SHARIA LAW IN THE UK

Sharia Law Spreading in Britain

Monday, December 4, 2006

Islamic law is becoming the law of the land in select pockets of Britain, according to a recent bbc Radio 4 program. Though sharia law—the Islamic code of justice—has no legal authority in Britain, some Muslims are sidestepping the English criminal justice system in order to have their cases tried by Islamic judges. “Sharia courts now operate in most larger cities,” said Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity, in a November 30 Telegraph article. “[D]ifferent sectarian and ethnic groups operat[e] their own courts that cater to their specific needs according to their traditions.” Sookhdeo calls these sharia councils an “alternative parallel unofficial legal system.” Polls indicate significant support among British Muslims for the sharia system. In a report in the August 7 edition of the Scotsman, one third of British Muslims said they would prefer living under Islamic law—in England—rather than British law. The Telegraph article cited a specific case where a group of Somali youths, arrested over suspicion of stabbing a Somali teenager, were released on bail when the victim’s family said they wanted to settle the case out of court. The matter was decided by an unofficial Somali court in southeast London. A Somalian youth worker, explaining the case to the bbc, said, “Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law. It’s not sharia, it’s not religious—it’s just a cultural thing.” A Scotland Yard spokesman told the Telegraph that police often don’t follow through on assault cases if the victims don’t press charges. Britain has done a notoriously terrible job of assimilating its burgeoning immigrant population. Embarrassed by its own imperial history, it is eager to accommodate the eccentricities of whatever foreign cultures may choose to plant their flags on British soil. It provides them no sense of pride in Britishness, nothing positive to identify with. It is afraid to insist on migrants giving up anything of their own cultural identity, even when that may pose a threat to other Britons. This fact has resulted in Britain, particularly London, playing host to an astonishing amount of hair-raisingly anti-British attitudes and activities. Numerous radical groups—including arms of al Qaeda—have planted their headquarters or significant operations there. Says Melanie Phillips in her book Londonistan, “UK-based terrorists have carried out operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel, Morocco, Russia, Spain and the United States.” Consider this list of infamous Islamists: the murderer of journalist Daniel Pearl; al Qaeda members who sought to target U.S. financial centers; the man who rammed an explosive-laden truck into police barracks in Kashmir; shoe-bomber Richard Reid; suicide bombers who blew up Israelis in a Tel Aviv bar; one of the masterminds behind two attacks in Bali. All these terrorists called England their home. The existence within British cities of courts judging British citizens who commit crimes by foreign laws is yet another example of how Britain’s unquestioning devotion to the principles of multiculturalism is eroding its sense of national identity and endangering its people. For more information, read our article “The Sickness in Britain’s Heart.”