The End of One Law For All? (Islamic Law Courts Now In Session)

BBC UK ^ | 11/28/2006 | Innes Bowen

[Dallas59]

Ethnic and religious courts are gaining ground in the UK. Will this lead to different justice for different people?

Aydarus Yusuf has lived in the UK for the past 15 years, but he feels more bound by the traditional law of his country of birth - Somalia - than he does by the law of England and Wales.

"Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law. It's not Islamic, it's not religious - it's just a cultural thing."

The 29-year-old youth worker wants to ensure that other members of his community remain subject to the law of their ancestors too - he helps convene an unofficial Somali court, or "gar", in south-east London.

Aydarus is not alone in this desire. A number of parallel legal universes have been quietly evolving among minority communities. As well as Somali customary law, Islamic and Jewish laws are being applied and enforced in parts of the UK.

Islamic and Jewish law remains confined to civil matters. But the BBC's Law in Action programme has learned that the Somali court hears criminal cases too.

One of the most serious cases it has dealt with was the "trial" of a group of young men accused of stabbing a fellow Somali.

"When the suspects were released on bail by the police, we got the witnesses and families together for a hearing," says Aydarus. "The accused men admitted their guilt and apologised. Their fathers and uncles agreed compensation."

'Legal pluralism'

So how did this court come about? Some academic lawyers see these alternative legal systems as an inevitable - and welcome - consequence of multiculturalism.

[Dallas59]

Speechless....

[Dallas59]

Rest of the article here...The end of one law for all?

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

Multiculturalism is the death knell of the West.

[dsc]

"Multiculturalism is the death knell of the West."

Yes. Western Civilization was the pinnacle of human achievement -- thus far -- and multiculturalism consists of the pretense that inferior cultures are as good.

[sageb1]

Brits are nuts to allow this garbage.

[angkor]

Well England, you had a nice run at it as a country.

1,000 years of British common law now goes down the drain.

William The Conquerer and Henry II are rolling in their graves.

For "local custom" and "native law" were what they fought to eliminate.

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1730468/posts?page=1447#1447

[Dallas59]

It's pretty much over for the UK. Soon the Islamic courts won't consult UK common law and will consider it completely null and void. Then the push for an Islamic "homeland" inside the UK will be made.

[Howlin]

Some academic lawyers see these alternative legal systems as an inevitable - and welcome - consequence of multiculturalism.

I am sure that one day I am going to read one too many of these unbelieveable stories and my head is going to just damn explode.

[snarks_when_bored]

Aydarus Yusuf has lived in the UK for the past 15 years, but he feels more bound by the traditional law of his country of birth - Somalia - than he does by the law of England and Wales.

In other words, Yusuf is only in the UK because Somalia is a hellhole and he wants the money and security the UK provides. He's a squatter in a land of opportunity, feeling neither allegiance to, nor concern for the welfare of, the UK and its native inhabitants.

[Irishguy]

excellent post...u hit the nail on the head....

[Paleo Conservative]

The End of One Law For All?

Not at all. Eventually everyone will have to submit to Sharia law.

[night reader]

Then the push for an Islamic "homeland" inside the UK will be made.

Works for me... a couple of hundred acres surrounded by 12 foot high chain link fence and razor wire! Oh, by the way, they also ought to have surrounding guard towers with machine guns to make certain no skinhead bigots break in and harass the Muslims in their homeland.

[Diogenesis]

In London, on the 30th anniversary of the Islamic Development Bank:
"I am certain that with the support of the Islamic Development Bank
my charities will be able to increase their efforts to address the challenges
we face in Britain's cities and help those younger British Muslims
who feel they have little or no stake in society to play a fuller part
in the country's affairs by promoting community and entrepreneurial development."
[Jan. 26, 2006, Charles, The Islamic Prince of Wales]

To 800 Islamic scholars and terrorists at Cairo's Al-Azhar University
"The recent ghastly strife and anger over the Danish cartoons
shows the danger that comes of our failure to listen and to respect what is precious
and sacred to others. In my view, the true mark of a civilised society
is the respect it pays to minorities and to strangers."
[Mar. 21, 2006, Charles, The Islamic Prince of Wales]

"(Queen Elizabeth II is) one of the severest enemies of Islam (responsible for) crusader laws."
[Nov. 13, 2005, Ayman al- Zawahiri on the mother of Charles, The Islamic Prince of Wales]

---

At the Al Imam Mohammad Bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia,
"I think we need to recover the depth, the subtlety, the generosity of imagination,
the respect for wisdom that so marked Islam in its great ages. ...
What is so distinctive of the great ages of faith surely was that they understood,
as well as sacred texts ... the meaning of God's word for all time and its meaning for this time. …
it was Islam's greatness to understand this in its full depth and challenge. This is what you ...
can give not only to Islam but by example to all the other children of Abraham."
[Mar. 25, 2006, Charles, The Islamic Prince of Wales]

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Aydarus Yusuf has lived in the UK for the past 15 years, but he feels more bound by the traditional law of his country of birth - Somalia - than he does by the law of England and Wales.

Then why don't you go back there, maniac?!?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

So how did this court come about? Some academic lawyers see these alternative legal systems as an inevitable - and welcome - consequence of multiculturalism.

Their parent organization, Attorneys for Legal Invasion by Other Countries and Cultures, could not be reached for comment.

[Gritty]

"Us Somalis, wherever we are in the world, we have our own law. It's not Islamic, it's not religious - it's just a cultural thing."

Fine. Then stay in your own sh!thole of a country with your own lunatic laws.

Stay out of ours...

[redstates4ever]

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