Islam is a prominent religion in most western European cities now. France has the largest population of Muslims in Europe; and over the years the UK has welcomed thousands of Muslim immigrants, especially from Pakistan.
There are regions of England, where Muslims outnumber Christians; and the schools have more children with English as a second language, than those who speech English as a mother tongue. One of the reasons for this, is the poor integration of Muslims and other immigrants into the community. Multicultural Britain has housed large immigrant populations together, instead of dispersing them throughout the regional population.
As the Muslim population grows in Europe, there are increasing demands from within the Islamic communities to change Britain to make it mostly Islamic. In some areas, Islamic courts have been set up and allowed to operate under Sharia Law, especially for cases like divorce. It is thought there are 85 Sharia courts operating in the UK. This is despite the oppression of women, so obvious in countries governed by Sharia law.
Futhermore, the British public are largely ignorant of the fact that they consume large amounts of halal meat every year. It has been discovered that halal meat is on sale in every major British supermarket. The meat is not marked as halal. Most of this meat is imported from New Zealand- nearly 100% of New Zealand lamb is slaughtered in accordance with Islamic law. Halal meat is ritually slaughtered by cutting the animals throat and draining the blood out; an Islamic prayer is made for each animal before being killed. Animal welfare groups have raised concerns of this method of slaughtering animals, where in conventional abattoirs, animals are stunned before being killed.
In the financial world, there has been a tremendous growth in “Islamic” finance. With the Financial Services Authority (FSA) launching the “Bank of London and the Middle East”. Islamic finance in Britain is now big business, and has resulted in the legal and tax obstacles being removed for the introduction of sharia-compliant products.
Within education, Muslims schools have raised concerns, with some private Islamic schools being found to teach hate towards Jews and Christians. It should also be noted that many of the recent terror plots exposed involving radical Islamists, were radicalised in British universities.
However, the liberal political elite are scared to take action. They fear being labeled as Islamaphobic, and seem to be unable to grasp the dangers of thousands of people living in Britain as an alternative society, opposed to British values.
As the Muslim population in Europe grows more dominant over the coming decades, through the high birth rate in Muslim women, it will interesting to see how these two worlds collide.