A court in Sydney has found a group of men accused of administering 40 lashes as a Sharia Law punishment, guilty of assault. In what seems to be a similar attempt to create zones of sharia law within western democracies, Asian vigilantes in East London have been threatening and assaulting homosexuals, and women they feel to be “inappropriately dressed”.
In response, there have been reciprocal anti -Islam protests, from those who say they are Christians…
As these men in Australia await sentencing, I’ve noted people commenting on how Sharia Law would punish them for their actions – were they not to have been carrying out Sharia Law that is. Some urge the judge to bear this in mind in determining the severity of the sentence to be handed down.
This seems to me to be part of a disturbing polarisation that can only lead to more discrimination. Sharia Law is irrelevant to these cases It’s certainly not a defence. The judge will make it a point not to refer in any way to Sharia law. Australian law is the only jurisdiction for this case. Any alleged crimes committed by the victim are irrelevant.
We have Sharia law courts in the UK, which arbitrate things like divorces, and are successful because both parties agree bound to the verdicts. But they are not part of the law of GB.
If they were to hand down decisions that lead to the laws of Britain being broken and complaints were made, the offenders would be dealt with according to British law.
The issue in Sydney is criminal assault. The Moslem community might argue is that it be regarded as vigilantism, but they’re not going to cut any ice with the Australian government. Render uno Caesar what is Caesar’s, and unto God what is God’s….
Care is required. Some commentators say this is all the thin of the wedge of appeasement to Moslem minority communities, that will lead eventually to hand amputations etc in western countries. Many of these commentators say they are Christians, and talk of Islam as the religion of hate.. This is not only wrong, but inflammatory. The imposition of Sharia Law against the will of electors is as likely as a medieval Inquisition doing the same in Catholic countries.
Sharia law practised by illiterate taliban mullahs in Northern Pakistan villages (or when they were in power in Afghanistan) is used as a means of terror not law. Islam is as much a religion of terror and fear as Christianity – by which I mean that it is not; although as with Christianity, extremists harness Islam to their own ends.
Like the Australian Government, we should be utterly ruthless in preventing the imposition of Sharia Law on people in western countries by Islamic extremists. We should also encourage the separation of Church and State in Moslem countries, to remove power from the hands of religious extremists.
But as this transition took European countries hundreds of years to achieve, we cannot expect this to occur after just one revolution – or even two.
The next stage – Democracy, is very difficult to achieve and then make work. Italy is still struggling, and only managed to separate Church from State by making the Vatican a separate 110 acre country… This solution is unlikely to work for Islam (inserts smiley).