In The Times, Douglas Murray opines on the foothold Islamic law has gained in British public life and explores how the emergence of Muslim Arbitration Tribunals and the growth of Shari’a-compliant finance may affect British national identity and the rule of law in the UK:
Today the Sharia snowball is gathering speed, with Sharia pensions and Sharia car insurance.
In the eyes of the British State, Sharia must be seen for what it is: a legal system based on the writings and declarations of a 7th-century tradesman. The British State cannot accept Islamic texts and must not defer to its rules.
This country has fought for many centuries to base law on reason. The adoption of Sharia presents us with a counter to an Enlightenment that we have so long taken for granted that we have forgotten how to defend it.
It also presents us with a new challenge. By allowing different laws to be applied to people of different ethnic origins, based on the notion that there are laws which would are good enough for you but not good enough for me. If Sharia’s future in Britain is indeed inevitable, then our collective future as a cohesive and tolerant society cannot be.
Read the full piece here.
