I had Radio 4 on the wireless on the way to picking my daughter up from her afterschool club yesterday. It was Beyond Belief and there was a it about the monarchy and how it is maybe a bit wrong that we couldn’t have a monarch of a different religion to Protestantism, or even a secular monarch. And then it occurred to me. I’m a republican. Not a Republican, but a republican.
I’d never given it much thought and never connected the two things, my athiesm and my ever-so slight affection of the monarchy.
I don’t believe in god, in an all powerful being that knows all and is either controlling us, like a Big Brother director or just sitting back watching like a BB viewer. There is no such thing as reincarnation and karma is, once looked at, rubbish. That’s not to say there aren’t things we cannot explain, just that we cannot explain them yet.
I quite like the monarchy. I think the Queen does a good job of erm, representing us when she visits abroad and she hasn’t poot a foot wrong for many a year. and on the whole they’re ok (putting aside the civil list, which is a different mattter).
But can we have a secular monarchy? I don’t think so.
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Now, I don’t profess to know a lot about Sharia, or in fact anything, but I d believe that it is not going to cause a problem for the British legal system or British society at large.
I confess I didn’t read or listen to what the Archbishop said or didn’t say, but then I don’t need to.
Why?
Well, Sharia is described as archaic, prejudices against women, brutal as well as having all sorts of other crimes levelled against it by people who know as much as I do about it.
These accusations may well be true in certain countries that use it as a form of control or because it is misinterpreted. Or it may well be brutal and prejudiced against women. I don’t know. And to be honest when it comes to Sharia in Britian, I don’t give a shit.
I don’t give a shit because it’s not going to happen. Not like the scaremongers reckon, anyway.
To pick a couple of points that are brought up so readily, because being lazy, I’m not going to do a long post (do I ever?) and go through everything piece by piece.
With that in mind, one of the obvious protests is the two tier legal system.
There, apparently already is, for example Jewish Beth Din Courts. Although these can only be used in civil dispute and not only must both sides be Jewish, both sides must accept the authority of the court. Even then as the example in the link says about divorce
And in the case of divorce, the parties must still obtain a civil divorce alongside the religious one
So the Beth Din is in addition to, not in stead of the legal system. It is no different to any other type of arbitration, religious or not (although making sure that each party is there under their own free will is another matter that, again, is not exclusive to Muslims).
There is nothing, in principle, to Muslims doing this now, and I suspect they already do.
As far as the other scary stories about oppression of women and chopping off hands,I cannot see any law being enacted in this day and age that would exempt certain groups of people from receiving various human rights and handing control of those rights to various non-government controlled bodies (Government controlled bodies, yes, I can see that happening, and not to certain groups, unless you count the UK population asa whole) that would enable the male population to dictate what the women wear and when they can go out etc.
And brutal punishments like stoneings and chopping off hands? C’mon get real.
Don’t worry, it ain’t gonna happen, not in a scary ‘Muslims want to impose Islam on us all’ Daily Mail type of way.
Update:
Bugger. I forgot to include related posts:
Chicken Yoghurt
Mike Power
Sticks & Carrots
Lenin
Septicle Isle has done several posts
Another update:
Via PDF: mmm. very interesting.
