I write this after reading a disturbing report in the “Daily Express” (26 Nov 08 p30), and having seen a documentary on TV about Islamic arbitration tribunals becoming part of UK’s judicial system.

The mounting pressure to make Islamic Sharia law part of UK law, is a short-sighted compromise to win over UK Muslims. The symbolic boost this will give Islamic fundamentalism of the worst kind, cannot be overstressed.

In fact, Islamic arbitration tribunals, handing out Sharia justice, are already recognised by UK courts. Following the earlier supportive utterances by Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips and the Archbishop of Caterbury Dr Rowan Williams, now it is the turn of Stephen Hockman QC, former Chairman of the Bar Council to support Sharia law in UK in the presence of Anjem Chaudhary, “the former head of the banned al-Muhajiroun” Remember the young Sikhs assembled at Trafalgar Square on Sunday 25 July, 2004, to take up the challenge sent out by this Islamic fanatic?

Anjem Chaudhary was the one who provoked such a unified but peaceful response from the UK Sikhs. The British National Party (BNP) were there in numbers to witness the Sikh demonstration, with only a thin blue police line separating the two strange bed-fellows demonstrating against a common threat for entirely different reasons. That day “Recognise the Human Race as One” banners won the day below Nelson’s column at Trafalgar Square.

This is not the Islam of Mia Mir of Lahore, or the Islam of the sufi Muslim saints who speak to us from Sri Guru Granth sahib Ji. This is the Islam of Mujaddad Alfthani of Sirhand set on creating a totalitarian Islamic regime in the world. I have been shown university circulars by Muslim extremists by own children about ten years ago, and today someone from Slough is collecting signatures to close a most provocative Islamic website.

See: http://blogs.independent.co.uk/independent/2008/10/sikh-and-muslim.html
This is the Islam which uses terror to frighten own and others, while the UK law is making Islamic tribunals legal  - for what ? How would we know if ignorant Muslims themselves are not being pressured to accept Sharia based decisions, which, otherwise, would be illegal under British law? This is a slippery road to two parallel legal systems in the UK.

To repeat: the signal which is going out to the public at large is that the English legal system, based on universally accepted human rights, is not good enough for all British nationals. Therefore it is giving way to a restrictive and outdated Islamic law code to be applied to a section of British citizens.

The British establishment is panicking and giving way to a dangerous extremist ideology which is taking root in the UK. Such discriminatory legal compromises in favour of Islam by the British establishment, while causing alarm amongst other religio-ethnic minorities, will only lend credence to extreme right wing parties like the BNP, and inflate their numbers.