Probably true...1200 years ago, but Islam hasn't done much to keep up with the times. Check out the number of patents from Islamic countries...I believe it's two. When you stone your women to death for being in public with someone other than your husband, even though you're not doing a thing, I don't think they are more "enlightened" than other legal systems.
Methinks Dr. Williams got his degree with $3 and a Cheerios box top.
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.
Do I really need a sarcasm tag people?