Can Sunlight Solve a Problem Like Sharia in the UK?

Rodgers And Hammerstein: “How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?”

She’d outpester any pest
Drive a hornet from its nest

She could throw a whirling dervish out of whirl

 

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Although the victimized Muslim women featured in this BBC Panorama documentary remain in sad, if predictable denial about how the legitimate, Islamically-correct application of Sharia caused their miserable lots, one must pray the film serves as a long overdue tocsin of looming calamity to non-Muslim Brits should their government, and public “elites” continue to turn a blind eye to Sharia encroachment.

An insightful, compendious review/analysis of the documentary was provided by Chris Harvey of UK The Telegraph:

The clash between our country’s values and those of Islam was highlighted in a disturbing edition of Panorama – Inside Britain’s Sharia Courts (BBC One). Reporter Jane Corbin investigated the plight of women who have gone to Islamic religious councils to seek a sharia divorce, and focused on cases which have involved domestic abuse. She found evidence of women being asked to return to violent marriages, or give up their children to abusive partners.  Muslims believe the sharia law has been revealed by God. In many cases, even if a civil divorce has been granted, individuals will also ask to be divorced by a sharia council. There are at least 85 of these in the UK, Corbin reported, which are ruling on matters from residents’ disputes to divorces, even, according to barrister Charlotte Proudman, on child contact matters. “They’re totally unregulated, unauthorised, there’s no accountability, and many of them are not operating in accordance with UK law,” Proudman said.  Baroness Cox, a cross-bench member of the House of Lords, who has introduced a private members bill to ensure sharia councils operate within the law, said that the councils are acting as a “parallel legal system” and questioned the resolve of government to tackle the problem.  And a problem it clearly is, as Corbin showed. An undercover reporter was sent to a sharia council in Leyton, east London to ask for advice on how to deal with a violent marriage, and the encounter secretly filmed. I’m always slightly uncomfortable with the deception involved in some of these scenarios, but the results were troubling.  “He actually beats you?” the woman was asked by Dr Suhaib Hasan. “Severely, or just…” He left that hanging in the air. He hits me,” she maintained. Should she leave her home? Should she go to the police?

“The police, that is the very last resort,” said Dr Hasan. Instead, apparently, she should ask her husband: “Is it because of my cooking? Is it because I see my friends? So I can correct myself.” He sent the reporter to his wife for counseling. She took a similar line. When her husband arrives home, the reporter was asked, “the food is ready? The house is clean? And you are ready as well?” By ready, she meant with hair done and make-up on. Of course, different cultural norms are allowed to coexist within our society, even when our values – such as equal rights for women – may have taken many years of struggle to obtain. This report revealed Islam as a culture with a deeply held belief in the primacy of the family, but a willingness to put women’s safety at risk in defence of it. The programme was unequivocal on its central point, though, that our legal system is designed to protect its subjects equally.

Chris Harvey concludes, aply:

There has to be one law for all, which is UK law not sharia.

View the documentary, below:

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