WanSaiful.com

Personal thoughts of Wan Saiful Wan Jan

February 8, 2008 • 1:45 pm 3

Civil and Religious Law in England by Archbishop Rowan Williams

I was at the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday, listening to the speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury on “Civil and Religious Law in England: a religious perspective”. This was the foundation lecture for the 2008 Temple Festival, under the theme of “Islam in English Law”.

Not at all surprising, the lecture receives very wide coverage in the British media – Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Sun, and I am sure many more.

All the reports almost invariably condemned his speech, as if he was arguing for the total acceptance of all aspects of Islamic law. To be fair to him, his speech was actually far more cautious than what was reported.

For a speech that started at 6pm on a Thursday, I think it was an extremely ‘heavy’ speech, and very very academic. My eyes felt heavy after about 30 minutes. But, my brain went into immediate ‘wake-up’ mode in the last 20 minutes of his speech. If you read the text below, you will see that he proposed a sort of a ‘market’ system that he calls ‘transformative accommodation’. And, I almost jumped from my seat when he actually admitted that what he said would effectively introduce a market element in the legal system. This is what he said:

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Filed under: Britain, Politics, , , , , ,

February 6, 2008 • 12:06 am 0

Of welfare state II

Making rounds on the internet (and showing the idiocy of state welfarism!):

The Rt Hon David Miliband MP
Secretary of State,
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA),
Nobel House
17 Smith Square
London SW1P 3JR

16 May 2007

Dear Secretary of State,

My friend, who is in farming at the moment, recently received a cheque for GBP3,000 from the Rural Payments Agency for not rearing pigs.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Britain, Politics

January 26, 2008 • 4:16 pm 2

Dublin, anyone?

This is bound to raise a few eyebrowse!

Who’s coming?

Filed under: Britain, Freedom & Liberty, Politics

November 14, 2007 • 6:46 pm 0

Two more on CMF report

From MPAC-UK

British Muslims should participate fully and sincerely in mainstream democratic politics including supporting any of the three mainstream parties. The Conservative Muslim Forum should be warmly congratulated for writing a generally excellent response and showing Muslims what is possible when intelligent, hard working Muslims take the time and effort to stand up for the truth. The Conservative leadership should take heed. The CMF are an asset to you. Without them, Tory credibility amongst most Muslims would be close to zero.

To read the full comment, click here

And, IRNA (Iranian’s news agency) also picked up on the report.

Britain’s main opposition Conservative Party has been advised by its Muslim wing to adopt a realistic policy of engaging with Iran rather than scaremongering.

“Regardless of the foreign policies of the United States, hostility to Iran is not in Britain’s national interest. A constructive engagement with Iran offers many possibilities for progress,” the Conservative Muslim Forum said in a new report.

The Forum was formally responding to a wide-ranging national and international policy paper drawn up in July for the consideration of a future Conservative government in the UK.

To read more, click here.

Filed under: Britain, Politics, , , , , , , ,

October 25, 2007 • 12:48 am 0

More on CMF report

The submission I co-authored for the Conservative Muslim Forum (CMF) generated more responses:

National Review Online

Melanie Phillips

ConservativeHome.com

And, the comments on LGF are very worrying.

Filed under: Britain, Politics

October 20, 2007 • 12:17 pm 1

CMF Report

I co-authored a Conservative Muslim Forum (CMF) submission to the Shadow Cabinet recently. The report can be downloaded here.

Yesterday, the submission received press coverage. Under the title “Muslim Tories: ‘Iran has right to nuclear arms’”, the Daily Telegraph reported our submission. This can be accessed here.

The report quoted us as saying:

The group calls on the party to be more sympathetic towards Iran. It says: “Given Iran’s position in the Middle East, facing a nuclear-armed Israel, Iran appears to have legitimate reasons for seeking nuclear weapons for defensive purposes.”

That is only half of what we said. The full paragraph of our statement on this issue actually reads:

Given Iran’s position in the Middle East, facing a nuclear armed Israel, Iran appears to have legitimate reasons for seeking nuclear weapons for defensive purposes. However, an incoming Conservative administration should continue to oppose Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions, and our primary goal should be assisting in the strengthening of Iranian state institutions to avoid any risk of the transfer of nuclear technology to non state actors. (emphasis added)

Yes, the report did state that we oppose Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions. But the title of the report gives the wrong impression.

Filed under: Britain, Politics, , , , , , , , , , ,

September 29, 2007 • 6:43 pm 4

Islam in the West

“[Western governments] should avoid any sort of religious engineering … the management of Islam should be delinked from the issue of immigration and multiculturalism. Islam should be treated merely as a religion, and not as the expression of ethnic minority groups.”

Olivier Roy, in Globalised Islam (emphasis added)

I couldn’t agree more!

Filed under: Britain

August 11, 2007 • 1:49 pm 2

Consultation

We are initiating an important consultation with Muslims in Britain.

If you are a Muslim and you live in Britain, and you belief in free enterprise, community, the family, personal choice, and the value of hard work, then do join the CMF and you will be invited to take part in the consultation.

Filed under: Britain, Politics

August 4, 2007 • 10:24 pm 1

Ziauddin Sardar

This afternoon I paid a visit to Ziauddin Sardar at his house. I have read many writings of his, and several of his books. My favourite is Desperately Seeking Paradise, which I wrote about here.

It was a very brief visit – I just wanted to pick up some stuff from him. So our chit chat was brief too. But quite wide-ranging – from Islam in Britain to Malaysian politics.

Hopefully next time I will have the chance to chat a bit longer.

Filed under: Britain, Misc

July 24, 2007 • 10:40 pm 0

Hague at Policy Exchange

I attended a talk by William Hague at Policy Exchange today. It was on the EU constitution and why a referendum is necessary.

William Hague at Policy Exchange on 24 July 2007

It was a good speech and I am sure it will be widely covered by the media.

One guy in the audience asked why is it that the Conservative Party demanded a referendum for an EU treaty, but not when new states are to be accepted into the EU. Acceptance of a new state into the EU creates a big change in the composition of other EU countries as it allows free movement of people. The change caused by entry of a new member was probably more significant to Britain that what is now being introduced in the constitution. I don’t think Hague fully answered the question.

Filed under: Britain, Politics

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