Posted on 02/07/2008 12:33:57 PM PST by marthemaria
Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has sparked a political storm by calling for aspects of Sharia law to be adopted in Britain.
Your View: Is Sharia law in Britain unavoidable? Christopher Howse: Sharia is no law for Britain Damian Thompson: Williams' authority is in tatters Dr Williams said it "seems inevitable" that elements of Islamic law, such as divorce proceedings, would be incorporated into British law.
Dr Williams backs adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law Dr Williams said the UK had to "face up to the fact" that some citizens do not relate to the British legal system, and argued that officially sanctioning Sharia law would improve community relations.
"Nobody in their right mind would want to see in this country the kind of inhumanity that has sometimes been associated with the practice of the law in some Islamic states," he told the BBC's World at One programme.
"But there are ways of looking at marital disputes, for example, which provide an alternative to the divorce courts as we understand them."
But his intervention put him at odds with Gordon Brown, who has repeatedly encouraged ethnic communities to integrate.
The Prime Minister's spokesman said that while certain allowances had been made for Muslims, British law would be based on British values and Sharia law was no justification for acting against national law.
Religious groups and secularists also attacked the Archbishop, saying that his comments were "baffling and bewildering" and would undermine social cohesion.
Stephen Green, the national director of Christian Voice, said: "This is a Christian country with Christian laws. If Muslims want to live under Sharia law then they are free to emigrate to a country where Sharia law is already in operation.
"Any accommodation with Sharia law does nothing to help social cohesion. Christian law has been eroded by secularism and this country was founded on Christian values."
Three Line Whip: Is this the end of one law for all? My Telegraph: Is Williams a believer? | Stupid Archbishop Profile: Dr Rowan Williams But Dr Williams said the argument that "there's one law for everybody" was "a bit of a danger" and called for "a constructive accommodation" with some aspects of Muslim law.
He said the Church of England was allowed to operate its own courts, as were Orthodox Jews, and the anti-abortion views of Roman Catholics and other Christians were taken account of within the law.
"We already have in this country a number of situations in which the internal law of religious communities is recognised by the law of the land as justifying conscientious objections in certain circumstances," Dr Williams said.
He continued: "It would be quite wrong to say that we could ever license a system of law for some community which gave people no right of appeal, no way of exercising the rights that are guaranteed to them as citizens in general.
But Dr Williams said people needed to look at Islamic law "with a clear eye and not imagine, either, that we know exactly what we mean by Sharia and just associate it with... Saudi Arabia, or whatever....
"I do not think we should instantly spring to the conclusion that the whole of that world of jurisprudence and practice is somehow monstrously incompatible with human rights just because it doesn't immediately fit with how we understand it," he added.
Sharia law was originally more enlightened in its attitude to women than other legal systems, Dr Williams pointed out, but did now have to be brought up to date.
"But you have to translate that into a setting where that whole area of the rights and liberties of women has moved on," he said.
"The principle and the vision which animates the whole Islamic legal provision needs broadening because of that."
Responding to comments by one of his senior bishops that Islamic extremism was creating communities with "no go areas" for non-Muslims, he said it was "not at all the case that we have absolute social exclusion. But we do have a lot of social suspicion, a lot of distance and we just have to go on working at how that shared citizenship comes through".
The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, said last month that non-Muslims faced a hostile reception in places dominated by the ideology of Islamic radicals. He has since faced death threats.
Dr Williams said the use of the phrase "no go areas" had sparked controversy because it reminded people of Northern Ireland.
"I don't think that was at all what was intended; I think it was meant to point to the silo problem, the sense of communities not communicating with each other," he said.
"Many Muslims would say that they feel bits of British society are no-go areas for them."
Dr Williams's comments were welcomed by Mohammed Shafiq, the director of the Ramadhan Foundation, who said: "Sharia law for civil matters is something which has been introduced in some western countries with much success."
1200 years ago, on the soil where Rowan Williams currently resides, women served as full witnesses in courts of law. They could not be stoned to death for the crime of adultery. They were allowed to own property even if they still had living male relatives, they could not be coerced into marriage by law, women of another religion could not be seized and enslaved by members of the majority religion, etc.
There has never been a legal code operating in England that was less open toward women than sharia.
Politically correct blathering idiot. When Ontario Canada began discussing Sharia courts for civil matters the loudest opponents were Other Muslims and the idea died a quick death, thank goodness.
(1) Sucking up the welfare and free health care, (2) sending money to overseas terrorists, (3) bitching about how much they hate the British and other westerners, and (4) gradually out populating the host nation.
To the Anglican leadership (as well as TEC) there are no absolutes - biblical or otherwise. As a result, this kind of thinking is completely consistent for them...as is thinking that allows for Sodomite marriages, abortion, and all the other Anglican goodies currently advocated by them.
It was meant to be sarcastic.
(5) Seeking economic and professional opportunities they could only dream of in their home countries.
Yes indeed. At times an ex-pat like myself exhausts internal anger. I have an older English coin, before the decimal system. A two shilling piece (florin). Queen Elizabeth II head is embossed on it. The words read Dei Gratia (By the grace of God) and on the reverse Fid. Def. Short for Fidei Defensor( Defender of the faith).
This man Rowan is guilty of sedition. He is guilty of heresy. Yet there is no move to defrock him. Yet voices are raised against him. This gives one hope. There was a lot to be said for the absolute devolution of power as regards the Monarch.
I have right before me a grimy and thin English penny. (1771). George III, of whom Americans gave the boot. Yes, devolution a good argument for him screwing up. Yet, one could hope for the likes of Queen Elizabeth Ist to briefly appear from the grave.
Ah Rowan, she would say. A terrible pause as she glares at Rowan..... Then "take this man away.... oh, recanted has he? Scarce a breath and he is now breathing fire against all, crying perdition against the Moors".(Just a flight of fancy on my part).
Exactly. One people, one law. Magna Carta.
Will we have to bomb England some day? Makes you wonder....
“Dr Williams said the UK had to “face up to the fact” that some citizens do not relate to the British legal system.”
Then send them home.
good idea.
I said it before and I say it again.....nuke the UK. It’s too late to save them!
Militant
Do I really need a sarcasm tag people?
I have a translation of the Domesday Book. A reprint of course. For it was 1086 AD. Listed are the "Landholders" in the County of Middlesex. The most powerful, headed by one King William. (The Bastard). 22nd on the list is one Ranulf, next Derman, and then the Countess Judith. Somewhere I have a copy of the Magna Carta. Many references to the protection of widows.
One statement is they had to be paid from a legacy first, BEFORE the creditors got their dues.
Where in the blazes are the fiery mouthy feminists? Where is that Redgrave woman? They are as cowardly as the women on the View. This in regards to Gillian Gibbons, a teacher in the Sudan. Teddy bears galore.
Sounds like the dhimmification of the UK on steroids.
Rowan Williams is a fool, a stooge and a stealth Druid priest, the epitome of ‘apostate’.
As for sharia law being incorporated into British law, the only possible benefit would be if Williams refuses to deny Christ and submit to Islam, thereby leading to his decapitation. That however would require an absolute unshakable faith in Jesus Christ (not to mention guts), and Williams words and deeds suggest otherwise.
I believe he would kiss the hindquarters of Baal with relish if it meant saving his own blasphemous and despicable hide.
He is nothing but a tool of Satan himself.
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