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| Fundamentally, I agree with you. But then what about people wearing religious paraphernalia in public, like hijabs, yamakas, crosses, etc.? How about the churchbells that ring round-the-clock in Switzerland? And is Islam just a religion, or is it also a political structure? (See Islamic State, Sharia Law, Islamic Republic of Iran, etc.) Or a legal structure, the UK has 85 Shariah Courts according to Wikipedia. And what about traditions that have foundings in religion, like eg. Christmas?
In principal, I'm with you, do what you want and keep it to yourself, however, I'm afraid it's not quite as simple as that. | |
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The point about UK Sharia Courts is they provide arbitration that is voluntary but legally binding.
Nobody can drag you into a Sharia Court if you do not want to use that process.
In principle these are no different from any other form of arbitration procedure in UK which are also voluntary and also legally binding. These are covered by the UK Arbitration Act 1996, (except for Scotland).
England has several different kinds of ecclesiastical courts. These use religious law, such as the Islamic sharia, Jewish halakha and Christian canon law. Church of England courts are now restricted to internal church matters, but not the others.
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