Fatwas

Well another day of bright sunshine and unseasonable temperatures here. Frogs are spawning, daffodils are out and much of the natural world thinks that is is spring. Next week it is just as likely to snow as anything else, we know that our climate has a great way of biting your arse when you are not looking.

For those who expect me to rant about the Archbishop and his pronouncements on Sharia Law, I am not going to disappoint you.
I did go to the trouble of finding out a little bit about what he said and something about Sharia law too, and although what he said is probably horribly near the truth, one cannot help feeling that he should have kept his mouth shut.

In a time when the population in general is sick to death of the strife generated in the name of Islam, his speech will do nothing to engender more understanding between the two communities. If anything what he has done is to add fuel to the racism and bigotry that grows with the National Front and the British National party.

Sharia Law has a very bad press, and that to some extent is justified. It was Sharia law that was used to issue a Fatwa against Salman Rushdie, just for publishing a book which he used to express his rational criticism of Islam. In theory at least he is still condemned to death for expressing an opinion. In theory, should a Muslim see the light and decide to leave Islam, that too is punishable by death.

Though i can see that there are cultural problems that may be better sorted by some alternative means, there is no justification for having two sets of laws within this country, just because one , albeit a growing, section of the community sees British law as irrelevant to them. We already have a group within the country - they are called criminals and some of them are in prison because they don't agree with the laws of the land. To even suggest that Sharia law should be embraced within our own legal system will be anathema to the majority of the population, who would rather that those who wish to be ruled this way, should go to a country like Afghanistan, where Sharia Rules OK!

Any steps in that direction here is a backward step towards a mediaeval suppression of women and men and does nothing to encourage the assimilation of many wonderful people into our society.

So having got that out of the way, i can return to the greenhouse and try to get mack in, all the things that i took out this morning prior to giving it a good clean.