The fifth report in the British Muslim Expectations of Government series has been commissioned to highlight how certain laws and the experience of Muslim communities of these laws are discriminatory and Islamophobic, whereby some major questions arise; can the legal system of any country be neutral as to religion, race and even gender? If so, in the United Kingdom, are we almost there or is this work in progress?
A summary can be downloaded from here.
"This volume broaches the subject of neutrality and the law with the specific experience and expectations of Muslims in the UK. Having discussed the various theoretical critiques of law as objective and universal, it proceeds to draw on Muslim voices from across the UK in order to propose the grounds for discussion and revision if the practice and experience of law for minorities in the UK is to reflect an egalitarian purpose.
When minorities are de facto alienated by the body of law, this research seeks to retain universality whilst recognising that to do so – as the result of a human rights imperative – giving due deference to the particular is the way forward."
Professor Roberto Mangabeira Unger, Harvard Law School
