Self-appointed religious “authorities” awarding themselves court-like powers

In some cases they are using the Arbitration Act and other legal devices to enforce their decisions with the full weight of English law. .... It gets worse. Someone very senior in this area, Sheik Suhaib Hassan, who is general secretary of a London-based organisation called the Islamic Sharia Council, told a television team: "Sharia is knocking on the door of Britain. ...If Sharia law is implemented, we can turn this country into a haven of peace, because if a thief's hand is cut off, nobody steals. If once -- just once – an adulterer is stoned, no one would commit this crime," he said. British society, he added, should acknowledge this system. "If they don't accept it, they'll need more and more prisons."

To me, both the Government and the judicial authorities appear to be sitting on their hands and letting the justice system slowly disintegrate. But some at least have got the message and we need to start the fight back. I am indebted to Khalid Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Bar and a practising Muslim, for saying, with admirable directness, "What Lord Phillips and the archbishop are discussing is something that is completely outside their area of understanding." ... “Allowing Sharia in parts of the UK would be divisive. ... "This would create a two-tier society. It is highly retrograde. It will segregate and alienate the Muslim community from the rest of British society. [National Secular Society] Read more