More Relating To The Mad Archbishop of Canterbury

More things related to the mad Archbishop of Canterbury who has called for the official recognition of aspects of Sharia law in Britain.


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I have previously blogged on the Archbishop's madness here and here. And I have posted on a report about the prevelance of forced marraige, female genital mutilation, and honor violence in the UK's Muslim population - all of which have a direct or indirect relation to Islam and Sharia law - here. The report also dicusses the problems Britain faces in trying to end these scourges.

There is a case today before Senior Law Judges in the UK where the plaintiff is asking the Court to hold a "forced" marriage - which are recognized as valid under Sharia law - be held null for lack of consent under the public policy of Britain:

Three senior judges are to rule on the legality of an arranged marriage conducted in the UK under sharia law, a judgment that could have profound consequences for British Muslims.

Last week, as Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, declared it was 'inevitable' that certain parts of Islamic law would be introduced into Britain, the Court of Appeal was told how a 26-year-old British Muslim with learning difficulties was married over the telephone to a woman in Bangladesh. It was arranged by the man's father and deemed lawful under sharia law.

Lord Justice Thorpe, Lord Justice Hall and Lady Justice Hallett were asked by the man's family to reject an earlier decision that, because the groom was unable to give his consent, the marriage was unlawful. Mr Justice Wood said that the true test into the validity of the marriage was 'whether the marriage is so offensive to the conscience of the English court that it should refuse to recognise and give effect to the proper foreign law'.

The judge added that the long-standing British policy to recognise sharia marriages conducted abroad should be offset by the understanding that 'there are occasions when such a marriage cannot be recognised in England, for example where to do so would be repugnant to public policy'.

The case was brought by Westminster city council community services department after the local authority raised concerns about a marriage in which the groom could not possibly have given consent because of his learning disabilities.

The marriage took place in September 2006. Although the bridegroom stayed in London and listened to the ceremony by speakerphone, the ceremony took place in Bangladesh and was declared valid under sharia law.

Yogi Amin of the law firm Irwin Mitchell, representing Westminster council, said: 'This case highlights that the law in this country may clash with sharia law and the cultural wishes of the family.' He added: 'The High Court held that the marriage in this case ... is not valid under English law, and that any marriage entered into by this vulnerable adult whether inside or outside England will not be recognised under English law.'

Legal experts said the case would have ramifications for plans to make forced marriages - often arranged marriages involving youngsters - prohibited in the UK under case law. . . .

Read the article. It should be noted that the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has "block[ed] attempts to criminalise forced marriage."

The reaction to the Archbishop across the pond has been heartening. For example, from the Times today, Minnette Marrin writes: "Archbishop, You Have Committed Treason." Then there is this exceptional article in the Times which does an excellent job of catalouging not only the "backlash" to the Archbishop's remarks, but also gives possibly the most thorough and balanced discussion of Sharia law and its application in other countries that I have seen so far..

The Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, has weighed in on the contreversy, saying "I don't believe in a multicultural society. When people come into this country they have to obey the laws of the land."

And Ali Eteraz writes why he is oposed to Sharia courts in the UK.

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More "Sharia" Problems in the UK

A story in today's Times highlights the problems multiculturalism is bringing to the UK, with the seperatist Muslim Deobandi community exploiting this policy to its fullest. The story here involves the problem of arranged marriage and "honor" violence. The policy of multiculturalism not only protects the seperatists, but prevents others from dealing with the problem because of fear of being attacked as racist.


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This today from the UK newspaper, The Times:

A GIRL of 15 was tricked into a "telephone marriage" ceremony to a Sheffield man with a mental age of five in a ceremony recognised by sharia (Islamic law).

When the girl arrived from Pakistan expecting to meet the handsome man she had been shown in a photograph, she found that he was 40 years old, unemployed and disabled.
To make matters worse, her mother-in-law decided to exploit her attractive looks by forcing her into prostitution.

The family invited men to the family home to rape her before she managed to escape to the police by bolting through the front door. She was taken into care and now lives in a refuge.

The case is highlighted in a report by the Centre for Social Cohesion, which has found that policemen, councillors and taxi drivers are turning a blind eye or even conniving in enforcing the Asian community's strict "moral code" on young women.

The girl's marriage last April was not recognised by the Home Office but was approved by the Islamic Sharia Council in Britain. She is typical of the runaway brides at risk of an "honour killing". According to official figures, 10 to 12 women are murdered in Britain in honour killings each year, but the government has been warned by MPs that this is a serious underestimate.

Police often record the deaths as cases of domestic violence, while other girls are driven to suicide or taken away to their family's country of origin and never seen again. Many Asian parents would rather resort to violence against their children than see their reputation tarnished by the perceived dishonour of allowing them to become "westernised".

The report, Crimes of the Community, claims the problem is no longer an issue of first-generation migrants importing attitudes from "back home" but is "indigenous and self-perpetuating" because it is sustained by third and fourth-generation immigrants.

The study reveals the case of Saamiya, a 16-year-old girl from Birmingham, whose parents were so angry when they discovered she had a boyfriend that they flew her to Pakistan and told her they had arranged a marriage two hours before the ceremony.
"During the Islamic ceremony my dad was standing behind me with one hand on my shoulder and with his other hand he had a gun which was pointed at my back so that I didn't say 'no'," Saamiya said.

"To everyone else it looked natural — he was just standing there stroking my shoulder — but just before he had told me that he would shoot me if I didn't go through with it."

She was rescued from Pakistan by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's forced marriage unit and now lives in a refuge in the Midlands, but has been told that she will be murdered by her brothers. The girl told investigators: "I haven't been back home since then. My brothers say that they want to take me back to Pakistan so they can kill me basically. They'll just pay the police there to keep quiet... I don't want to be killed. I'm only 16. I want to live my life."

The think-tank's report comes after Gordon Brown, the prime minister, said last week that he was extremely concerned that too little was being done to prevent honour crimes.

The study criticises the police and schools for failing to take action in a misguided attempt to avoid offending cultural sensibilities.

Karma Nirvana, a support group in Derby, claims it asked local schools last year to display warning posters produced by the forced marriage unit. It said the schools refused.

Derby council last week denied that the group had made the requests, but the prime minister has pledged to investigate reports that the government unit cannot get its advice posters into schools for fear of upsetting local opinion.

According to the report, women who go to the authorities to seek protection have been tracked down through their mobile phones or even by leaks of confidential information from government databases.

Jasvinder Sanghera, director of Karma Nirvana, said that police who find girls who have escaped from their families often simply return them to their parents where they face further abuse, with some Asian officers actually colluding in crimes.

Sanghera is taking a case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission of a girl who fled her family but was kidnapped by relatives and held prisoner. She claims that a police officer tipped off the family where the girl was staying.

"Police have a long way to go before they get on top of honour crime. There is a lingering fear among officers of being dubbed racist for probing cultural issues. We've got to shake off that myth," she said.

Read the article.

Every aspect of honor violence - from the how to the why of it - conflicts with the morals, ethics and laws of Britain. It has been allowed to take root solely because of the multicultural policies of Labour. The way to end this is to end the policy of multiculturalism. While Gordon Brown expresses his surprise at this latest report on "honor" violence, his government just recognized polygamous marriages under Sharia law. Further, his government is allowing "Sharia" law courts to function, irrespective that they are not yet, at least, recognized under British law. Labour is not ever going to solve Britain's growing problem with radical Islam. It will only to continue to grow.

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UK Muslim Police, Government Officials & MCB Preventing Action Against "Honor" Violence & Forced Marriages

A study in the UK has documented that some Muslims in the police and in the government are returning abused women to their families and, along with the Muslim Council of Britain, are standing in the way of both ending the practice of forced marriages and a crackdown on 'honor' violence. Occidental Britains in the police and government do not interfere for fear of being branded "racist."



This today from the Daily Times:

Some Asians in the police and in Government jobs have been accused of blocking the crackdown against so-called honour killings.

It is alleged they are not only failing to help desperate women trying to flee abuse and arranged marriages but are actively encouraging punishment for those they believe are breaking traditional taboos.

Terrified victims who seek official help are even being tracked down by a network of Asian men working in Government departments and social services, according to a study written by the think-tank Social Cohesion.

One woman was found by her family after she signed on at a Jobcentre where a member of the Asian community was working.

The report also claims some Asian police officers actually return women to their abusive families or refuse to act against men enforcing 'traditional' roles.

Meanwhile, non-Asian officials and police officers are scared of acting against families who abuse their relatives for fear of being branded as racist, the report says.

The study follows the horrific case of 20-year-old Banaz Mahmod, from Mitcham, South London, whose body was found in a suitcase after she was raped and strangled with a bootlace by hitmen hired by her family.

She was killed for falling in love with a man the family disapproved of – despite unsuccessfully asking police for help five times.

In one plea she recorded a video message that helped convict her father and uncle of her murder.

Controversially, the report accuses one of the Government's closest advisers on Muslim matters, the Muslim Council of Britain, of hampering attempts to criminalise forced marriage.

It said: "The MCB has sought to block legislation aimed at ending honour-based violence. Almost all women's groups interviewed for this report say that the MCB has done little or nothing to end honour-based violence...

"In many northern towns...South Asian women are often afraid to seek help because they know that Asians working in local government believe that women who break traditional taboos deserve to be punished."

Report contributor Nazir Afzal, of the Crown Prosecution Service, added: "Domestic violence is not an issue the Muslim Council of Britain wants to know about."

David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth who is on the Home Affairs Select committee investigating forced marriages and domestic violence, said: "Thousands of girls are being taken to Pakistan every year for marriage, although it is best described as abduction and rape." . . .

Read the article. That things like this are finally getting press in Britain is a small glimmer of hope. But do not expect the Labour government, which just approved an element of Sharia law and has, in an act worthy of Orwell, given cover to the Wahhabi / Salafi / Deobandis in the UK to continue their radicalization, to do anything at all about this. It is a measure of the malignancy of multiculturalist philosophy that occidentals are afraid to speak out or expose specific acts for fear of being branded a racist.

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We Need to End Multiculturalism, Redefine 'Honor' & Provide Justice

How do we stop the insane "honor killings" here and in Britain?


Shafilea Ahmed was a 17 year old girl living under in Britain. She wanted to be a lawyer. Her Pakistani parents wanted a different future for her. They wanted her to return to Pakistan to be wed in an arranged marriage. She refused. She disappeared, but her parents never reported her missing. Eventually, her body was discovered along a river bank in Kent. The Daily Mail has her story:

A Muslim girl who was violently opposed to an arranged marriage in Pakistan was murdered, a coroner told an inquest.

Coroner Ian Smith said he was "convinced" 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed was definitely killed.

Her badly decomposed body was discovered five months after her disappearance beside the River Kent at Sedgwick in the Lake District.

Police launched a murder inquiry and arrested her parents, Iftikhar and Farzana, on suspicion of kidnapping the teenager but both were released without charge.

Shafilea had claimed her parents were trying to force her into an unwanted marriage.

Mr Smith, coroner for east and south Cumbria, said: "She was murdered. I'm convinced of that because of the way in which the body was disposed. It had been hidden and she had been taken many miles away from home.

. . . "Her ambition was to live her own life in her own way. To study, to follow a career in the law and to do what she wanted to do. These are just basic fundamental rights and they were denied to her."

The inquest heard Shafilea, who wanted to study and become a solicitor, had suffered an unhappy home life and had previously run away.

She confided in friends and youth workers that her parents were trying to force her into an arranged marriage.

One friend, Mushtag Bagas, had told the inquest Shafilea asked him for help to escape because she was being beaten by her parents and they were going to take her away to be married off.

The hearing was told Shafilea had been removed from school and taken to Pakistan by her parents in February 2003.

Once there, she had been confronted by the possibility of an arranged marriage and had drunk bleach in a desperate cry for help.

Her parents claimed she had mistaken the caustic substance for mouthwash during a power cut at the house where she was staying.

Shafilea had to seek hospital treatment in Pakistan for injuries to her oesophagus and continued outpatient treatment on her return to the UK in May.

But her return to Britain was anything but happy and police found lyrics to songs the teenager had written describing her torment.

In one song, titled Happy Families, the westernised teenager refers to a clash of cultures and her family's preoccupation with "honour".

She wrote: "I don't pretend like we're the perfect family no more. Desire to live is burning. My stomach is turning. But all they think about is honour. I was like a normal teenage kid." In September, Shafilea enrolled in sixth form college and was studying her A-levels to pursue her ambition of becoming a lawyer.

She was last seen at the home she shared with her parents, three sisters and younger brother in Warrington on September 11, 2003.

Despite being missing for more than a week, her family decided not to inform police, claiming she had previously run away from home.

Shafilea was eventually reported missing to police by a former school teacher on September 18, 2003 and a hunt was launched.

Her decomposed body was found in February 2004 close to an isolated river in the Lake District by road workers.

A pathologist who carried out a post-mortem said the teenager had probably been either smothered or strangled.

. . . Superintendent Geraint Jones, the senior investigating officer, vowed the inquiry into the death would not close.

. . . "Now is the time to come forward and help bring to justice the killer or killers of Shafilea Ahmed - a beautiful and vulnerable young girl."

Read the entire article. And this is only one of several recent cases in Britain. There was this recent case where a teenage bride recently arrived from Pakistan as part of an arranged marriage was beaten to death by her Pakistani husband over a period of weeks while her in-laws ignored her ordeal. The beatings were so severe and extensive as to cause damage of a type usually only caused by car crashes. And then there is the daughter of a Pakistani cleric who is being hunted by her family to kill her after she converted to Christianity.

This problem is certainly not limited to Britain, as the recent murder of two Egyptian teenage girls by their father in Texas indicates. How do we get the message to the families that to live in West means that they do not have the right to force the women in their families to act in a certain way - nor to beat or kill them if they do not so act? And how do we provide protection for women involved in such a nightmare inside our borders? I do not know the answers, but I do know that this occurrs with such repteviteness that it needs to be addressed. Multiculturalism - respecting the values of immigrants when they conflict with our own - is simply untennable. If families wish to live in a place where their ancient customs that conflict with Western law and values are respected, it cannot be within our lands. This is intollerable.

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