A reflection on the Shari’a debate in Britain

Abstract

Europeans are uncomfortable with their Muslim neighbours. The success of far right parties in the European Parliament elections, the referendum against minarets in Switzerland, and the consideration by the French authorities to ban the burqa, all in the year 2009, are cases in point. The Muslim presence has thus provoked questions about European liberal democracies and the limits of their tolerance of difference. Their presence in Europe is also forcing Muslims to re-evaluate many of the norms and practices they took for granted when living in their countries of origin. However, Muslims do not always give up their traditions, or they reconstruct them on European soil...