No Adil Ray, Sharia law is not ‘social justice’

Unlike Sharia-compliant countries, Britain still (just about) protects the right to free speech. Last week, this freedom was exercised by Adil Ray, the star host of Good Morning Britain, who took to X to champion the ‘positive values of Sharia’.

Following the mayoral victory of self-proclaimed socialist Zohran Mamdani in New York City, Ray applauded the young politician. He also took the opportunity to address concerns that Mamdani, as the city’s first Muslim mayor, might attempt to integrate Sharia into the city’s legislation.

‘Some say Mamdani may implement Sharia law. He might’, wrote Ray. ‘The heart of Sharia is social justice, welfare, fairness, charity and cohesion. Most Muslim countries operate a hybrid of Sharia and civil law, are slowly reforming and abandoning unethical practices despite the West’s portrayal.’

The post attracted a great deal of criticism. Still, Ray doubled down, later adding:

‘To clarify. I am not actually suggesting Mamdani would implement “Sharia law”. But many of the issues he campaigned for are also some of the positive values of Sharia that Muslims try to live by. Something many of us would agree on.’

Such rigorous insistence on the purported benefits of Sharia law – from the host of one of the nation’s top morning TV shows, no less – has reignited concerns about the phenomenon dubbed ‘creeping Sharia’ in Britain. These fears have long been dismissed by politicians and liberal activists as ‘far-right’ paranoia. But are they really so far-fetched?

There’s no reason why Mamdani, simply by dint of being Muslim, would attempt to impose Sharia law on New York City. Nor could he even if he wanted to, given the limited powers he possesses. But it should give us pause for thought that a figure like Ray – largely presented as a thoughtful, rational individual – is so willing to endorse the possibility.

Sharia law is a draconian framework for Islamic civil and political life. In many ways, it is fundamentally at odds with Western secular democratic society. So it is alarming when moderate Muslim voices like Ray promote a sanitised image of Sharia teachings. It speaks to the threat to our way of life festering just beneath the gleaming facade of multiculturalism.

Not long ago, it was reported that Britain had become a ‘Western capital’ of Sharia courts, with 85 Islamic Sharia-abiding councils operating up and down the country. Such courts – often composed of unelected community leaders, orthodox clerics and religious scholars – have no legitimacy under British law. They operate as a parallel legal system, enforcing and forcing their religious decrees, authorised by Allah, on often vulnerable people.

It’s worth remembering that Islamic blasphemy laws, justified in the name of combatting Islamophobia, continue to loom over Britain like the sword of Damocles. The Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie over The Satanic Verses, issued in 1989, was just a prelude.

In recent years, we’ve seen a teacher at Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire forced into hiding after he showed students a caricature of Muhammad during a lesson on, of all things, free speech and blasphemy. A year later, in 2022, we saw Cineworld pull the film, The Lady of Heaven, from all of its cinemas nationwide, and Vue pull it from some of its branches – all because Muslim activists claimed its depiction of Muhammad was blasphemous. And, in 2023, we had to listen to the heart-wrenching testimony of a British mother, who sat before an all-male audience at a local mosque two years ago, pleading for her autistic child to be forgiven for dropping a Koran at his school.

The type of Sharia-compliant ‘social justice’ system that the likes of Adil Ray seemingly support would only see the continuation – and worsening – of the climate of fear we already live in. Indeed, in countries where Sharia is fully implemented, individuals who blaspheme often face brutal retribution from vigilante mobs, or even execution by the state.

Already, anyone willing to challenge the existence of Sharia courts in the UK is silenced, intimidated and smeared as an ‘Islamophobe’, all in the name of protecting community sensitivities.

If we are to move forward, we must stand up for the rule of secular law. We must also recognise – as Ray seems incapable of doing – that any system supportive of stoning adulterous women to death, or the paying of a jizya (tax) by non-Muslims, probably shouldn’t be categorised as ‘social justice’. Ray has every right to advocate for Sharia law in the West. Just as we remain free to call him out for it.

Khadija Khan is a journalist and commentator, originally from Pakistan and now based in the UK.