Councillor Stephanie Eaton says: “Our community consists of a huge number of different religions, all of which should be valued, and no one religion should be accorded more status or influence than others.” She is, of course, right about that, but she and all British non-Muslims should have seen this coming. It was inevitable, given the political and supremacist character of traditional Islam, that the calls for special accommodation of Muslim practices (which we have seen in Britain for years), would lead to the next step: demands that non-Muslims behave in accordance with Muslim sensibilities.
Step by step, Sharia is coming to Britain, and still very few Britons have noticed, or decided to resist. The mainstream parties are completely AWOL on this issue, leaving the field to race separatists who cloud the issue by bringing in questions of ethnicity that are actually quite distinct from the question of whether or not Britain will acquiesce to being subjugated under Islamic law.
“Muslim council chiefs ban ALL members from ‘tea and sandwiches’ in meetings which take place during Ramadan,” from the Evening Standard, August 28 (thanks to Bark):
Muslim council leaders have sparked outrage after trying to ban all councillors eating in meetings until sunset during the holy month of Ramadan.
Politicians have hit out after the move to impose hardline Islamic rules on non-Muslim colleagues throughout September.
The bombshell has been dropped by Labour chiefs of the notoriously loony Tower Hamlets Council in east London.
The storm was sparked by an e-mail sent to all councillors this week highlighting arrangements for Town Hall committee meetings next month, which marks the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan.
The memo said that new council leader Lutfur Rahman and his deputy, Siraj Islam, had requested that meetings be kept to a minimum to accommodate fasting councillors.
They have also urged all other councillors to resist eating until the breaking of the fast at sunset.
Cllr Stephanie Eaton, leader of the Lib Dem group on the left-wing East End authority, said she would be ignoring the new Ramadan regime.
She insisted the new Labour leadership was favouring one religious group over others.
Cllr Eaton said: ‘The Liberal Democrats have enormous respect for the contribution of all faith groups and cultures to the life of the community of Tower Hamlets.
‘But we fervently believe that the rules of any one religion should not be imposed upon others.’…
Normally tea, coffee and sandwiches are set aside for councillors to nibble at during evening meetings.
But during Ramadan these will be reduced and complemented by special Muslim food packs containing chicken, lamb and vegetarian snacks.
But in his email, John Williams, the council’s head of democratic services, said: ‘It is requested that members do not partake of any refreshments until after the Iftar refreshments are served.’
Cllr Eaton said that was going too far. Speaking on behalf of all her stunned party colleagues, she said: ‘I was rather disconcerted to see that the arrangements put in place for Ramadan, which we support for Muslim colleagues, have been imposed upon all councillors.
‘We object to the request that non-Muslim councillors observe the fasting rules for Ramadan.
‘This sends out the wrong message to our community. Our community consists of a huge number of different religions, all of which should be valued, and no one religion should be accorded more status or influence than others.
‘Freedom of belief is an important human right, and we Liberal Democrat councillors, Muslim and non-Muslim, agree that this request is inappropriate.’
Cllr Eaton has also written to Town Hall bosses about her concerns that their move ‘will not enhance community cohesion and asking for their reassurance that no faith is given any particular status or priority in the operation or decisions of the council’….