40% of British Muslims want Sharia Law.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Nothing remotely suprising about a large minority of a minority group wanting that sort of thing; Scotland still has it's Catholic schools and I'm pretty sure that Manchester and some other cities with a history of Irish immigration do as well (they were still around in the '80's at the very least). And then there's enforced bi-lingualism in Wales (I still think that having Welsh names on signs in the likes of Monmouth, Welshpool or Radnor is deeply comical). Cornwall used to have seperate courts for Tin miners until the 19th century, County Durham had it's own courts until the '70's or so (and I'm pretty sure these were organised along semi-religious lines for a long time)... it's not like supporting some form of two-tier system in anything is especially unusual or especially sinister. Frankly I'm a little suprised that the number in favour wasn't higher.

As for Sharia law itself... it's extremely disorganised and is barely useful as a legal system (and it's debatable what is and isn't Sharia etc), not that most Muslims are aware of that (just as most Britons in general aren't aware how absurdly byzantine the legal system is). Besides most people wouldn't mind if the death penalty was brought back for serious offenses; how is this *any* worse than that? (especially when you bear in mind how the death penalty was traditionaly applied here).

As for the general topic of integration and all that; a lot still needs to be done about that (and the fault for the lack of integration is NOT repeat NOT usually the fault of the various Kashmiri/Punjabi/Bangladeshi/etc communities. Thinks like the Biradari system haven't exactly helped, but were it not for ambitious local politicians it'd have died off years ago. The main reason for the lack of integration among Bangladeshis is the racist policies of [then] Liberal Democrat controlled Tower Hamlets council in the '80's and '90's) but overall the pattern is no where near as bleak as the media likes to paint it (the media hasn't got a clue on this sort of issue).

...and finally... the record of pollsters at polling Muslims is *not* impressive... to put it mildly... Labour's majority would be quite a lot smaller if it was...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Oh, Pym... have you *ever* actually met any Muslims? I think you should come to Bradford at some point; the food is very nice for one thing...

Random fact: if polls are to be trusted, the % of Britons who don't believe in Evolution is higher than the % of British Muslims who want Sharia Law in predominantly Muslim areas*

*Not that there are actually many of these... I can make a list if anyone is interested...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes I've met some.

When? How many? Where were they from? And for how long?

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No they weren't
 

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I suppose you think that the Black Helicopters control everything as well, right?

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...about as well as most South Asian immigrants who happen to be Muslim have fitted into British society...
And both have fitted in better than blacks in American society.

So?

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That's just ignorant paranoia. Sorry, nothing else to call it.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

To compare the preference of some Catholics for Catholic schools to Sharia law is absurd.  Sending a child to Catholic school doesn't affect the rest of society.

I should have been clearer; the Catholic schools in question are state schools (not private) and were largely set up due to pressure from a large immigrant community (in this case Irish).
Now the effect of wanting seperate schools isn't the same as wanting a seperate legal system in mostly immigrant areas, but the reasons for *wanting* it are exactly the same.
Or for that matter, the Islamic bank accounts (ie; no interest) that are now availiable in a couple of places.

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No it isn't; this wasn't a reference to the death penalty in the U.S, but the way it was applied when it was still the law here (which was sadistic in the extreme). Before certain reforms in the 20th century, English law was every bit as needlessly cruel, sadistic, arbitary and pointlessly brutal as the worst aspects of the most warped interpretations of Sharia in certain areas (I'm thinking of northern Nigeria here).

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I don't think that many people are calling for the introduction of stoning-for-not-covering-up.

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The poll didn't ask about the rest of society; the question was whether they wanted Sharia law in *predominantly Muslim areas* (but that wasn't what the headline was o/c).

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What has that got to do with this exactly?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I don't care whether Sharia Law is 'good' or not. The UK is not, never has been, and never will be a majority Islamic nation.

Well no, it hasn't and won't be one. And oddly enough the question didn't ask about the U.K as a whole (although the headline writers cunningly warped the poll to make it look as if it did).
O/c it also misses the point that there's been no *demand* from Muslims for Sharia law; it's a bit like asking people about the death penalty in a way... in that there might be some vague desire for it, but it's not seen as something to worry about.

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A lot of people think that, but it's nowhere near true (I think that more might than go to Sunday CofE services though; then again in terms of Sunday services the CofE has been behind the Catholics for years and might be behind the Free Churches now) Besides, Mosques aren't actually especially religious things for most British Muslims; it's a community thing. Most of the religious stuff goes on at home.