Politicians and Muslim leaders denounced a German judge for citing the Quran in her rejection of a Muslim woman's request for a quick divorce on grounds she was abused by her husband.
Judge Christa Datz-Winter said in a recommendation earlier this year that both partners came from a "Moroccan cultural environment in which it is not uncommon for a man to exert a right of corporal punishment over his wife," according to the court. The woman is a German of Moroccan descent married to a Moroccan citizen. [....]
Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries condemned the judge's decision.
"Every so often, there are individual rulings that seem completely incomprehensible," she said.
Lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats said traditional Islamic law, or Sharia, had no place in Germany.
"The legal and moral concepts of Sharia have nothing to do with German jurisprudence," Wolfgang Bosbach, a lawmaker with the Christian Democrats, told N24 television.
"One thing must be clear: In Germany, only German law applies. Period."
Ronald Pofalla, the party's general secretary, told Bild: "When the Quran is put above the German constitution, I can only say: Good night, Germany."
Representatives of Germany's Muslim population were also critical of the ruling.
"Violence and abuse of people -- whether against men or women -- are, of course, naturally reasons to warrant a divorce in Islam as well," the country's Central Council of Muslims said in a statement.
It appears that elites are all too ready to betray their own cultures, and must be kept in check by ordinary folk applying common sense.
