One of the characteristics of modern government is that it retains for itself certain forms of violence, coercion. You may be killed, imprisoned, detained, or beaten by the state but no other societal instrument can do this to you. This violence is retained for the state or its instruments as it authorizes them.
This article over at National Review Online outlines how muslim immigrants are challenging governments all over Europe by holding secret sharia courts, honor killings, and other expressions of non-state justice without any sanction from their host states. This cannot stand and continue to have the internationally recognized governments retain their legitimacy.
One example should suffice to illustrate the danger. A mexican diplomat is accredited with family to Germany. His 17 year old son starts dating a kurdish girl. The 'dishonor' of a mexican catholic dating a kurdish girl leads to a sharia judgment and the mexican boy is beaten and the girl killed. If the government of Germany is impotent in its efforts to stop such courts how real are its assurances of diplomatic immunity? And when acid is thrown on the face of the diplomat's daughter for her 'whorish' behavior of wearing a skirt that is too short, what then?
Posted by TMLutas at December 3, 2003 03:25 PM