“A shocking report today exposes the grip Islamic law now has on British society. Honour killings, polygamy, child marriages and mutilation are revealed in the study by Islam expert Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity. The findings come after the Daily Express told yesterday how secret courts are meting out Islamic justice and creating a two-tier legal system.

“The report outlines areas where hardline sharia law conflicts with Britain’s justice system and warns of attempts to include parts of Islamic law in British law. It says: ‘Since sharia has some regulations which relate to non-Muslims such changes in British law could impinge on non-Muslims too. They would affect individual human rights of freedom of choice and the religious freedoms of both Muslims and non-Muslims’.”

Daily Express, 1 December 2006

As we’ve noted before, you’d have thought the media would steer well clear of Sookhdeo since this self-proclaimed “expert” on Islam got the Sunday Telegraph into legal trouble by calling for one of the most reputable English translations of the Qur’an to be banned (see here, here and here). But there is evidently no end to the demand for ignorant bigots who are prepared to feed the anti-Muslim frenzy of the right-wing press.

“Home Office staff are free to be members of the Islamic extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, it was revealed yesterday. Those working in the department responsible for immigration and homeland security do not even have to declare membership of the fanatical organisation, the Government admitted. This means Home Secretary John Reid has no idea how many of his staff hold the group’s radical views and he has no means of monitoring their activities.

“The revelation – in a written parliamentary answer – comes after Home Office IT manager Abid Javaid, 41, was found to be a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which supports a worldwide Islamic state run under hardline Sharia law and has refused to condemn last year’s London bombings [sic – see below]. Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green said: ‘This is really shocking. It is a dereliction of duty for them not to find out how many more Hizb ut-Tahrir members are on the Home Office payroll’.”

Daily Mail, 1 December 2006

“We would like to make it absolutely clear that we believe there was no justification whatsoever for the attacks on civilians in London on July 7th 2005. Islam does not allow the killing of innocent civilians as occurred in London.”

Hizb ut-Tahrir press conference statement, 31 July 2005

The full headline in the print edition of the Torygraph reads “Sharia law is spreading as the authority of British justice wanes”. The article, by Joshua Rozenberg (Mr Melanie Phillips), reports on the findings of the BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action on the role of unofficial religious courts, which arbitrate over civil issues.

Not that you’d know it from the Torygraph report, but the programme also dealt with the role of Beth Din courts in the Jewish community (see here). Can you imagine what Melanie Phillips’ response would be if the paper ran a story with the headline “Jewish law is spreading as the authority of British justice wanes”?

Daily Telegraph, 29 November 2006

“More than 2,500 Muslims have signed a petition opposing plans to build Europe’s biggest mosque next to London’s 2012 Olympic Park. The petition, organised by worshippers in the borough of Newham, has drawn the signatures in 10 days.

“The mosque scheme includes an Islamic garden, school and prayer space for 70,000. It has been criticised by the Muslim community who fear the involvement of Tablighi Jamaat, an ultraorthodox sect, behind the proposal. Moderate Muslims say allowing the sect to build the complex will stoke community tensions. The petition warns the mosque could provide a recruiting ground for terrorists.

“The sect preaches a strict interpretation of Islam which has been adopted by extremists and terrorists. Asif Shakoor, chairman of the Sunni Friends of Newham, said they wanted all Muslim groups to be equally represented at the proposed place of worship.”

Daily Mail, 27 November 2006

See also the Times, 27 November 2006

It’s not the business of this site to intervene in disputes within the Muslim communities. However, in the current circumstances, if anyone has indeed circulated a petition suggesting that the proposed Abbey Mills Islamic centre could provide a recruiting ground for terrorists, the irresponsibility of that action beggars belief. We also wonder whether the Asif Shakoor who appears to be behind this campaign has any connection with Minhaj-ul-Quran International, an organisation which is linked to a political party called Pakistan Awami Tehrik and is an organisational and ideological opponent of Tablighi Jamaat.

“When Pope Benedict XVI flies to Turkey tomorrow, he will embody the most potentially incendiary confrontation between Islam and the West since the defeat of the Turks at Vienna in 1683 brought an end to Islamic conquest in Europe.

“The Pope will take with him an understanding that at the root of our problems in dealing with the Islamist death cult, there is a fundamental debate to be had about the role of human reason in political affairs.

“The remarks he made in a lecture in Regensburg, Germany, which implied that Islam rejected rationality while Christianity saw it as essential to faith were contentious (and almost certainly designed to be so), but they raised a question that almost no Western government has the courage to ask, let alone answer. How is a liberal democracy to deal with an illiberal religious minority in its midst?”

Janet Daley in the Daily Telegraph, 27 November 2006

The usual predictable nonsense. Islamism is equated with terrorism, completely ignoring the existence of democratic reformist trends within the broad Islamist movement, and the (non-“Islamist”) majority of Muslims are given a condescending lecture on how they must do more to “separate” themselves from violence. On the other hand, for the British government to cease its attacks on Muslim countries, or take a stand against Israeli state terrorism, would be to “give in to terrorist blackmail”.

Muslims who want hardline Sharia Law in Brtain should leave the country, Tory leader David Cameron said last night.

The Islamic law uses brutal punishments and is intolerant of women.

Mr Cameron said: “If someone wants to see Sharia Law they should think about going to live in another country. That’s not something we should contemplate.”

Mr Cameron also attacked Tony Blair for not banning radical Islamic groups like Hizb ut-Tahrir – despite a promise after last year’s 7/7 bombings in London.

The Sun, 23 November 2006

Under the heading “Well said, Dave”, a Sun editorial comments: “For once we cannot argue with David Cameron. The Tory leader has condemned Islamic extremists who want to replace our tolerant, liberal way of life with Sharia law. This hardline interpretation of the Koran treats women as chattels and demands death for gays and Jews. The answer, says Mr Cameron, is for fanatics to go and live in another country. We can only add: The sooner the better.”

Over at the Daily Mail, by contrast, Cameron is reported as complaining that Labour leaders are playing “political football” with public fears about terrorism. A typical case of the Tory leader trying to be all things to all people. On the one hand, he comes on as a sensitive liberal over security issues, and on the other he provides the Sun with material to whip up paranoia about “Muslim fanatics”.