England: One Law for Muslims, one for the Rest

February 3, 2007 | Filed Under Crime, Family, Foreign Policy, Immigration/Immigrants, Islam, Islamofascism, Media Bias, Patriotism, Publius Contributor, Religion, Security/Safety, Society/Culture, Uncategorized, War on Terror, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

England is fast becoming but simple a plot of land floating in the sea instead of a nation of culture guided by a rich legal tradition. It is a tale of warning for the USA, the moral of which is don’t allow minorities to set up a parallel culture or you will cease to be a nation of laws. You will, in fact, cease to be a nation at all.

England is on the verge of having a bifurcated legal system, one for their various religious peoples and one for the rest of the native population. Two recent stories show the degradation of the British legal system and the inequities that it creates.

In a BBC story by Innes Bowen,
The end of one law for all?, the question is asked: “Ethnic and religious courts are gaining ground in the UK. Will this lead to different justice for different people?”

How could this be that hard to answer?

Naturally, the BBC strives to make it seem as if all is right and good with this destruction of the English legal system because, after all, these people are just doing what “their culture” requires that they do, neatly ignoring the fact that they are in England and NOT back in their own homeland.

Aydarus Yusuf has lived in the UK for the past 15 years, but he feels more bound by the traditional law of his country of birth - Somalia - than he does by the law of England and Wales.

“Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law. It’s not Islamic, it’s not religious - it’s just a cultural thing.”

Well, isn’t that nice?

A number of parallel legal universes have been quietly evolving among minority communities. As well as Somali customary law, Islamic and Jewish laws are being applied and enforced in parts of the UK.

Worse still…

While religious leaders in the UK’s Jewish and Muslim communities have not sought to enforce their own versions of criminal law, they have steadily built up their capacity to deal with civil matters within their own religious codes. What’s more, they are doing it with the help of English law.

Crucially, the legislation does not insist that settlements must be based on English law; all that matters is the outcome is reasonable and both parties agree to the process. And it’s in this space that religious courts, applying the laws of another culture, are growing in the UK.

Naturally, the BBC spends 90% of the piece saying how benign this bifurcation of the courts is and that Muslims wouldn’t wish to push their extreme Sharia laws for criminal matters in the UK. “That simply would never be acceptable”, they quote former judge Gerald Butler as saying… as if just saying it assures us all that these extremists wouldn’t push for it anyway.

Remember “There will be peace in our time”, England?

After all, to use a supposed Middle Eastern expression, once they get a nose under the tent it won’t take much to push on through. Once Sharia is accepted even in its lesser forms, Muslims will have every reason to expect that they can expand that usage of their own “courts” and to ignore the rightfully applicable English laws on any given subject.

In fact, the BBC seems in love with the idea of these wonderful religious “courts” supplanting their own. The Beeb barely gives us a word against the idea save one luke-warm warning by “Cassandra Balchin, a convert to Islam and spokeswoman for the group Women Living Under Muslim Laws” who is apparently “concerned”.

“Very often traditional forms of mediation can disadvantage vulnerable groups, such as women, within a community.”

Very often, Mz. Balchin?

Like most western news sources, the BBC seems completely ignorant of the abuse women and minorities suffer under Sharia laws the world over. Women are beaten, raped, murdered, mutilated and oppressed by Muslim “culture” and English law should never turn its back on these vulnerable members of their society. this would be a travesty and a direct refutation of western morals that posit that all people are created equal and stand the same in the eyes of the law.

After this rather benign BBC report on England’s dying legal system, the Telegraph published their report on Sharia invading England’s shores and they take a little more umbrage at the possibility of immigrant communities circumventing English law.

Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes

Islamic sharia law is gaining an increasing foothold in parts of Britain, a report claims.

However, the BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action produced evidence yesterday that it was being used by some Muslims as an alternative to English criminal law. Aydarus Yusuf, 29, a youth worker from Somalia, recalled a stabbing case that was decided by an unofficial Somali “court” sitting in Woolwich, south-east London.

In any case, this is a sure sign that England is giving up on their own way of life and allowing just anyone to bring in just any kind of “legal” system they please merely because they are “culturally used” to it!

It makes one wonder why they fought so hard to prevent the American Colonists from leaving the Empire? The Americans were at least on another continent, after all, and not trying to change what was going on right in the Motherland itself!

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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston