I have no respect or tolerance for Sharia

By Ian O'Doherty
Monday December 03 2007

So the story gets more interesting. The so-called "Qatif Girl", the truly heroic woman who now faces 200 lashes after being gang-raped had more than just the authorities of this savage kingdom to worry about -- it has recently emerged that her own brother tried to kill her when he realised she had been repeatedly violated.

Here in the West, if a brother discovers his sister has just been gang-raped he will have murder on his mind, for sure, but it would be directed towards those responsible, not his sister.

But in the twisted world of male Islamic pride, the poor girl who had been through an experience so traumatic that it is actually impossible to even contemplate, the family's spurious "honour" maintained precedence.

Although a world where "honour" consists of killing a rape victim is a world where "honour" has a very different meaning from how we understand it.

And that sense of honour being besmirched is what has driven those charming Sudanese chaps to go completely mental at the "leniency" shown to Gillian Gibbons.

Once their Friday prayers to the most merciful Allah were over, they spent the day demanding that the woman -- who was surely misguided in going to such a backwards hell-hole in the first place -- be executed by firing squad.

But what has been particularly nauseating has been the British government's handling of the affair. According to the Foreign Office, they were "very disappointed" at the verdict.

Really? Why didn't they simply say that the next aid bundle to Sudan, worth nearly £200m, was off the table and if anything further happened to the woman then crippling sanctions would be applied?

But no, instead we got a load of mealy-mouthed rubbish about how this was a localised incident, that it didn't represent Islam and hopefully we can all hold hands and sing songs around the proverbial camp fire. But the problem is that this is representative of Islam.

Anywhere in the world where Sharia law is practised, such barbaric and disgusting practises take place on a regular basis.

Don't believe me? Well, Iran has been in the news for the most recent example of a woman being sentenced to death by stoning. But they are also partial to hanging gay people and women with too much attitude.

And they quite like a bit of eye-gouging as well, when the mood takes them, such as the woman who had her eyes gouged out in a public square because she fought off a man who tried to rape her. Check that out on the internet when you fancy losing your lunch.

Or what about precious little Palestine, where 50 women have been killed by their own families this year alone, and where the beating of women who aren't sufficiently "modest" is common under the fanatics of Hamas.

Or Afghanistan, where women are routinely raped and murdered by family and strangers with impunity? Or Chechnya? Or Somalia? Or anywhere Sharia is practised.

And yet we are constantly instructed by the multicultural, liberal, chattering classes to show "respect" and "tolerance" towards Muslims who want to practise their cultural heritage in Western countries.

Well, you know what? I don't have any respect or tolerance for not just the actions, but also the mentality.

And before you start to think that this is something that is happening thousands of miles away, refer yourself back to the case of Birmingham woman Banaz Mahmoud, who was kidnapped, raped and tortured by her uncles last year before being killed and buried in a suitcase. Her crime? She had a boyfriend. She was one of at least 12 women killed by their families in Britain last year to protect their "honour".

And before we start to think that these are isolated incidents by extremists, the Muslim Council of Britain, the supposed "moderate" wing of mainstream Islam, still claim that death is too good for Salman Rushdie and they regularly rail against gays.

Oh, and for the record, 40pc of British Muslims want Sharia to be instituted in Britain. Hardly a lunatic minority, surely?

While we don't have the same sort of problems here -- yet -- we still have a situation where Ali Selim, the chief spokesman for Irish Muslims and a supposed moderate, refuses to condemn Osama bin Laden, and thinks that what goes on with those two women in Sudan and Saudi are "internal matters" and none of our business.

And, of course, anyone who writes about this is immediately accused of being Islamophobic and racist.

Well, I am Islamophobic in the sense that I'm phobic towards the notion of treating women as third-class citizens, flogging people and killing them for having an independent thought.

I'm phobic towards the idea of killing Theo Van Gogh because he made a movie they didn't like. I'm phobic towards killing a Japanese translator because he worked on the Satanic Verses.

I'm also rather phobic to the notion that the Muslim world has the right to riot and kill each other because of a few unfunny cartoons in an obscure Danish publication.

As regards the spurious accusation of racism which is bandied about against anyone who criticises Islam, let me make this clear -- you cannot change the colour of your skin. Pigmentation is irrelevant. But you can dislike someone's superstition and in Islam's case, even among other superstitions, they are particularly horrible.

No, my Muslim friend, it's your religion and your Sharia law I am criticising. It has nothing to do with the colour of your skin. And you know what? In a free democracy we still have the right to say things like that.

- Ian O'Doherty