2 min read
I knew it was too good to be true. Hot on the heels of a sensible speech by the Archbishop of Canterbury comes this today:
The Archbishop of Canterbury says the adoption of certain aspects of Sharia law in the UK "seems unavoidable".
Dr Rowan Williams told Radio 4's World at One that the UK has to "face up to the fact" that some of its citizens do not relate to the British legal system.
Dr Williams argues that adopting parts of Islamic Sharia law would help maintain social cohesion.
For example, Muslims could choose to have marital disputes or financial matters dealt with in a Sharia court.
He says Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty".
In an exclusive interview with BBC correspondent Christopher Landau, ahead of a lecture to lawyers in London later on Monday, Dr Williams argues this relies on Sharia law being better understood. At the moment, he says "sensational reporting of opinion polls" clouds the issue.
He stresses that "nobody in their right mind would want to see in this country the kind of inhumanity that's sometimes been associated with the practice of the law in some Islamic states; the extreme punishments, the attitudes to women as well".
But Dr Williams says the argument that "there's one law for everybody... I think that's a bit of a danger".
Give me strength. This is the head of the C of E, one has to remind oneself, arguing for the adoption in legislation of Sharia law because Muslims should not have to choose between "the stark alternatives of cultural loyalty or state loyalty" and that the argument that "there's one law for everybody... I think that's a bit of a danger".
He's like some satirist's caricature of a limp-wristed vicar, always doing someone else's bidding.
This pathetic excuse for a national leader thinks that it is a stark alternative to choose between obeying the law of the land and the precepts of a religion if they conflict. It's stark in one sense, yes. Because there is no dilemma, no debate and no choice. If you live in the UK, you obey UK law and no other if there is a conflict, whether it's Muslim, Jewish, Hindhu, Sikh, Scientologist or whatever. And that's it. If you don't like the law, either campaign democratically to have it changed, or leave.
As for having one law for Muslims and one law for everyone else: the "bit of a danger" is when supposed national leaders give up the ghost of defending Western values and cave in to demands for the adoption of Sharia.
I'm not a Christian, so it's not for me to embarrassed by having this cretin as head of the church. But as a citizen of the country he wishes to see impose one law for Muslims and one law for everyone else, it absolutely is for me to say that his idiotic pronouncements should be treated with the contempt he and they deserve.