Refugees might cite Sharia Law

DUNCAN Hamilton's surprisingly sympathetic look at Sharia Law (Insight, 11 July) fails to take account of the whole picture of women's rights in the context of theocratic and dogmatic religions like Islam.

He might consider the effect of the recent legal opinions by Scottish Law Lords Hope and Rodger in the UK Supreme Court, to the effect that homosexual persons discriminated against in their own countries could apply to this country for asylum as refugees from such discrimination. The irony of the decision is that refugee status, by this token, should also be accorded to all women who are discriminated against in Muslim countries.

Mr Hamilton makes the same mistake as the Archbishop of Canterbury: he credits Sharia Law with more than it deserves. Sharia Law is clearly incompatible, in its essentials, with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly as regards the absolute equality of men and women, believers and non-believers alike. Until there is that compatibility, Sharia Law must be outlawed and remain so. Is that too much for Mr Hamilton?

Marilyn Murray, Rannoch