Disrespecting Islamic Culture

Yesterday the Mirror reported that 30 year old British glamour model Katie Price, aka Jordan, may be in trouble after she was photographed sunbathing naked in the Maldives.

The Maldives, the Mirror informs us, is a Muslim country and she has 'violated strict Islamic laws'. Many tourists are thrown into prison for such behaviour, and the Foreign Office warns travellers that they should respect Muslim customs in the country.

The Mirror then does what any newspaper worth its salt would - it finds an 'angry local fisherman' and asks his opinion on the matter. Quite where they had to look to find such a rarity as an angry Muslim is probably best left to the imagination.

The angry local fisherman says:

"This woman's behaviour is unacceptable. If she comes to a Muslim country she should respect Islamic laws and customs."

At this stage, it is probably pertinent to point out that:

a) the angry local fisherman would never have seen Jordan naked if the Mirror had not taken and then shown him the picture;

b) up until that point he would have been one of only a handful of people residing in our solar system who have not seen Jordan naked.

For what it is worth though, I agree with him; if Jordan wants to sunbathe naked on her own private balcony, she should respect Islamic laws and customs and take the £2,800 a night her suite alone costs to a non-Muslim country.

To back up the angry local fisherman's point, I have spent all of three seconds trawling Google to find a couple of cases in which Muslim immigrants to Britain have been particularly respectful of the country they choose to live in, along with its customs and culture.

1) A Muslim man brutally murdered his flatmate's Polish girlfriend because he did not approve of a Muslim having a relationship with a Christian.

39 year old Abobakir Jabari lured 19 year old Lidia Motylska into an alleyway. At his trial in November 2008, the prosecution said:

On the evening of the murder in October last year, she had arranged to meet Jabari and got off a bus near his home at 6.45pm.

Ten minutes later, two passers-by called 999, reporting that they had seen a woman on the ground in an alleyway in Lincoln Green, with a man sitting over her "grunting" and holding her around the neck. When police arrived at 7pm, the teenager was dead, with deep stab wounds and her throat slit "from ear to ear".

The court heard he garrotted her from behind, using the cord from his tracksuit bottoms, before inflicting "gratuitous" wounds on her lifeless body. He stabbed her repeatedly in the chest and stomach and slit her throat.

Sentencing Jabari to life imprisonment with a minimum tariff of 19-and-a-half years, Mr Justice McKinnon said the murder involved an exceptional degree of violence.

"There is a suspicion that you lured this young woman to her death and marked your disapproval of her and her relationship by gratuitous violence upon her." The judge said one explanation for the slash injuries to her abdomen could have been an "expression of disapproval at her pregnancy and her relationship".

After killing the defenceless teenager, Jabari rang his friends and invited them to his flat to watch a football game in order to ensure he had a credible alibi.

To be honest, I think I'll take Jordan's act of disrespect every time. There are plenty more such stories, some trivial:

2) A Muslim police recruit complained that wearing the badge of the Metropolitan Police, which includes St. Edward's Crown topped by a cross, was offensive.

The then-chief of the Met toyed with creating a different badge for Muslim recruits, but the plan was dropped after public outrage:

Blair, who is leading a drive to open up his force to ethnic minorities, has asked the Metropolitan Police Authority to consider alternative badging for police and civil staff who object to Christian symbolism.

Respect works both ways.