“Baroness Cox insists her chief motivation is protecting vulnerable women who are hoodwinked by sharia courts into believing that these courts have the power to make judgments. Few will disagree with the idea of reining in any attempt to usurp British law. But I cannot help feeling slightly uncomfortable that the chief proponent of this Bill is the kind of person who extends an invitation to a virulent Islamaphobe like Geert Wilders.”

Jerome Taylor interviews the author of the Arbitration and Mediation Services (Equality) Bill in the Independent.

Meanwhile, over at the Jewish Chronicle, Melanie Phillips has come out in support of Cox’s bill, and explains why Sharia tribunals have nothing in common with Beth Din courts: “Jews believe that the law of the land is the law…. By contrast, Muslims promoting sharia believe that Islamic law must supersede the law of the land because sharia is divinely ordained and recognises no superior secular authority.”