From a column in the Telegraph UK:

One thing we are supposed to welcome in modern Britain is "diversity". The theory is that the mixture of races, cultures and religions which we have more and more become is a source of strength and should therefore be nurtured and celebrated. Although there is a great debate about how strong the overarching idea of Britishness needs to be for the diversity to work, there is clearly much to be said for the theory.

The authorities therefore set to work to accommodate, within reason, the special requests of the minorities...

HSBC now boasts of "Our Sharia Board" stuffed with learned sheikhs and Justices from Arabia and Pakistan. Isn't all this an encouraging example of how the resourcefulness of modern free societies can achieve tolerance and market efficiency?

But when you look a little further into the question of Islamic banking, you find that it is not, in fact, required by Islam...

So what is being proposed with Islamic banking is actually a hardening of the religion, not an accommodation of its existing custom... And when you look at HSBC's Sharia Board you find that a couple of its members have links with the Deoband, the long-standing ultra-conservative group whose schools in Pakistan educated many of the Taliban.

Two others are Wahhabis...

I return to the question of diversity. What happens if an important element of the mixture does not itself believe in diversity, but solely in the advance of its own interest?

...It does not necessarily follow that most Muslims will try to impose their beliefs on this country by violence... But it perhaps does mean that we cannot just regard Islam in Britain as a charmingly exotic addition to the English country garden...

...Once there are Islamic financial institutions, how long will it be before Muslims insist that the state and business direct all their monetary dealings with Muslims through these institutions (boycotting businesses with Jewish connections en route)? How long before Muslims, extending the logic of their concentration in places like Bradford and Leicester, seek to establish their own law within these areas, the germ of a state within a state? And how diverse would such a state be?

Some people will accuse him of racism. Some will attempt to downplay the possibility of a state within a state. The next post's for you.