They Shoot Women, Don't They?

It's the year 2008.

I just figured I'd go ahead and remind you of that before getting into any detail about a story in today's UK Daily Mail that's garnering quite a bit of attention. Apparently, thanks to a loophole in Britain's legal code -- specifically the 1996 Arbitration Act -- Islamic "sharia courts" are now insisting that their rulings be honored as binding under UK law. Basically what it means is that Muslims living in Britain can have their civil cases heard by religious officials and that the verdicts of those officials will be enforced by the secular British government, just like any other court decision would.

The problem of course -- aside from the very notion of a supposedly enlightened state legal system indulging age old nonsensical superstition, which is obscenely ridiculous at face -value -- is that sharia law is notoriously inequitable toward women. (And if ever there were a blatant understatement, that last sentence was it, considering that we're talking about a system of laws that still condones and perpetuates the brutal practice of honor killing.)

By allowing British sharia courts to decide, say, divorce or domestic violence cases -- which some reportedly already have -- the UK government is undoing hundreds of years of civil rights advancements and granting the unforgivably backward among its population the authority to supercede the very system of laws it holds dear and which should apply across the board to those who call Great Britain home.

At the risk of sounding jingoistic: You live in a country; you abide by its laws. You don't get to bring your own food to the party then demand that your host cooks it for you.

The reason ancient sharia laws are being given a pass, though? Or, ironically, the Jewish Beth Din courts for that matter?

Because civilized nations still see no alternative but to prostrate themselves at the foot of inane religious beliefs.

Now it looks like Britain will be in the unenviable position of having to enforce some of those beliefs.

Here -- now -- in the year 2008.