The Law and the Prophet
DR. ROWAN WILLIAMS AND SHARIA IN BRITAIN
Steve U. Nwabuzor
Nigeria World
February 12, 2008
Arguably the air these days is saturated with religious matters. This is a pointer to behind-the-scene role which religion plays in the lives of the people. Dr. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is in the news again. Never a stranger to controversy and passionate debates he launched a rocket that rocked the British society and Christianity to its bones by advocating accommodation for aspects of Sharia in a nation known for its rigid adherence to traditions.
This time the British people known for decorum and etiquette could not contain their anger as an individual expected to assist in safeguarding Christian religious traditions appears to be a wimp in the face of Islamic zealotry and social nuisance within her society. Further, other nations which absorbed the British influence in their societies were at a loss on the rationale for this advocacy.
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Archbishop of Canterbury's Remarks on Shari`ah: FAQs
By Dalia Yusuf
Islam Online
February 13, 2008
How did the UK government and Church react?
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, opened the door for critics and supporters alike to engage with his remarks on accommodating Islamic Shari`ah within the British legal system. The various reactions that followed Dr. Williams's speech reveal the unavoidable need of more organized constructive discussion helping the British society to define its own model of social cohesion. IslamOnline.net's European Muslims is presenting these FAQs to help in understanding the Archbishop's view, the context in which this speech was made, and its influence.
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Church and state: Sever them
Religion should have a smaller official role in Britain, not a greater one
The Economist
Reuters
Feb 14th 2008
ROWAN WILLIAMS, the Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of the Church of England and of the 80m-strong Anglican Communion worldwide, is a mild-mannered man. Yet it is no surprise that he provoked outrage when he suggested on February 7th that the adoption of elements of Islamic sharia law in Britain was “unavoidable” if social cohesion was to be fostered (see article). The archbishop revived a debate that has exercised great minds for millennia: where to draw the dividing line between church and state. And he got it wrong.
Most European countries that are Christian by inheritance have seen a decline in traditional religious observance. Many have opened their doors to devout Muslim minorities. The result is often a confrontation between Christianity and other faiths, and between religious values and secular ones.
In Britain's case, three extra complications exist.
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Faith: To Have or Have Not
By DANIEL JOHNSON
New York Sun
February 15, 2008
LONDON — A couple of years ago, I had an encounter with the Archbishop of Cant, as his critics privately call him It was at the British Academy, where His Grace had been lecturing a roomful of historians on the subject of "the other" — a pretentious way of referring to remote historical figures, which segued into a disquisition on how the British ought to treat Muslims.
According to Archbishop Williams, it was quite wrong to impose Judaeo-Christian cultural norms on "the other" in the name of a moral absolutism that was quite inappropriate in a modern multicultural society like Britain.
He had particularly harsh words to say about Pope Benedict XVI, who had then recently been elected, and whose devastating attack on "the dictatorship of relativism" was still ringing in our ears. For the leader of the Anglican Church, it seemed, for the Pope to lay claim to any moral certainty or theological truth was at the very least lacking in respect for "the other."
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When God and the Law Don’t Square
By ADAM LIPTAK
The New York Times
February 17, 2008
A PRETTY good way to generate an outcry, as the archbishop of Canterbury learned in Britain recently, is to say that a Western legal system should make room for Shariah, or Islamic law. When the archbishop, spiritual leader of the world’s 80 million Anglicans, commented in a radio interview that such an accommodation was “unavoidable,” critics conjured images of stonings and maimings, overwhelming his more modest point.
The archbishop, the Most Rev. Rowan Williams, did not propose importing Shariah into the criminal law and was referring mostly to divorces in which both sides have agreed to abide by the judgment of a religious tribunal. His proposal was groundbreaking only in extending to Islamic tribunals in Britain a role that Jewish and Christian ones have long played in the judicial systems of secular societies. Courts in the United States have endorsed all three kinds of tribunals.
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Sharia law in England brings on a Crusade
Author: Andy Dabilis
New Europe
18 February 2008
If Anglican Church leader Rowan Williams, who likes being called “the Thinking Archbishop,” wants Sharia Law to come to England, home of the Magna Carta that in 1215 led to the practice of constitutional law that survives today and is designed to protect and not prosecute people for behaving like people, maybe he should get a good look at it.
Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the worldwide Anglican Church with more than 70 million members, said in a BBC interview there needed to be a debate on whether the existing legal system could fulfill the demands of a “multi-faiths society.” He won’t find any in Muslim countries and there aren’t any calls for “Christian Law” there.
He said Britain, with 1.7 million Muslim citizens, had to “face up to the fact” some of them don’t relate to the British legal system. Neither do anarchists. British Muslims, however, want ENGLISH law to prohibit anyone from insulting them or their beliefs, which is kind of an extension of Sharia Law unto the Infidels.
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