“The Government’s craven appeasement of militant Islam is plumbing new depths. Under the guise of promoting tolerance, Ministers are tearing apart the legal fabric that was once part of the bedrock of our civilised society.
“In a shameful move, Jack Straw’s Ministry of Justice has announced that the Muslim sharia code, notorious for its oppression of women, is to be endorsed by the British judicial system for the first time….
“This new act of surrender to the ideology of Islamic separatism runs counter to all the assurances that Labour politicians have given in recent months.
“When the Daily Express revealed last year that sharia courts were informally operating in Muslim areas of London and northern England, we were accused of ‘scaremongering’….
“It is inevitable that there will now be a vast expansion of the role of sharia courts within Muslim areas. This creation of a parallel system of justice makes a mockery of the essential principle, stretching back to the signing of Magna Carta in 1215, that everyone is equal before the law….
“This is not the road to tolerance but the very opposite – in place of integration we will see distrust, suspicion and antagonism as Muslim hardliners ruthlessly expand sharia’s role, creating enclaves of bigotry and oppression….
“The Government has adopted this stance entirely for reasons of cynicism and fear. On the one hand, Labour is desperate to win the votes of the two-million strong Muslim community. It is no coincidence that more than a quarter of the voters in Jack Straw’s Blackburn constituency are Muslim. On the other, like all too many Western governments, Labour is fearful of standing up to the zealots as every Muslim demand is accompanied by the clenched fist of violence or the finger hovering over the bomb control device.
“That is why the creeping Islamification of Britain will continue – not because Muslims have overwhelming numbers but because our leaders are unwilling to defend our values. The adoption of sharia is another milestone in our slide towards national suicide.”
Leo McKinstry in the Daily Express, 27 October 2008