Huff Post: The rise of Islamist fundamentalism in Britain and worldwide, and attempts to impose elements of Sharia law in the UK and many other nations, has reinvigorated support for secularism – the separation of the State and religion.
This was the focus of last Saturday’s conference in London on “Sharia law, apostasy and secularism,” which bought together Muslims, ex-Muslims and people of other faiths and no faith. Half the participants and speakers were women; many of them women of Muslim heritage – a reflection of the victimisation that they have suffered at the hands of Islamist extremists, either in the UK or in their countries of origin.
Although Sharia law is not the law of the UK, there have been repeated and on-going attempts by Islamists to apply Sharia principles in law and education, in a bid to make these public institutions Sharia-accommodating. This is a direct threat to human rights; most notably to the human rights of UK Muslims.
Examples include the Law Society’s guidance on drawing up Sharia wills that facilitated discrimination against women, children and non-Muslims. It was only withdrawn after months of protests. Some UK universities have allowed compulsory gender segregation in on-campus Islamic Society meetings and even today most have no guidelines to prevent such discrimination. There are Islamic faith schools that restrict music and dance lessons and limit the participation of girls in sports. They force the wearing of the hijab, don’t teach evolution and fail to provide HIV, sex and relationship education to safeguard the health and welfare of pupils. Their main focus is Islamic religious education, to the relative neglect of other subjects.