Up to our necks in sharia

Few people who read this blog need to be reminded, I’m sure, of how hideous sharia law can be. I’ve blogged numerous times on Pink Triangle (just put “sharia” into the search box top left) about it, and how it’s creeping into the UK.

Most of my postings have not been so much about how sharia law affects gays, but how it affects Muslims themselves – the women, of course.

A friend and fellow blogger pointed me to a video he has since embedded there, which has been posted today, and it makes shocking viewing in places. It deals not with sharia as practised in the UK, using the Arbitration Act to run these kangaroo “courts”, but how it’s delivered in Muslim countries.

It makes you wonder, of course, how long it would be before the punishments depicted there would become commonplace if our rapidly growing Muslim population reached a critical power mass and introduced sharia as the primary law of the United Kingdom. A long time a-comin’? Maybe, but possible.

Setting the images against Lennon’s “Imagine” gives them even more impact.

The video also features the front cover from Gay & Lesbian Humanist magazine from autumn 2005, which led to something of a row in gay humanist circles, showing, as it did, what it called “The sick face of Islam”, and featuring hangings of gay teens in Iran and news billboards about the 7/7 bombings in London.

I was editor of the magazine at the time, and came in for a lot of flak from cuddly Lefties who displayed more political correctness than common sense.

You don’t need to be gay to enjoy that magazine, by the way. It’s online only now, and you can see it by going to the Pink Triangle blog and clicking in the sidebar, or by clicking the icon below.

How do you solve a problem like sharia?

It’s reported today that there are now 85 sharia courts in Britain.

This is 17 times higher than previously accepted, says a Daily Mail story.

OK, we know they’re not legally recognised and any judgments have to be ratified. But that, apparently, is easily done, and it’s women who lose out, because Islamic law belongs in the Dark Ages and doesn’t give a toss about human dignity and equality.

“The spread of sharia law has become increasingly controversial since its role was backed last year by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams and Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice, who stepped down last October,” says the Mail, citing a study by an Islam specialist, Denis McEoin. The story continues:

The report added: “The fact that so many sharia rulings in Britain relate to cases concerning divorce and custody of children is of particular concern, as women are not equal in sharia law, and sharia contains no specific commitment to the best interests of the child that is fundamental to family law in the UK.

“Under sharia, a male child belongs to the father after the age of seven, regardless of circumstances.”

It said: “Sharia courts operating in Britain may be handing down rulings that are inappropriate to this country because they are linked to elements in Islamic law that are seriously out of step with trends in Western legislation.”

More appeasing and kowtowing by our politicians, who ought to be stamping this evil out, and insisting that all disputes that require a decision that will have legal status be begun and ended in proper courts, not imported kangaroo courts run for invisible sky fairies and ancient scriptures rather than real people, living now, in this country, facing 21st-century problems.
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Related links:
How do you solve a problem like sharia?
Creeping ever closer! When will they ever learn?
Sharia in the workplace
Sharia – the disturbing story continues
The danger of sharia courts
Sharia – a waste of time

BRITAIN'S HOUSE OF LORDS DEBATES SHARIA LAW

From the Astute Bloggers:

HERE.

EXCERPT:

Peers in the House of Lords have warned that the Government is “disturbingly complacent” about the operation of Islamic Sharia law in the UK.

They were not convinced by the Government’s assurance that application of Sharia law by the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal remains subject to English law.

Five Islamic courts are thought to be operating in Britain under the 1996 Arbitration Act. They are permitted to rule on business, financial and family disputes.

Their decisions are rubber stamped by British courts.

Orthodox Jewish Beth Din courts also operate this way, but lawyers and civil rights campaigners have always been sceptical of the status of women in Sharia disputes.

Last year Dr David Green, the Director of the Civitas think tank, said: “I think there are a number of problems with regards to Sharia law.

“These Sharia councils are supposed to operate under the Arbitration Act which allows citizens in a free society to settle their disputes on a voluntary basis if they so wish.

“But that legislation assumes that both parts are regarded as being equal. I think the problem is with tribunals like these you can’t always be sure that women would be treated equally.”

SHARIA IS COMING TO BRITAIN UNLESS THE BRITISH TAKE A MUCH TOUGHER STANCE ON IMIGRATION, ASSIMILATION, AND UNLESS BRITS START HAVING BABIES AND GOING TO CHURCH.

Stormin’ Noman has a go at sharia

Our old friend the homophobic Norman Tebbit – sorry, Lord Tebbit – has put the right-wing cat among the Muslim pigeons with a remark about the hideous sharia law that is creeping into Britain.

The Daily Mail tells us how Tebbit has likened sharia tribunals to the kind of arbitration run by the Kray twins.

He told the House of Lords, “Are you not aware that there is extreme pressure put upon vulnerable women to go through a form of arbitration that results in [their] being virtually precluded from access to British law?”

Five sharia courts currently operate mediation systems approved under the 1996 Arbitration Act. Although their rulings are not legal under British law, once they’ve been through these kangaroo courts they can merely be approved by a proper judge.

As you would expect, Muslims don’t agree with Tebbit’s comment. The Mail says they’ve called it “baseless and ignorant”.

Well take a look a this post, and make up your own mind about sharia law. If they want to practise it, they know where they can bugger off to.

That STUPID Judge, Lord Phillips!

Photo of Lord Phillips courtesy of The Telegraph
THE TELEGRAPH: Muslims in Britain should be able to live according to Sharia law, the country's most senior judge has said.

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the Lord Chief Justice, strongly backed Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, over his suggestion earlier this year that aspects of Sharia law should be adopted in Britain.

The archbishop's remarks sparked a national debate and led to calls for his resignation.

Risking inflaming that controversy again, Lord Phillips has said that Muslims in Britain should be able to use Sharia to decide financial and marital disputes.

The judge did add that only the criminal courts should have the power to decide when a crime has been committed and when to impose punishment.

But his suggestion that different religious groups should run their affairs according to different rules sparked warnings that community cohesion could be undermined. Muslims in Britain Should Be Able to Live under Sharia Law, Says Lord Phillips >>> By Christopher Hope and James Kirkup | July 3, 2008

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