You wake up one day and your country is gone. You go back to London and your city is gone. When I met with Melanie Phillips to hear her speak here Melanie Phillips said that the advance of the global jihad is being facilitated by a wholesale collapse of western values and national identity within Europe and in which Britain is taking the lead. Paralyzed by minority rights and the terror of Islamist violence, Phillips argues that the British establishment is even now failing to confront the religious fanaticism in its midst and is choosing instead to appease it. Meanwhile, the post-modernist onslaught upon the concept of truth itself has produced such confusion that, instead of standing up to the ideas that threaten democracy, many in Britain now subscribe to the false narrative of those who are laying siege to their society. This disorientation of the once-implacable British bulldog has major lessons and warnings for America as well.
Listen to Phillips remarks here (hat tip David for MP3)
Download melanie_phillips_51706_at_meforum.mp3
Sharia law is spreading as authority wanes
Sharia, derived from several sources including the Koran, is applied
to varying degrees in predominantly Muslim countries but it has no binding status in Britain.
However, the BBC Radio 4 programme Law in Action produced evidence yesterday that it was being used by some Muslims as an alternative to English criminal law. Aydarus Yusuf, 29, a youth worker from Somalia, recalled a stabbing case that was decided by an unofficial Somali "court" sitting in Woolwich, south-east London.
Mr Yusuf said a group of Somali youths were arrested on suspicion of stabbing another Somali teenager. The victim's family told the police it would be settled out of court and the suspects were released on bail.
A hearing was convened and elders ordered the assailants to compensate their victim. "All their uncles and their fathers were there," said Mr Yusuf. "So they all put something towards that and apologised for the wrongdoing."
Although Scotland Yard had no information about that case yesterday, a spokesman said it was common for the police not to proceed with assault cases if the victims decided not to press charges.
However, the spokesman said cases of domestic violence, including rape, might go to trial regardless of the victim's wishes.
