Sharia in the West?

 For those of you who don't want religious bodies to have political power, opposers of Sharia law in Britain will participate the celebration of the Universal Children's Day and  International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in London (London in England, not any of the umpteen Londons in North America) at November 21st 2009, 12-02 pm, at North Carriage Drive, between Stanhope Place Gate and Albion Gate, in Hyde Park. (The closest underground station - or subway for the yanks - is Marble Arch). They welcome all sympathizers to participate; more info at

http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/upcoming-events/

At present, some Islamistic groups seem most keen to rule, but certain Christian fundamentalists are not much better; I am thinking, for example, of that vociferous clique calling itself "the silent majority".

My own country - Sweden - had a state church right up to the turn of the millennium. Until the beginning of the 1950:es, you could leave the state church only if entering another Christian church.

And one Swedish citizen still has no freedom of religion:

The king must, according to present law, be of Lutheran confession.

So please - can't someone make a Quaker out of him? At least one member of his family has been one, and it might finally make Sweden a free republic...

(Although the Quakerish pacifism won't guarantee that a Quaker chief of state will be a pacifist, as shown by the case of Richard Nixon. Well, every family has its black sheep, I suppose.)

I have no Muslim background myself, and I have never been persecuted by Muslims, but I have some friends who have; and I have experienced Christian intolerance, being the apostate sun of a Protestant clergyman. Still, that's milder nowadays. I haven't been threatened with execution.

And I just came to think of one detail:

Even if Sharia laws would be permitted, it could only be practiced among Muslims, and a Muslim is a person who wants to be a Muslim - not just any child of Muslim parents (same as I am not a Christian just because my parents tried to make me one).

So a person who doesn't believe in Islam, quite irrespetive whether he or she has once done it or not, is not a Muslim.

And a Non-Muslim can under no circumstances be the subject of Muslim jurisdiction.