# Where did fears of sharia law being implemented in western countries come from? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 3, 2012, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-fears-of-sharia-law-being-implemented-in-western-countries-come-from/620730 "2012-05-03T09:56:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-fears-of-sharia-law-being-implemented-in-western-countries-come-from/620730/101 "2012-05-14T16:28:21Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Only 6 percent? That’s not much at all. When you get to percentages that low you you can find support for virtually anything. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could find at least as high a percentage of \*non-\*Muslims who wanted to kill all Muslims, or all homosexuals, or all blacks, or whatever. Remember, these figures are for young Asians. The generation that are meant to be becoming westernised. This is about killing, or maiming women who don’t act like they ‘should’. In the UK, not Uganda. (And let it be noted here the UK has a problem with the much smaller North African immigrants who believe that child abuse and killing is justified if the kid is ‘possessed’, but that’s another thread) I’m pretty sure you’ll not find a significant percentage of people wanting to kill homosexuals in the UK (or women for being uppity). Not enough to get organised and campaign about it. In a 2007 You Gov survey 90% of the population supported outlawing discrimination. [But there is one exception](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/20/three-muslims-convicted-gay-hate-leaflets). > [@](#): > > Three Muslim men from Derby have become the first people in Britain to be convicted of inciting hatred on the grounds of sexuality after they distributed leaflets calling for gay people to be killed. > > \ > > One leaflet, entitled “Death Penalty?”, showed an image of a mannequin hanging by the neck from a noose, accompanied by references to homosexual sex. > > “The death sentence is the only way this immoral crime can be erased from corrupting society and act as a deterrent for any other ill person who is remotely inclined in this bent way,” it said. The only dispute among “the classical authorities” of Islam was the method employed to carry out the death penalty, the leaflet claimed. [UK Liberal on homosexualty](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8479624.stm) > [@](#): > > Public attitudes to homosexuality are becoming more liberal, according to a government-backed survey. > > Some 36% thought homosexual acts were “always” or “mostly” wrong, down from 62% when the British Social Attitudes survey was first carried out, in 1983. [Muslims in UK, zero tolerance](http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/may/07/muslims-britain-france-germany-homosexuality) > [@](#): > > Muslims in Britain have zero tolerance towards homosexual acts compared to their counterparts in France and Germany, according to a survey published today. > > The Gallup poll features the results of telephone and face-to-face interviews with Muslims and non-Muslims in the UK, France and Germany and is designed to measure global attitudes towards people from different faith traditions. > > It shows that British Muslims hold more conservative opinions towards homosexual acts, abortion, viewing pornography, suicide and sex outside marriage than European Muslims, polling markedly lower when asked if they believed these things were morally acceptable. > > The most dramatic contrast was found in attitudes towards homosexuality. None of the 500 British Muslims interviewed believed that homosexual acts were morally acceptable. The ‘problem’ is that all of these issues are issues for the Far Right to make hay with. But that doesn’t make them go away. Of course most liberal people are uncomfortable about that. But that doesn’t mean we cede the issues to them. And we certainly don’t let women get abused physically or legally just because that’s how it’s always been done back in the rural sub-continent. There is an issue and no one does anyone any favours by not facing it. At the same time no one does any favours by indulging in anti-muslim hysteria as if Muslims have some sort of super-power to muslimise us all. I don’t know the answers. But not pandering to religions of any ilk would be a start. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-fears-of-sharia-law-being-implemented-in-western-countries-come-from/620730/102 "2012-05-14T21:26:56Z")
> [@grude](#): > > It appears to be a popular topic, that sharia law is going to be legislated and implemented any moment. Where on earth did this fear come from? Did it have a source, an incident? When we elected a secret muslim Kenyan to the White House. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-fears-of-sharia-law-being-implemented-in-western-countries-come-from/620730/103 "2012-05-14T21:50:44Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > Remember, these figures are for young Asians. The generation that are meant to be becoming westernised. This is about killing, or maiming women who don’t act like they ‘should’. And? What makes you think that Westerners don’t have a percentage of people who support killing people who don’t “act as they should”? I live in a Western country, America, where enough people some support killing homosexuals to make “gay panic” an occasionally workable defense in court. And I’ve heard plenty of support from the anti-abortion movement for the idea that women should suffer injury or death for “sinful” sex; look at the people who support banning the cervical cancer virus vaccine so that young women who have sex will die and put fear into the others. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-fears-of-sharia-law-being-implemented-in-western-countries-come-from/620730.md?page=5)