Word: britain
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...have to admit I was expecting a mystical city where my fiancé might have to cover up," says Brian Handley, the general manager of Harvey Nichols, who moved to Istanbul from Britain five months ago. "but the nightlife is incredible, and there's such a desire for fashion. They really push the boundaries and know all the Western brands. There's so much wealth, yet this is seriously undersaturated as a market...
...growing phobia over manifestations of Islamic identity reflect the anxieties of a public still trying to comprehend how Britain could have spawned four home-grown suicide bombers, who killed 52 people in last year's attack on the London Underground. And Britain's domestic security services warn that some 200 Islamic extremist networks - involving around 1,600 individuals - continue to plot and plan on British soil...
...episode highlights the hair-trigger sensitivity to Islamic issues in Britain today. While the presence of parallel legal systems in ethnic communities may alarm the British, it's the perceived growth of a parallel Islamic culture that causes most concern. Hence, the slightest suggestion of Sharia law on British turf hits the headlines in a flash, and the debate over Muslim women wearing the veil rumbles on. (A poll this week found one in three people would support a ban on face-covering veils in public places...
...from furthering segregation, some respected commentators suggest Sharia law courts could actually help social harmony. Nor are they all that unusual: Muslim communities in Britain have long turned to the Sharia council to settle such civil matters as property disputes and divorce battles, though their rulings are not legally binding. The system is much like that used by observant Jews, who regularly take civil matters to a Beth Din rabbinical court in north London, where they are resolved according to Jewish...
...system, lie in the fact that their religious legitimacy gives them a degree of cultural authority in the community that British courts might not have. For civil matters, Sharia law supporters argue that what counts is a resolution that both parties adhere to - and one that eases pressure on Britain's notoriously overburdened legal system and avoids the grievances that occur if ethnic minorities feel they have been judged unfairly. In fact, very few people - and certainly not all those who sit on the Sharia councils - believe the courts should stray into criminal matters or particularly sticky disputes. All they...