Shari'a courts and domestic law

"The word dhimmitude is one of those terms, like crusade or inquisition or reformation, that touches on centuries-old religious fault lines but has very little meaning or applicability in the modern world"

hm. well, the usage inspired by bat y'eor's work might be rhetorical, but i think there are islamic countries where dhimmitude has plenty of meaning and applicability (e.g., in iran de jure and de facto, and in places like pakistan de facto).

" The concept of dhimmitude is inherently one imposed upon a minority by muslim majorities, and bat ye'or's nonsensical screeds aside, muslims are minorities in the west and will likely always remain so."

i'll agree with the general thrust of your post, but it isn't really *inherently* about an imposition of a majority upon a minority. remember that dhimmitude was formulated originally during a time of non-muslim numerical preponderance, and was enacted in places like south asia where muslims were a minority. the key issues is *dominance*, not *numbers*. using that substitution your point probably still holds though.

My comments are probably more like the rest you receive in that my
thinking is along the lines of look at the quran and then speak
about what is being done in the name of law and order. I believe the Brits are really ignorant in
allowing this to happen. I thought that the French would be the first
to go this direction, however they seem to be able to read and
comprehend the quran, so it will be only a short time untill they
fall into line with their correct thing and do as the
brits have done, because the brits did it. In America there will
be such an outcry that even our govrnment wont be able to horse pucky
this into law like they do many things, to be correct and tell us how
we should live. We are of course not all Democrats here, so there
in lies the problem with the government going over the peoples head.
Wake up World. There is going to be another revolution in America if
our government doesnt pull their head out of a dark place and thats
as it should be just to get ridd of the good old boys that have been
in Washington to long and not working for the people. L.B.

This discussion of dhimmi is entirely irrelevant to the issue. The concept under the Sharia refers to non-Muslim communities living under Islamic rule and is designed to provide protection to these communities and permits to apply their own laws, formerly mainly religious or ecclesiastical to member of the community in question. A muslim living in a non-Muslim state is not a dhimmi of that state, but enjoys the protection of the state. I do not see how this concept may affect the jurisdiction or decisions of the British Sharia tribunals. These tribunals will be dealing with Muslim parties who in no way can be called dhimmis.