Multi-culturalism boon or bane?

[Coffeehouse]

Originally Posted by inked

And what does the Bishop-ness have to do with the factual state of the sharia courts in England?

Alot! Read the article again, and read a bit up on public law in England.

The author of this article uses if's and maybe's, potentials and circumstancial evidence:

"It appears that these tribunals are dealing not only with civil matters but with potentially criminal ones."

It appears. Potentially criminal ones.

"Are the police satisfied that this way of dealing with domestic violence is sufficient to protect women?"

Who knows? Are they? Do you think British Police are going to turn a blind eye if criminal behaviour is being perpetrated?

"Secondly, can the tribunals assure us that under Islamic law no form of physical violence against women is permissible?"

Can these tribunals assure us this? Then again, should we hold tribunals accountable to domestic violence that happens in Muslim families? Is the position of the tribunals overemphasized? How influential is it anyways?

"The system of public law, it seems, faces a challenge to its basic premise that all citizens must be treated alike."

It seems. Yes perhaps it seems that way..

..But I'll tell you what Inked, and you would have done well to have thought of this before you announce "Sharia in Britain": That what is really the challenge is not so much that there are Muslims whom seek to settle communal problems in tribunals (The word courts is far too strong), and that such a thing should be wrong (does not have to contradict British law at all! Nobody is saying that followers in Jehovas Witness should refrain from intra-community ways of solving disputes..), but whether British courts have yet to find any loopholes in the law which these tribunals might violate. And I say yet because if only one single example of a ruling that contradicts the law is found in such a tribunal it will be put under investigation and the potential loophole will be examined.

Let's see what the most senior judge in the Realm of England, Lord Chief Justice Phillips, has to say on the matter (this is July 2008):
"Phillips insisted last night there was "widespread misunderstanding" of the nature of sharia law, and argued: "There is no reason why sharia principles, or any other religious code, should not be the basis for mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution [with the understanding] ... that any sanctions for a failure to comply with the agreed terms of mediation would be drawn from the Laws of England and Wales."

A very different story than the xenophobic one your painting.