Archbishop Defiant over Islamic Law Speech

The Archbishop of Canterbury defended his remarks about sharia law and clarified his position amid mounting criticism, saying he was not proposing Islamic law in Britain, nor was he recommending its introduction as a parallel legal system.
Williams, the most senior figure in the Church of England, has faced a barrage of criticism since making the remarks, first in a BBC interview and then in a speech at the Royal Courts of Justice, that the adoption of sharia law in Britain seemed “unavoidable”.
According to Lambeth Palace, the archbishop “sought carefully to explore the limits of a unitary and secular legal system in the presence of an increasingly plural (including religiously plural) society and to see how such a unitary system might be able to accommodate religious claims”.
His office said Williams had no intention of resigning. His lecture was “well-researched” and involved consultation with legal experts, especially people with knowledge and experience of Jewish and Islamic legal systems.
A spokesman for the archbishop added: “We””ve had more supportive calls, asking for clarification and the full text of his lecture at the Royal Courts of Justice. The pattern has been more measured than you would expect. Before that people were very concerned and some were angry. People were just going on the headlines.”
The row is still the most serious threat to his authority and has further angered more conservative elements within the Anglican communion who are already unhappy with his leadership.
Two synod members have called for him to go. Colonel Edward Armitstead, from the diocese of Bath and Wells, told the Daily Telegraph: “I don””t think he is the man for the job. One wants to be charitable, but I sense that he would be far happier in a university where he can kick around these sorts of ideas.”
Alison Ruoff, a synod member from London, said: “He is a disaster for the Church of England. He vacillates, he is a weak leader and he does not stand up for the church. I would like to see him resign and go back to academia.”
The first public support for Williams”” comments surfaced yesterday. The Bishop of Southwark, the Right Rev Tom Butler, said Williams was entitled to raise the issue but argued that it had been done clumsily. “What has been explosive is that his examples have referred to sharia law, which is an emotive concept in our society. He is saying these sharia councils in some places already exist informally.
“It might be better to formalise them under British law, to make sure they do correspond to British law. But there are real practical difficulties.”
Stephen Lowe, the Bishop of Hulme, condemned the “kneejerk” response to the remarks as a “shame on our nation”.He told Radio 4””s The World at One: “We have probably one of the greatest and the brightest archbishops of Canterbury we have had for many a long day. The way he has been ridiculed, lampooned and treated by some people and indeed some of the media … is quite disgraceful.”
The Bishop of Rochester, the Right Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, who has both a Christian and a Muslim family background, said all the codes of sharia “would be in tension with the English legal tradition on questions like monogamy, provisions for divorce, the rights of women, custody of children, laws of inheritance and of evidence. This is not to mention the relation of freedom of belief and of expression to provisions for blasphemy and apostasy.”
David Blunkett, the former home secretary, said formalising sharia law “would be wrong democratically and philosophically but it would be catastrophic in terms of social cohesion”.
Tariq Ramadan, professor of Islamic studies at Oxford University, who was quoted at length by Williams, said: “These kinds of statements just feed the fears of fellow citizens and I really think we, as Muslims, need to … abide by the common law. And within these latitudes there are possibilities for us to be faithful to Islamic principles.”
_______________
The Guardian

Comments

comments