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One Law For All - No Sharia Law in Britain

Peter Marshall | 09.03.2009 11:31 | Gender | Repression | World

Over 200 people turned up in Trafalgar Square on Saturday afternoon (7 March) for a rally against the introduction of Sharia Law to the UK before marching to a public meeting at Conway Hall. Photographs Copyright (C) 2009 Peter Marshall, all rights reserved.

North Terrace, Trafalgar Square
North Terrace, Trafalgar Square

No Faith-based Law
No Faith-based Law

One Secular Law for all
One Secular Law for all

Sharia discriminates against women
Sharia discriminates against women

Fariborz Pooya, Iranian Secular Society
Fariborz Pooya, Iranian Secular Society

Maryam Namazie, One Law for All
Maryam Namazie, One Law for All

The march begins
The march begins


'One Law For All' was launched at the House of Lords on Human Rights Day, December 10, 2008. Those allied to it include prominent civil rights activists, lawyers, feminists and academics as well as the National Secular Society. They include many who have experienced living under Sharia, Muslims, ex-Muslims and non-Muslims, some of whom have had to flee their home countries because of their political activities or refusal to accept religious domination.

As speakers at this International Women's Day event pointed out, One Law For All is not anti-Islamic and certainly not racist. Before I arrived they had turned away a couple of people who had turned up wanting to display anti-Islamic placards.

One Law For All objects to the setting up of Sharia courts in the UK, on the grounds that Sharia law is discriminatory and unjust, particularly against women and children. Even if set up on a voluntary basis, there would be extreme pressure on some women to go to them and accept their decisions, with those who refused to do so risking being made to feel guilty and being treated as outcasts by their communities. Rather than promoting minority rights and social cohesion, they see Sharia courts as a cheap short cut to injustice. The objection to Sharia is a part of a wider objection to any faith-based laws and they call for one secular law to govern all of us.

Speakers at Trafalgar Square included a representative from the International Labour Solidarity Committee, members of the Worker Communist Party of Iran, Terry Sanderson, the President of the National Secular Society, Fariborz Pooya of the Iranian Secular Society, Sargul Ahmad of the International Campaign against Civil Law in Kurdistan Iraq and several others.

After roughly an hour of speeches the meeting closed with a final address by Maryam Namazie, the One Law for All Spokesperson and the group formed up into a march. By now there were around 250 people present and they set off at a brisk pace towards Red Lion Square. I'd been on my feet for a long time and decided it was time to go home.

Peter Marshall
- e-mail: petermarshall@cix.co.uk
- Homepage: http://mylondondiary.co.uk

Comments

Display the following 8 comments

  1. Racist garbage — sickened
  2. Really sickened? — Davos
  3. @ sickened — = )
  4. all religions are brainwashing bullshit - this isn't racist. — anon
  5. Religion is for sheep — Anarchists agaist Islam
  6. Anarchist against Islamophobia — Sitting on the fence
  7. One law for all = one Fuhrer over all — Secularism = Boss on Earth instead of Boss in Heaven
  8. sickened by sickened — say WUT?