To my shame I recall using Sharia courts as a scaremongering tactic a couple of times, years ago. I think during speculation about what certain parts of London would become like if Jeremy Corbyn and his Momentum friends ever got to form a Government after the 2019 General Election. Fortunately for all of us (in my opinion) that possibility never became reality. So I'll never know if there was any potential truth in those tactics. The uncomfortable truth is that in many ethnic communities there is a hard core of traditionalist thinking, which uses 'Old Country' laws or cultural practices as a means of maintaining what some see as their 'right' to retain their identity and their values (or in other words, their control over others in their community). Honour killings, FGM, forced marriages... All of these are extreme manifestations of that kind of thinking. It would be wrong to claim the influences that lead to these crimes don't exist. But in my view it is equally wrong for the fear of them to be used by certain politicians and other social agitators to advance their own agendas. Looking back, I think I was out of order to suggest that Sharia Law (in the form of compelling women to follow a dress code, for example) would ever be enforced against non-Muslims (white people) in this Country. I regret to have to confess that it was Islamophobic. I do believe it is wrong of President Trump to use the same tactics now, when his personal record on Conservative (traditionalist) Values is very controversial and his power to impose those values on 250 million people seems alarmingly limitless. And I believe it is wrong for certain people in this Country to play on those fears as well, in order to ramp up cultural tensions. There are Sharia courts operating in the UK, just as there are Jewish courts, and probably courts of other faiths as well, including several Christian denominations. But these are not courts that oppose or defy British Law. They mostly deal with civil community issues within ethnic or cultural contexts - not alternative punishments for serious criminal behaviour. Perceived lack of integration is a whole different subject, and again arguments can be applied to any ethnic or religious community here in the UK, not just Muslim ones. But the term "Sharia Law" or "Sharia Courts" used to promote mistrust and ill-informed fear is sadly too prevalent now. For me it is a symptom of the new age of intolerance we are being led into.
