“Muslim radicals have established their own draconian court systems in Britain. Controversial Sharia courts have been set up in major towns and cities to impose Islamic law and enable Muslims to shun the legitimate British legal system. Last night religious leaders and politicians expressed outrage that Sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in our society.

“The Daily Express can reveal that one of the controversial courts has been set up in the home town of the 7/7 London bombings ringleader. Mohammed Sidique Khan was responsible for the Edgware Road Circle Line explosion which killed six people and injured 120. Our investigation has found that the Sharia court system has been set up in the heart of Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, and that it is the model for others across the country which are operating outside the British legal process….

“Philip Davies, the Tory MP for Shipley, said: ‘I am absolutely appalled and find the prospect of such courts totally terrifying. Places like this should be closed down…. It simply can’t be tolerated’.”

Daily Express, 30 April 2007

Of course, the Jewish community has been operating its own Beth Din courts for years. But you can imagine the outcry that would rightly follow if the Express ran a front-page story headlined “Now Jews Get Their Own Laws in Britain”.

In the same issue of the Express Leo McKinstry whips up further Islamophobic hysteria in a comment piece that begins: “The wail of the mosque is signalling the end of traditional British justice.” Using language that could easily have been taken from a BNP election leaflet, McKinstry continues: “In a political climate of craven appeasement towards Muslim extremism, the Islamification of our country is steadily accelerating.” He observes: “Muslims continually bleat about so-called ‘Islamophobia’ but the isolation they experience from mainstream society is of their own making. British society has bent over backwards to accommodate Islam.” Indeed, “unlike in France, the hijab headscarf is allowed in schools” – a situation that McKinstry would evidently rectify if he could.

(Note, by the way, that McKinstry pays tribute to the role played by Homa Arjomand of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran in blocking the introduction of faith-based arbitration for Muslims in Ontario.)

Predictably, the fascists are full of enthusiasm for the Express report, which of course plays straight into their hands:

“The story should be a wake-up call for all British voters. It is now or never to turn back the tide of Islamic colonisation. Successive Labour and Conservative governments have betrayed the British electorate by opening the doors to waves of bogus asylum seekers, predominantly from Islamic countries in Africa and the Middle East but under Blair’s regime, Labour have not only held the door wide open, they have allowed Muslim immigrants to rearrange the furniture and displace the original occupants.

“Voters can punish the Labour traitors on Thursday by voting for the only party which will use its influence on local councils to stop any planning applications to convert houses, former pubs and other buildings into Islamic community centres, mosques or Sharia courts. A nationwide swing to the BNP will send a loud signal of protest to the establishment that we will not tolerate the creeping Islamification of our country.”

BNP news article, 30 April 2007

For a letter of complaint to the Express from Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain, see MCB news article, 30 April 2007