One Law For All - No Sharia Law in Britain

'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.