Last week a woman in Pakistan was stoned to death for marrying against the wishes of her family. This act of barbarism took place outside the courtroom where the woman, who was three months pregnant, was being tried for the crime of marrying the man she loved rather than the one chosen by her father. What made it even worse is that the murder took place in front of the local police, who made no attempt to intervene and prevent the crime.

Also last week, in neighbouring India, two young girls were gang raped and then hanged with two policeman arrested as prime suspects. In Sudan, last month, a young woman was sentenced to death by a Muslim court for refusing to renounce her Christian beliefs. The sentence was suspended for two years so that she can spend time with her newly born daughter and husband.

And it was only a few weeks ago that nearly three hundred schoolgirls were kidnapped by Muslim thugs in Nigeria because the education of women is against their religious beliefs. They still haven’t been released.

So what can we do about it? Probably very little other than make official protests to the governments of these countries and threaten economic sanctions or the withdrawal of financial aid. Some may wonder why we provide aid in the first place.

What we can do and what we must do is continue to lead by example and show, that in the United Kingdom our laws provide complete equality for all citizens irrespective of sex or religious belief. We should continue to welcome all peoples of the world to our country and give them the full protection of our laws but only on the express condition that they accept and obey those laws.

In spite of what some of our more liberal politicians and church leaders have said to the contrary we must never tolerate any religion that does not share our fundamental belief that all men and women are equal. We are a civilised country and must remain so.