There are only seven basic plots in literature. One of them, surely, must be “cry wolf”. Last week, a variation on the “cry wolf” story emerged which, in its long-term impact, threatens to be far more dangerous to Western civilisation than any banking collapse.

Reports emerged that Sharia had been enshrined in English law. According to one newspaper: “Five Sharia courts have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester and Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The Government has quietly sanctioned that their rulings are enforceable with the full power of the judicial system, through the county courts or High Court.”

Cue outrage and condemnation. But Muslim organisations dismissed the story as nonsense. And they were backed by the Government. As the Ministry of Justice and Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform put it in a joint statement: “Sharia law is not part of the law of England and Wales and the Government has no intention of making any change that would conflict with British laws and values.”

So can we all breathe easily again? If only. Sharia may not be enshrined in English law, but the real impact of Sharia is just as worrying.

If two parties agree to be bound by an arbitrator - a Sharia court, for instance - that is their business. But what if community pressure forces their acceptance? In one recent inheritance dispute Sharia judges gave the sons twice as much as the daughters. In English law, the shares would have been equal. We do not know what pressures were put on the women to accept the ruling. Peer pressure can be overpowering. And the very point of Western freedoms is to protect people against such unjust pressures.

But arbitration over property disputes is one thing; assault, however, is a matter for the criminal law. Yet Sharia courts have dealt with at least six cases of domestic violence in which they simply ordered the assailants to take anger management classes and to talk to community elders. The female victims then withdrew the complaints they had made to the police. They were thus forced to accept the primacy of an unjust religious law over the law of the land. And if you believe that the victims were not coerced by peer pressure into withdrawing their complaints, then you also believe in flying pigs.

Sharia courts have not been granted powers by the State to deal with criminal behaviour. But in ensuring that the victims' complaints were withdrawn, they took de facto control. This, clearly, is the means by which Sharia will extend its reach. And the longer we acquiesce in it, the longer that reach will be.

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