Reactions to Archbishop Williams’ Sharia Remarks Reveal Depth of Islamophobia
Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual Head of the Anglican (“Reformed Catholic”) Christian Community, has written an extremely insightful piece on “Islam and English Law“.
It is a lecture that everybody should read, as it is intelligent, thoughtful, humble, and single-handedly describes the basis for solving the Islamic Question in Western societies, once and for all.
It can also be seen as the inspiration for a re-writing of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, making it even more universal than it is at the moment.
Dr Williams goes at great lengths to analyse the possible drawbacks of allowing people to use Islamic (but not just Islamic) Law within the framework of English (secular) Law, and offers challenges and solutions to all circumstances. He even mentions the existing settings of Inuit Law, as an example.
====================
I say, rarely I have seen a document more profoundly Christian, in the best possible sense of the word. And yet (or…of course!) reactions have been overwhelmingly negative!!!.
Having read those 8 pages, I can affirm without any doubt that the Office of the Prime Minister, Home Office Minister Tony McNulty, the Tories’ shadow Community Cohesion Minister Baroness Warsi, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, Trevor Phillips, Chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission and Mark Pritchard, Tory MP for the Wrekin, in Shropshire have not bothered to read Dr Williams’ lecture before opening their mouths to utter banalities.
Not to mention (of course!) the hundreds of people clamoring to repeat the same inanities. How ironic, the champions of the Rule of (Single) Law are behaving like enraged fundamentalists!
====================
The underlying point is that anything that sounds related to Islam is nowadays seen as something to hate. Some will object that that is the consequence of 9/11, 7/7 and al-Qaeda. I do not think so. Jews have been isolated, hated, killed for centuries and then even exterminated, and they had no murderer called Osama on their side.
It’s the “advanced” Western nations that still cannot understand how to relate to the “others”. And so we are sowing again the seeds of hell…
Maurizio - Omnologos 
…was listening to a discussion about this issue on the BBC World Service when someone said that there were Jewish courts in the UK so why should there not be Sharia courts. I did not even know there were Jewish courts, with legal authority in Britain. Why on earth do British Jewish people have a separate court system, how did that come about?! I thought I lived in a secular country but apparently not! Just another reason, in my opinion, to abolish the House of Lords and give the British people the power!
Orthodox Jewish courts, what next, Mormon courts, Scientologist courts…?!?
Victor Emmanuel III will protect U from the hooded claw & the Xenu paused but then...
2008/Feb/07 at 23:10:06
VE-III
Why don’t you read the Archbishop’s words? It’s all there discussed and explained. It’s only 8 pages. Give it a try!
omnologos
2008/Feb/07 at 23:28:07
[…] way, I’m pretty sure that’s the end of his career. I think what upsets me most is that some blogs seem to suggest that unless we agree with this man, then we clearly don’t understand his […]
digitaltoast » Bash the Bishop - Rowan Williams: “Sharia Law inevitable in Britain”.
2008/Feb/08 at 00:05:33
“Reactions to Archbishop Williams’ Sharia Remarks Reveal Depth of Islamophobia”
This is a nonsensical headline. We have to need to go back to archaic so-called “laws”. A country needs one law for all. There’s no reason why an islamic woman in the UK should not have the full advantage of British law.
Eric Auciel
2008/Feb/08 at 12:00:57
Eric
sense is definitely missing from people like you that despite having been provided all the tools to check what Dr Williams actually said, keep going back to spout inanity after inanity.
Suffice it to say that in the Lecture your objection and many more have already been carefully analysed. Do yourself a favour and if you feel strongly about this topic, devote the few minutes needed to go through just 8 pages of text.
omnologos
2008/Feb/08 at 12:11:55
There are already some laws in English law which are Islamic in essence.
jameel
2008/Feb/08 at 21:49:45
[…] Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has written an extremely insightful piece on “Islam and English Law“. […]
Islamic Law: My Comment (and Picture) on the BBC News Website « Maurizio - Omnologos
2008/Feb/08 at 23:02:21
Thank God for Dr. Rowan Williams. In this time of Globalization we need strong leaders, not political fools that only talk spin and rhetoric.
In my opinion Religion is a regional
interpretation of the same love that we all call God. The sooner the leaders of the different faiths sort this huge problem out the sooner we can all stop fighting each other.
Josh
2008/Feb/09 at 08:29:27
[…] Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, Sharia Law — omnologos @ 22:32:43 …hence his words are cause of scandal and upheaval among […]
The Archbishop of Canterbury Is a Christian… « Maurizio - Omnologos
2008/Feb/09 at 22:32:51
hats off to Rowan.
sadly in the process he appears to have exposed (many) Christians for the racist, bigoted, ignorant slaves they are.
jj
2008/Feb/10 at 05:46:32
Thanks for the comments on my blogs. However, I’d like to pick up one one remark in particular…
You wrote:
Unlike the more reasonable and proportionate reaction to the Danish cartoons or a teacher arrested for accidentally allowing her Muslim students to name a teddy bear Muhammad? Or a journalist sentenced to death for reading about women’s rights?
Or perhaps the MP Michael Nazir-Ali now under police protection after receiving threats, simply for pointing out the elephant in the room, which is that there are Muslim areas in the UK which have effectively become “no go” areas for non-muslims?
Then there’s the Islamophobia you refer to in your site – a phobia is defined as “a fear of particular object or situation”. You see, I don’t think we’d object so much if moderate Muslims did more to criticise extremism. But the difference is that when non-Muslims protest against the idea of a perceived Islamification of Europe, we write strongly worded letters to The Times. When it’s the other way round, there are death threats, violence, etc.
You think that’s a little more proportionate? Just wondering…
DigitalToast
2008/Feb/10 at 10:47:54
DigitalToast
(1) Knowing the neighbour down the road is a potential killer doesn’t give anybody the right to beat one’s children.
(2) Customs of the law in faraway places shouldn’t necessarily dictate the behaviour in this or any other country
(3) The practice of issuing death threats is now so common, the relative significance of any of those is very low. Of course they are life-changing for the victims: but it appears that anybody with a mobile phone or an e-mail account can now threaten anybody else…
(4) I was thinking the same years ago about moderate Muslims, but I changed my mind noticing the only way they’d be “accepted” would be by renouncing their faith. It must be really difficult to be a moderate Muslim nowadays: buffeted from each and every side
(5) A few letters to the Times are one thing. A wholesale media, political and epistulary barrage is something else: utterly disproportionate, especially considering the _fact_ that _nobody_ (and I mean, _nobody_) among the Great and the Good that have spoken negatively in the matter, has shown any evidence of having read a _single_ word of Archbishop Williams’.
omnologos
2008/Feb/10 at 11:03:04
[…] Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, or How Much Can the Media Distort Opinions Filed under: Catholicism, Christianity, Ethics, Religion, Sociology, UK — Tags: Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor — omnologos @ 22:30:14 So what is Roman Catholic Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor’s opinion on the “Sharia Law” brouhaha around the Archbishop of Canterbury? […]
Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, or How Much Can the Media Distort Opinions « Maurizio - Omnologos
2008/Feb/10 at 22:33:21
Agree about the evident lack of having read and understood ABC’s Lecture on the part of the vast majority of critics; someone on R4 this morning got it right: it is a shame so many feel it is ok to sound off about something the ABC did not say; it points out how ill-suited much of the media now is to deal in nuances rather than sound bites. Power to you though Maurizio, showing the way.
Pete Midgley
2008/Feb/10 at 23:46:05
Maurizio; I was going to post and long and hopefully thoughtful reply with more salient points and responses. But instead, I’ll link to a Youtube video by Pat Condell, who says everything I want to say and more, in a clever, articulate and thoughtful way.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mM2dC1iWzww
Yup, I’d say that pretty much sums up my opinion! Thoughts?
DigitalToast
2008/Feb/11 at 00:05:07
It seems that the archbishop’s lecture would have the worldwide Anglican communion more upset than their disagreements with the Episcopal(Anglican) of the United States.
William
2008/Feb/11 at 23:24:05
[…] Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has written an extremely insightful piece on “Islam and English Law“. […]
Islamic Law: My Comment (and Picture) on the BBC News Website | Omnologos
2012/Mar/22 at 00:53:59