Mullah raj in Londonistan

Muslim fanatics declare ‘sharia’h zones’

As hundreds of bright yellow posters announcing the enforcement of ‘Islamic rules’ were stuck on lamp posts and bus stops across those parts of London that are home to a majority of the city’s immigrant Muslim population, the eastern boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Newham along with a few others suddenly found themselves to be declared as “sharia’h-controlled zones.” The demarcating ‘authority’ in this case is a banned Islamist group that goes by the tacky moniker of Islam4UK which wishes to sow the seeds of an ‘Islamic Emirate’ in Britain. But that is for the long term; for the moment, the ‘sharia’h-controlled zones’, where smoking, drinking, gambling and use of drugs are banned and music, concerts, free mixing of the sexes are prohibited are meant to counter the ‘evil influences’ of Western civilisation. These, along with 25 other areas that the British Government has earmarked as known for violent religious extremism, are supposed to be the Muslim community’s response to the “drunkenness and loutishness, prostitution and the sort of thug-like attitude you get in British cities,” according to Anjem Choudhary who led the poster campaign. Without making light of his complaints about poor, immigrant neighbourhoods that are often squalid, filthy and crime-infested, the fact remains that vigilantism, that too of the Islamist variety, should have no place in a mature society that is governed by the rule of law. Indeed, the very idea of moral policing, least of all when carried out by Islamist gangs of dubious distinction, should be abhorrent to any person who values democracy. To that extent, it is good to know that the local police have already taken down the offensive posters and are now looking for the culprits to bring them to book.

And while that does take care of the problem to a certain extent for the time being, the fact remains that several Muslim majority neighbourhoods, not just in London but in cities across Europe, are still very much at risk of becoming “sharia’h-controlled zones” in the near future, especially given the rate at which fanatical Muslims from developing countries are migrating to Western countries and seeking shelter on grounds of poverty and discrimination at home. Western Governments, caught between promoting social diversity and allowing democratic freedoms, have been traditionally reluctant to clamp down on errant minority behaviour. As a result, such instances of religious fanaticism have gone unchecked for decades and now 21st century Britain must deal with emboldened Islamists imposing sharia’h in the heart of Western civilization. Hopefully, the British authorities will soon realise that there is no merit in tolerating any form of either minority bullying or religious extremism in the name of liberal values.

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