Rather than adopting Islamic family law (with "honour killings",
forced marriages etc) in a futile attempt to "curb extremists", 
why not crack down on the Muslim extremists, and deal with them 
in such a way that they will be unable to wage violent jihad
against the host nation. Much of the funding and training for
"extremism" seems to come from countries that have the "benefit"
of Islamic law - Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran etc.

You don't fight the "dark ages" by turning off the lights!

=====================================================================

Let us adopt Islamic family law to curb extremists, Muslims tell Kelly
By Colin Brown
Published: 15 August 2006

Muslim leaders have urged Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for
Communities, to support Islamic family law in Britain to stop youths
joining Islamic extremists.

Following three hours of meeting with Muslim groups in Whitehall, Ms
Kelly said: "There is a battle of hearts and minds to be won within
the Muslim community, working with the Muslim community to take on the
terrorist and extremist elements that are sometimes found within it,
not just in the Muslim community, but elsewhere as well."

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, who was also at the meeting,
is today expected to meet Muslim Labour MPs who have demanded a change
in Government foreign policy on the Middle East.

Mr Prescott and Ms Kelly made it clear that the threat of terrorism
could not be used to force a change of policy abroad. Ms Kelly said
she did not accept that British foreign policy should be dictated by 
a small group of people.

"What I do accept is that there is a lot of anger and frustration out
there in the community that needs to be properly expressed and vented
through the democratic process," she said.

Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary general of the Union of Muslim
Organisations of the UK and Ireland, said he had asked for holidays 
to mark Muslim festivals and Islamic laws to cover family affairs 
which would apply only to Muslims.

Dr Pasha said he was not seeking sharia law for criminal offences 
but he said Muslim communities in Britain should be able to operate
Islamic codes for marriage and family life. "In Scotland, they have 
a separate law. It doesn't mean they are not part of the UK. We are
asking for Islamic law which covers marriage and family life. We are
willing to co-operate but there should be a partnership. They should
understand our problems then we will understand their problems."

He said that Ms Kelly had said she would "look sympathetically at all
the suggestions" that had been made. He added: "She agreed with my
suggestion [that] it should be a partnership approach."

The meeting was the latest in a series aimed at showing the Government
is listening to the Muslim community. The role of co-ordinating the
meetings was switched from the Home Office to the Communities
department to move the focus from law and order to a wider agenda.

Yousif al-Khoei, of the Al-Khoei Foundation, said they had discussed
with the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board "how we could
channel some of the frustrations of the youth into peaceful channels".
He said: "It's a question of working at local level as well as
national solutions.

"The main message for me is that nobody is taking the problems lightly
and the time for talking is over. We need to have a co-ordinated
attempt to tackle the problems. If we don't, we may regret this for
generations to come."

Labour MPs with large Muslim communities in their constituencies have
expressed concern about the pressure for sharia in Britain.

Muslim leaders have urged Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for
Communities, to support Islamic family law in Britain to stop youths
joining Islamic extremists.

Following three hours of meeting with Muslim groups in Whitehall, Ms
Kelly said: "There is a battle of hearts and minds to be won within
the Muslim community, working with the Muslim community to take on the
terrorist and extremist elements that are sometimes found within it,
not just in the Muslim community, but elsewhere as well."

John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, who was also at the meeting,
is today expected to meet Muslim Labour MPs who have demanded a change
in Government foreign policy on the Middle East.

Mr Prescott and Ms Kelly made it clear that the threat of terrorism
could not be used to force a change of policy abroad. Ms Kelly said
she did not accept that British foreign policy should be dictated by a
small group of people.

"What I do accept is that there is a lot of anger and frustration out
there in the community that needs to be properly expressed and vented
through the democratic process," she said.

Dr Syed Aziz Pasha, secretary general of the Union of Muslim
Organisations of the UK and Ireland, said he had asked for holidays to
mark Muslim festivals and Islamic laws to cover family affairs which
would apply only to Muslims.

Dr Pasha said he was not seeking sharia law for criminal offences but
he said Muslim communities in Britain should be able to operate
Islamic codes for marriage and family life. "In Scotland, they have a
separate law. It doesn't mean they are not part of the UK. We are
asking for Islamic law which covers marriage and family life. We are
willing to co-operate but there should be a partnership. They should
understand our problems then we will understand their problems."

[...]

Full article at "The Independent" UK
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1219289.ece


Cheers, Steve..

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