Another gloriously sunny day, and another visit to the shops. This time by means of the Manchester Metro, which, believe it or not, I'd never been on before. Public transport in Israel is terrific, but the Manchester Metro is equally as good, and transport arrives 12 minutes even after the early morning rush hour. Mind you, it cost me nearly as much to travel the four stops within Manchester than from Haifa to Tel Aviv!
In 10 minutes we were at Debenhams.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Debenhams%2C+Manchester&meta=
First stop the watch counter. The battery, purchased a month before in Haifa, was not working. Debenhams cleaned up the inside of the watch and did not charge me, something I'm not used to in Israel! And the general atmosphere of customer service was truly superb. Even at Primark, where the shoes on offer were more suitable for teenagers, the staff were very keen to do their best and genuinely upset that solid shoes appeared to be in short supply.
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=Primark%2C+Manchester&meta=
In the afternoon, I had a meeting with one of the leading Manchester Church of England clergy. And we had a frank chat about the latest pronouncements emanating from Lambeth Palace. One very interesting question he asked is whether the implementation of sharia law is actually more advanced in Israel than Britain, and I promised to let him know when I find out on return. The main difference is that Israel is an unashamedly Jewish country. By which I do not mean that it's overly jingoistic, at least not in my experience, but that there is not the same fear of Islam, and most Israeli Muslims appear to be very well integrated and culturally assured.
This Israeli comment on the furore is interesting:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/7234426.stm
By contrast, tonight, BBC Radio 4 started a series of Lent lectures, and seemed awfully apologetic when introducing them, as if Lent were a minority religion here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/lent_talks/
And that's generally symptomatic of Britain - pretty apologetic, although there is much to celebrate.
As expected, The Moral Maze dealt with the Archbishop's Sharia speech. Melanie Phillips did not participate, which was a pity. Because the subject of the Jewish Batei Din came up. One guest, a Muslim, thought it only fair to have sharia courts as well as batei din, and so did Professor Ian Hargreaves, who was really quite negative about Jewish privileges, as he saw them. Michael Portillo was good, and so was Sarah Dunant. But Melanie should have been there. No-one on the panel explained that Batei Din are not the equivalent of sharia courts. It's like saying Christmas is like Channukah, which some do, but just because they come at the same time of year does not mean that their message is the same:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/religion/moralmaze.shtml
Channel 4 News interviewed a Muslim, who's been released from prison on appeal, even though he had possessed jihadi literature. His father talked of 'freedom of speech'. When asked by the interviewer if he was in favour of jihad, the released student didn't reply. They were both treated like royalty.
It was hard to believe that this is reality.
This is how The Times has reported the story:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3363827.ece
Surely it is a question of 'mens rea', and not just a 'thought crime', which the appeal judges thought should let them off the hook. What about 'conspiracy to ....'
I do hope I'm wrong.
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