And, parts of London, there are actually Muslim religious police that actually beat and actually wound seriously anyone who doesn't dress according to religious Muslim attire.
In response, Karimov launched a far-reaching crackdown on all forms of religious expression not expressly sanctioned by the state.
If you'd seen what I'd seen in the restaurant my dad ran when I was growing up, the crap we had to put up with from drunks, the puke I had to clean out of the toilets on a Friday and Saturday night, you would know it is not just a religious issue with me.
Unfortunately that's how many have perceived the religious community to be involved, to advocate for privatizing education and the redirecting of funds through vouchers".
In matters of public education, which the religious right finds distasteful along moral lines, "they're already more than halfway there".
Yet, far from expressing wonder that an act as extreme and barbaric as the murders is what it takes for the west to show defiance towards a religious duty that is not meaningful to non-Muslims, cultural provocateurs successfully argue that this highly exceptional situation is in fact indicative of a general contempt for Islam.
With such a tangle of religious and moral opposition, change seems a long way off.
Fanatical defenders of religion start out attacking contemporary secular culture; it's no surprise when they end up forsaking any meaningful religious experience.
Under normal circumstances, Iran, the most powerful Shia country in the region, treats all religious Iraqi Shia parties equally.
In Iraq, that meant one of two targets – a seat of Shia power or, even better, a defining religious symbol.
The Bishop of Bristol has been quoted lamenting the lack of religious programmes on BBC1.
