WOMEN ARE THE LOSERS WHEN WE CONCEDE TO THE MUSLIM HARDLINERS

Leo McKinistry points out the shameful and hypocritical process by which Britain's authorities have prepared the citizenry for the betrayal of the institution of Sharia law in the UK.

It is now a reality, as we have been warning for a long time that it would be.  

From the UK's Daily Express:

THE Govern ment’s craven appeasement of militant Islam is plumbing new depths.

Under the guise of promoting tolerance, Ministers are tearing apart the legal fabric that was once part of the bedrock of our civilised society.  In a shameful move, Jack Straw’s Ministry of Justice has announced that the Muslim sharia code, notorious for its oppression of women, is to be endorsed by the British judicial system for the first time. Sharia tribunal decisions on civil matters such as divorce, property rights and family disputes are now to be legally binding if rubber-stamped by a judge in court. But this will be little more than a formality, as each sharia ruling will be set out in a brief application form and neither of the parties will be required to attend court. This new act of surrender to the ideology of Islamic separatism runs counter to all the assurances that Labour politicians have given in recent months. When the Daily Express reve aled last year that sharia courts were informally operating in Muslim areas of London and northern England, we were accused of “scaremongering”.

In response to the infamous expression of support for sharia made in February by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Government promised that there were no plans to allow the code any legal jurisdiction in Britain, warning that such a step could lead to “social chaos”. Throughout the summer, Ministers maintained this front of denial. But now these words have been exposed as nothing more than empty political rhetoric designed to hide the sinister truth. As with mass immigration and European integration, the liberal political elite has decided to ignore the will of the British public. 

Sharia law has now become a terrifying reality in our midst, without any vote or sanction from the people.  

The Government’s approach could hardly be more damaging, either for our democracy or our social cohesion. A network of sharia courts across several of our major cities, including London and Birmingham, has already dealt with more than 100 cases since last summer. 

Among them have been six cases of domestic violence, which should be a serious criminal matter reserved for the police and proper courts. In line with the anti-female bias of sharia, none of the men in these six incidents received any punishment but were instead sent for “anger management” training or “mentoring” by “community elders”. It is inevitable that there will now be a vast expansion of the role of sharia courts within Muslim areas. This creation of a parallel system of justice makes a mockery of the essential principle, stretching back to the signing of Magna Carta in 1215, that everyone is equal before the law. That ethos is more important than ever in a diverse society which can be held together only by a unified concept of British citizenship, requiring the acceptance of our laws and customs. Instead, Muslims are encouraged to believe that they are entitled to have separate rights and a separate identity.  This is not the road to tolerance but the very opposite – in place of integration we will see distrust, suspicion  and antagonism as Muslim hard liners ruthlessly expand sharia’s role, creating enclaves of bigotry and oppression.  It is extraordinary that a government which has made such a fetish of its commitment to equality should be creating a legal system which enshrines open discrimination against women. For, like the rest of Islamic culture, sharia is profoundly misogynistic with women treated as second-class citizens in everything from child custody to inheritance. Thanks to political correctness, there has been a reluctance to tackle the oppression of women by Muslim men. According to a recent report from the Association of Chief Police Officers, no fewer than 17,000 women are subjected to Islamic honour-related violence in Britain every year, including assault, kidnappings, beatings and even murder. It is outrageous that instead of tackling this outrage, the  Government wants to encourage it by promoting sharia courts where women are put under savage pressure by husbands, families and the male-dominated community elders. The legal system should provide protection to the vulnerable, not reinforce the power of the bullies.     Harriet Harman, Labour’s Deputy Leader who has built her career on her feminist record of attacking male prejudice, should hang her head in shame.  She would not dream of allowing such institutionalised discrimination to be practised by white men but when it comes to aggressive misogyny from an ethnic minority she remains disgracefully silent.  The Government has adopted this stance entirely for reasons of cynicism and fear.    On the one hand, Labour is desperate to win the votes of the two-million strong Muslim community. It is no coincidence that more than a quarter of the voters in Jack Straw’s Blackburn constituency are Muslim. On the other, like all too many Western governments, Labour is fearful of standing up to the zealots as every Muslim demand is accompanied by the clenched fist of violence or the finger hovering over the bomb control device. That is why the creeping Islamification of Britain will continue – not because Muslims have overwhelming numbers but because our leaders are unwilling to defend our values. The adoption of sharia is another milestone in our slide towards national suicide.

Disaster.