Islamists call for sharia in British “emirates”

An Islamist group in Britain has called upon Muslims to create enclaves in major cities where sharia will one day be implemented.

A mosque on Ambler Street, Bradford. One of over 80 mosques in the city CC BY-SA 2.0 © Betty Longbottom

Dewsbury, Bradford and Tower Hamlets, London, have been suggested by the group as "emirates" where Muslims can live by sharia outside British law. The publication, Islamic Prevent, led by Anjem Choudary, also calls for Muslims to reject democracy and claims that Muslims are not allowed to have non-Muslim friends.

According to the publication, it is an obligation for Muslims to call for sharia to be implemented wherever they are in the world. The report encourages all Muslims to live amongst other Muslims and to trade amongst themselves where possible. It also advises that Muslims set up Islamic schools that teach the Islamic curriculum, and not go to non-Islamic courts for arbitration.

It is time that areas with large Muslim populations might declare an emirate delineating that Muslims within this area are trying to live by the sharia as much as possible, with their own courts and community watch and schools and even self sufficient trade. Likely areas for these projects might be Dewsbury or Bradford or Tower Hamlets to begin with. In time we can envisage that the whole of the sharia might one day be implemented starting with these enclaves.

The document comes after the Government published a revised counter-terrorism strategy, "Prevent " in June. Claiming to be based on the Quran and sunna, Islamic Prevent asserts that "a Muslim [cannot] support any form of nationalism such as promoting Britishness or Pakistan above anything else" and states that the Muslim "is not allowed to obey any man made laws".

A Muslim must interact to change the situation within society to make it into an Islamic State. He can integrate into Islam and the sharia but he or she cannot integrate into non-Islamic laws and the non-Islamic way of life.

It also calls for an end to CCTV cameras in and around mosques, orders Muslims not to join the police force or armed forces, and calls upon Muslims to do their best to release Muslim prisoners who are "held without committing any crime".

Anjem Choudary is leader of Muslims Against Crusades, which caused outrage last year over a Remembrance Day poppy-burning incident. An extremist group, they advocate a traditional Islamic ideology. The proposals made in Islamic Prevent would be a first step towards the creation of a separate state within a state.