So the government will soon bring in a regulation to compel all would-be converts to Islam to show written evidence that they have informed their family of their intention to convert.

In the wake of the ‘body snatching’ episodes that have caused so much unpleasantness, introducing such a regulation seems a sensible move as far as it goes, even if not very far.

For a start, the perceived need to introduce such a regulation is in itself a sad commentary on people so lacking in common decency that it has to be enforced by regulation. It rather demeans the conversion, which presupposes a moral awakening on the part of the person seeking conversion.