A story that covers six Muslim families in a Tamil Nadu village

This is a story that covers six Muslim families in a village in Tamil Nadu and moves along chapter by untitled chapter, revolving around the lives of Rabia and a few other Muslim girls over a period of one year. The novel has drawn deeply from Salma’s own childhood in a village near Tiruchi. Here the plot is subordinated to capturing the postures of the community she is writing about. This of course is the pre-Babri Masjid demolition period and so you do not find signs of a revivalist Islamic community. In any case, Salma does not touch the issues concerning Muslims in Tamil Nadu. Among her cast of characters there are non-Muslims such as Mariyayi, dalit mistress of Karim, through whom the author highlights the Tamil Muslim attitude to caste and women. -- S. THEODORE BASKARAN

The chief Justice of London's Sharia Court made this chilling statement: If Sharia is implemented then you can turn this country into a haven of peace...Once a thief's hand is cut off, nobody is going to steal. Once an adulterer is stoned, nobody is going to commit this crime at all. This is why we say we want to offer it to British society.

Statements like this have not stopped prominent British figures from endorsing Sharia.  The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Protestant equivalent of the Pope, called Sharia "unavoidable." Under Sharia, non-Muslims are forbidden to even criticize Islam.  This is significant, considering that a Policy Exchange Poll found that forty percent of British Muslims prefer to be governed by Sharia.  Thirty-six percent believe that "apostates" from Islam should be punished by death.  A Guardian Poll indicates that a sizeable number of British Muslims favour terrorist attacks on the United States and even England. [1] -- John Griffing