people are

aware of the misuse of their religion.

11.Is religion the primary reason behind many crimes?
- A higher percentage of people disagreed and said that there are other
reasons for crimes being committed other than religion related violence and
the second highest agreed to the fact that religion does affect the crime rate.

Religion becoming greater than law 21

Primary Research
An interview with a law student Fariha Priyanka studying BPTC in
Newcastle, UK reveals what the law system of Bangladesh and United Kingdom says
and whether the hypothesis is true or not. According to the Priyanka, Most of the
Bangladeshi people are Muslims, thus we will never be acceptable to the LGBT
community due to how our religion beliefs dont agree to it and thus even if the law
is enacted it will take years for people to follow it. Different countries have different
law systems, the law system of each country differs according to the people of that
country. The law for each country is in favor of the people of that country and thus
the community with the highest population gets an upper hand as to the laws that
are to be enacted. The laws differ and are passed on the fact that what are the
problems of the particular country and accordingly the laws are passed that can be
enacted in that country. Bangladesh has a different need as do other countries, the
LGBT community population is higher in The United States of America and thus they
were bound to enact the law, but since the rate is lower in many other countries
thus the laws havent been enacted there. Law is based on societies need and the
need is based on religious belief, these things are co-related. Thus, I do agree that
your hypothesis is somewhat true. Since this is a very controversial topic there are

Religion becoming greater than law 22

many aspects to it so we cant just answer it based on a few things because these
are the things we will never find an answer to. From what the interview revealed it
can be said that indeed we base our laws on our needs and the community with the
highest population gets to control most of the laws that are enacted.

Religio
us
belief

Societi
es
need

Laws
enacte
d

Secondary Research
Polarized religions have been devised by influential elite leaders to play the
people off against each other. That way the elite can defeat and enslave the
population practically without lifting a finger. The religious elites are not totally to
blame because many people actually believe in what they preach which leads to
disruption of what the religion truly preaches. They also have a secret fetish to be
dominated and ruled with an iron fist by a supreme ruler or king.

Religion becoming greater than law 23

According to Thompson (2014), It would be simpler and more accurate to say
that religion has made a startling comeback around the globe. Religion in general,
that is including, but not confined to, the nasty stuff (torching of dormitories,
bombs on the Tube, stoning of adulterers, Giles Frasers sermons etc). In fact, in
many respects, religion has become the new politics.
In dozens of countries, disputes that we may think of as ethnic, political or
economic are now unmistakably religious in character: everything from squabbles
over school textbooks in New Delhi to throat-slitting in SyriaBut it also reflects our
ignorance of faith in general: the school inspectors, blind to religion, didnt know
what to look for in Birmingham.
Fanatics are only part of the story, however. To understand why religion is
becoming the new politics, we need to connect an extra set of dots: between
extremists, their wealthy supporters, politicians, bureaucrats and ordinary
believers who tell pollsters they reject violence but keep quiet when its
perpetrated.
In Europe, there was a century-long, bitter struggle on the right of decision
between religious and secular institutions. The solution was that personal attitudes
and behavior may be ruled by religious norms, including religious ceremonies, but
the state law has the exclusive right to govern worldly legal aspects. While focusing
on religious topics, we have to discern religion from broader cultural phenomena
and social issues influencing the opinions and acts of the persons involved.
(Borgdandy, & Wolfrum, 2009, p. 37), this clearly shows how to keep the religious
norms out of the law system that have already been enacted in several countries.

Religion becoming greater than law 24

Summary and Conclusion

Through my research, I found that many people are unaware of the building
political situations and the controversial aspects of diverse religions. People seemed
biased towards certain groups of people do didnt relate to them. According to my
survey most people thought it was necessary to gain equal woman's right, but a

Religion becoming greater than law 25

small percentage disagreed on the LGBT equal rights, proving that most people are
biased towards the community and many gave the sole reason to be religion.
Diverse countries dont pass laws that might collide with the beliefs of a religion
with the highest rate in that country which proves that the law system is not equal
everywhere. Many people agreed to the facts proving that religious diversity and
beliefs clash thus causing an improper balance which initially affects the law
system.
We can find solutions in the way that we can include new laws that lawfully
include all human rights without any prohibition, take administrative measures to
educate people on diversity and ensure the inclusion of all minority voters and
adequate people in voter lists. We can maintain data on employment by religion and
ethnicity in government, private sector, media, NGOs and education and formulate
affirmative action programs for employment of minorities in public and private
sector and ensure freedom of belief and freedom of speech.
The main issue at hand is that to fix this problem of religion taking over law we
need to separate how the societies needs depend on religious beliefs. There needs
to be one law system equal for all that will not be biased for anyone. We can either
make separate laws based on diversity or follow one law system. We need to be
more tolerant and adaptive of our surroundings and only then will we attain true
peace. Thus, we can conclude that the hypothesis, Religion is becoming
greater than law and thus we are falling short on serving justice to all
has proven to be true.

Reference List

Religion becoming greater than law 26

Oaks, E. D. H. (2011, September 11). Balancing truth and tolerance. The Quorum of
the Twelve Apostles
from a Church Educational System.
Thompson, D. (2014, June 8). It's not just Islam. A global religious revival is
changing politics for ever,
increasingly, not to understand faith is not to understand the world. Retrieved
from http://www.spectator.co.uk/
United nations general assembly. (2000, August 9). Interim report of the Special
Rapporteur of the
Commission on Human Rights on the elimination of all forms of intolerance
and of discrimination based on religion or belief, p. 33.
The Constitution (Fifteenth Amendment) Act, 2011 (Act XIV of 2011) section 4
The Constitution (Fifteenth Amendment) Act, 2011 (Act XIV of 2011), section 3
Blogger Avijit Roy hacked to death. (2015, March 07). Retrieved from
http://www.thedailystar.net/newspaper
Borgdandy, A. V., & Wolfrum, R. (Eds.). (2009). Max planck yearbook of united
nations law. Netherlands:
Koninklijke Brill N.V. 13, 375-420
Shah, P., Foblets, M. C., & Rohe, M. (Eds.). (2014). Family, religion and law. England:
Ashgate Publishing
Limited.

Religion becoming greater than law 27