I saw this today:
http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1242014/War-march-fanati...


Anjem Choudary
-A Muslim living in the UK
-Claiming £25,000 in benefits each year
-Does not recognise British law.
-Criticises the war in Afghanistan and has written to dead soldiers’ families, saying he has ‘no sympathy for them whatsoever’.
-Has set up and runs courts of sharia law.
-Performs marriages under sharia law and tells people not to register them.

Sharia law effectively allows the 'husband' to abuse the 'wife', without the usual protections and support offered under British law since the marriage isn't recognised.



Is sharia law bad?

In 1998 Turkey dissolved a political party (the 'Welfare Party') that wanted to introduce sharia law into Turkey. Feeling this was unfair, the party appealed to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The details of the case can be found here, on page 2: ECHR Hearing

The ECHR rejected the party's claims. Quoting from the hearing:
Note: Convention refers to the European Convention of Human Rights.

"A political party whose leaders incited violence or put forward a policy which failed to respect democracy or which was aimed at the destruction of democracy and the flouting of the rights and freedoms recognised in a democracy, could not lay claim to the Convention's protection against penalties imposed on those grounds."

"The Court found that sharia was incompatible with the fundamental principles of democracy as set forth in the Convention."

"It was difficult to declare one's respect for democracy and human rights while at the same time supporting a regime based on sharia, which clearly diverged from Convention values, particularly with regard to it's criminal law and criminal procedure, it's rules on the legal status of women and the way it intervened in all spheres of private and public life in accordance with religious percepts."



I found a specific case of sharia law's involvement with marriage.
CNN Link

A 10year old girl in Yemen was married off to a man in his 30s. After being beaten and raped several times she ran to a courthouse to get a divorce under sharia law. "Nujood got her divorce, but based on the principles of Islamic Sharia law, her husband was compensated, not prosecuted. Nujood was ordered to pay him more than $200."



I don't want Anjem Choudary in my country, what he stands for, and what he does is wrong, immoral and offensive. I wish we could do more to protect ourselves from sharia law and the dangers it brings. I dislike religion a little more each day...