The day before Theresa May’s term of office ended, she appointed Imam Qari Asim to lead work on drawing up a definition of ‘Islamophobia’. Asim supports sharia-compliant laws including those of inheritance rights, divorce, and polygamy.
His appointment may irritate Boris Johnson who had been criticised strongly by Asim after Johnson made comments about veil-wearing Muslim women. The government announcement labelled Asim an ‘independent advisor’.
Background
In recordings and Powerpoint presentations from September 2018*, Asim laid out areas of the law where Muslims feel ‘uncomfortable’ with UK law. The difficulty some Christians have with equal marriage would be shared ground with mainstream Muslim teaching. However, over polygamy and equal and fair treatment of women, there would be much divergence.
The grammar used to express his last point broke down sufficiently to leave space for one to wonder quite what was being said. However, Asim appeared to advocate the inclusion of Islamic law into ‘English law’ as this would cause far-right views to disappear. The logic ran thus: if the UK government absorbs Sharia law into UK law, then one can’t argue that those laws are ‘anti-British’ as they are on the statute books. The final few moments of his presentation mentioned the concepts of polygamy, inheritance and divorce. He said: ‘Muslims [would] feel more comfortable if the[se] were introduced into English law, whether in one shape or form they will be introduced’.
When questioned about the right to challenge Islam factually, i.e. around Mohammed’s treatment of women and if this would be seen as ‘Islamophobic’, Asim was ‘evasive’. He argued that free speech with caveats not to offend Muslims would define free speech. Consequently his appointment is concerning. Muslimophobia may be a more appropriate term to define (than ‘Islamophobia’). For there is no reason to fear Asim’s appointment as a Muslim man. However, there is good reason to be uneasy about his beliefs, whether one is a Christian or not.
