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The question of Islam and Muslims in Britain has yet again become the central topic of discussion in the UK. The issue is never far from enjoying top place in the media agenda, but two things have brought it back to “lead story” status over the past 24 hours.
The first is a seemingly innocuous statement by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, to the effect that there was no reason why Sharia principles could not be used in “mediation or other forms of alternative dispute resolution''.
Sharia suffered from “widespread misunderstanding'' by the rest of the world, Lord Phillips added. He said: “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. It must be recognised, however, that any sanctions for a failure to comply with the agreed terms of mediation would be drawn from the laws of England and Wales.''
The Lord Chief Justice told his audience that severe physical punishments such as flogging, stoning and the cutting off of hands would not be acceptable. He added: “There can be no question of such courts sitting in this country, or such sanctions being applied here. So far as the law is concerned, those who live in this country are governed by English and Welsh
Shahid Malik’s image has been some way short of a revolutionary, or of being in the forefront in the fight to get Muslims in the UK a fair deal for themselves. He is the first and so far only British minister and at the age of just 40, he has every reason to be looking forward to a very successful political career. |
law and subject to the jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.'' What it all came down to was no more than a suggestion that Sharia could be used to settle family disagreements and arguments over money mainly perhaps outside the courts of law, that too as long it did not clash with English law.
But even that was enough to get the media going. The tabloids, from whom quite frankly one does not expect better, have had a field day raising fears about Britain turning Muslim and even The Independent, perhaps in keeping with its new tabloid format, ran with a headline as alarming as “Sharia law ‘coming to Britain’”.
Four months ago in February, the Archbishop of Canterbury had caused an earthquake of similar Richter proportions when he had mentioned in a radio programme that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system
and that adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion. Put the two together and the impression that some papers will give you is that it is only a matter of days before Britain is declared a caliphate
But the other and more important major occurrence that has brought the matter to the fore has been an interview by Britain’s first Muslim minister, Shahid Malik, who has warned of the sharp rise in anti-Islamic prejudice, saying that Muslims today feel like the ‘Jews of Europe’. In the context of the western value system, nothing could be more hard hitting. For the last six decades the west has been trying to come to terms with the fact that the worst pogrom in the history of the world was perpetrated not by some mediaeval barbarian, uneducated in ‘Christian values’, but by people who were at the centre of western Christian civilisation, having made innumerable outstanding contributions to western music, poetry, science and indeed had led the way in the Protestant revolution. Speaking to a Channel 4 TV documentary, Shahid Malik warned that many 
British Muslims now felt “aliens in their own country,” and that he himself had been the target of racist attacks. “Somehow there is a message out there that it is okay to target people as long as it’s Muslims. And you don’t have to worry about the facts, and people will turn a blind eye. Mr Malik said that the negative portrayal of Muslims in the British media, including a story run be several national newspapers in December 2007 wrongly stating that staff in Dewsbury Hospital – Dewsbury being Shahid Malik’s home town – had been ordered to turn the beds of Muslim patients towards Makkah five times a day, was a key example of how Islam was being alienated from the mainstream in the UK. He argued vehemently that the actions of a few individuals should not be used to vilify the religion, for in the case of terrorists of other faiths, their faith is never blamed as being the basis of their actions. He said: “The last bomber in this country before the 7/7 bombing was a chap called David Copeland. He bombed Brixton, Brick Lane, and Soho. He killed three, he maimed and injured over 80. He doesn’t reflect white and Christian opinion any more than these vile individuals on the 7th of July (represented Islam). And that’s really the message we’ve got to get across, that evil exists in all walks of life across all religions but it doesn’t represent religion.”
Shahid Malik’s image has been some way short of a revolutionary, or of being in the forefront in the fight to get Muslims in the UK a fair deal for themselves. He is the first and so far only British minister and at the age of just 40, he has every reason to be looking forward to a very successful political career. There is also every reason to believe that he is aware of this; he, along with all the three other Muslims in the House of Commons had, after all, voted for the extension of detention in terror cases to 42 days without charge. It is unclear how his comments will go down with the British establishment – and yes, Pakistan is not the only country in the world that has “an establishment”. After all, it is absurd to argue that if Muslims feel like the Jews of Europe, it is the media and the media only that is responsible for this. The TV programme that carries Shahid Malik’s interview is accompanied by a poll highlighting the polarisation of opinion among Britain’s nearly two million Muslims who say they have had to face a marked increase in hostility since the 7/7 bombings in London. The survey found that 51% of Britons blame Islam to some degree for the July attacks while more than a quarter of British Muslims believe that Islamic and British values are incompatible. However, while 90% of Muslims said they felt attached to Britain, eight out of ten said they felt more religious prejudice against Islam since the 7/7 attacks.
All of Shahid Malik’s fine words notwithstanding, most media around the world, both electronic and print, find it almost impossible to resist the temptation to hitch a ride on a popular bandwagon. Whether it is the judges’ issue in Pakistan or the question of Islamophobia in Britain, it is the media that creates the tide and then sails on it. The danger is that sometimes the tide threatens to turn into a tidal wave and by the time those who have created the tide wake up to the danger, it is usually too late.
