In a Robert Spencer article discussing a German judge who invoked the Qur'an over against German law, Spencer recalls the spirit of General Sir
Charles James Napier, The British commander-in-Chief in India from 1849
to 1851.
It is said that a Hindu delegation protested against the British prohibition of sati, the practice of burning a widow to death on her husband's funeral pyre, by telling Napier that it was part of their cultural custom. Napier famously responded:
You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.
I think that a classic response! Robert Spencer writes:
It is long past time for authorities in Europe and the United States to begin to emulate Napier in their dealings with increasingly restive and demanding Islamic communities. Instead of issuing "religious diversity handbooks" and making special accomodations for Islamic practices, Western officials need to reassert the validity of our own laws and mores . . .