Much news has been made of the statement made by the head of the Church of England yesterday when he was quoted as saying that some adoption of Shari’ah in the UK is unavoidable.

Ignoring all the hype over such a statement especially during a time when pretty much everything Islamic is under attack from pretty much every corner what was it that he was saying that is so wrong.

The fact is it shows just how misunderstood the Islamic faith is amongst the majority of people. The fact that after so much attention has been shown on Islam, that people are still not aware that Islam and Shari’ah are not separate things is amazing to me. The simple fact is that Shari’ah already exists wherever there are Muslims for the simple fact that every Muslim follows it as part of their faith. Those that are living under different legal systems such as those in the UK must conform to the UK legal system and practices and must accept the punishments and judgements that are passed by that system however, when it comes to their lives they must conduct their lives in accordance with the Shari’ah.

An example of this would be in the areas of finance. Although living in the UK and therefore legally under UK law allowed to participate in Interest(riba) bearing financial products such as bank accounts, loans and mortgages Muslims should not where at all possible use any of these products as according to the Shari’ah Interest is completely forbidden, instead they should be using non-interest bearing accounts and other products for the purposes of loans and mortgages. Where gambling in the UK is legal under specific conditions, Muslims should not practice this as it is forbidden under the Shari’ah. Where consumption of Alcohol is allowed under UK legal law, Muslims should not be doing so as it is forbidden under Shari’ah. Finally, perhaps a more visible example of this would be in the large presence of Halal butchers and meat throughout the UK even in non-Muslim retailers such as Asda and Sainsburys. Although under UK law one can eat meat of any choosing under Shari’ah law Muslims must eat Halal meat and abstain from eating pork much the same as Jewish people and their Kosher meat. Indeed Muslims and Jews are both allowed to eat of either Kosher or Halal meat where their own preference is not available.

To create the hysteria that is now being created in the media allowing for Muslims to be demonised and have their faith attacked in under a new banner of “No to Shari’ah” is of no help to anyone is this country or the image of how Muslims countries seeing what we really think about their faith.

There was one final thing i wanted to touch on with regards to this, people often quote parts of the Shari’ah they claim to be most barbaric such as cutting the hands of thieves and execution by stoning. I just find my self wondering if people truly understand the purpose of these laws as deterrents. I look at the criminal justice systems around the world for most of the major western powers and they are all struggling under the burden of having to contain so many people. The simple fact is that none of our punishments truly deter criminals from their actions and even after their punishments many will re-offend due to the little fear which punishment holds for them. As I understand it the reason the punishments are so serious and one could argue barbaric is that it is meant to act as a serious deterrent. The idea is that after one person has had their hand cut of for stealing or one person has been stoned to death you can bet your life that no one is going to want to do that again. The laws do not exist because Islam is some blood crazy religion looking to chop peoples hands off or because Muslims like the idea of stoning people to death.

I am not for one minute suggesting that Shari’ah law should be applied to the UK or to Non-Muslim people but whether you like it or not, Muslims all over the world adhere to the tenets of Shari’ah because it is a fundamental part of their faith and something which they must follow.